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Dear readers, I found the following: <a class=”body-link” href=”/topic/wellness” data-vars-item-name=”BL-8915211-/topic/wellness” data-vars-event-id=”c6″>wellness</a> gadget of the year and it costs just £24.99. It’s a Crane vibrating <a class=”body-link” href=”/topic/Massage” data-vars-item-name=”BL-8915211-/topic/Massage” data-vars-event-id=”c6″>massage</a>Aldi has a foam roller. Grab yours before stocks run out. The website describes it thus: “your perfect post-workout partner”. I’d go further than that. I’d describe it as the secret to <a class=”body-link” href=”/topic/happiness” data-vars-item-name=”BL-8915211-/topic/happiness” data-vars-event-id=”c6″>happiness</a>. At least for this Week.
These things existed before I arrived at Trigger Point last Friday. <a class=”body-link” href=”/topic/pilates” data-vars-item-name=”BL-8915211-/topic/pilates” data-vars-event-id=”c6″>Pilates</a> class at London’s PI Studios. Trigger Point Pilates is a combination of Pilates and “Myofascial Release”, in which sustained pressure on the fascia, the connective tissue which wraps our muscles, helps to improve circulation and increase mobility. Kiki Lier-Laursen, an instructor, did a circuit around the room, placing vibrating rollers between our knees as we lay down after a painful workout. As we jiggled and lay there, it was hard not to laugh.
Many Pilates exercises are made up by the instructor to make them laugh. In “The Seal”, for example, you roll backwards and forwards like a demented egg while clapping your feet together. “Swimming” involves laying face down on a mat and pretending to snorkel. “The Reluctant Owl” involves gently flapping your elbows while pulling a silent hooting face… OK. That last one was a mistake. But it’s hard to imagine at first sight how many of the exercises German prisoner of war Joseph Pilates developed in a WW1 internment camp on the Isle of Man are improving your fitness. The Seal definitely seems like something you’d come up with to amuse your cellmates after several weeks of confinement. Kiki also brought out vibrating rollers. I wondered where the hidden cameras were. I was certain that there would be no fitness benefit to all the shaking, but it would make a funny YouTube clip.
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