In the second week of March I found myself at home with my family and unable to purchase food in our supermarket of choice as the shelves were bare. “Never mind”, I thought, on to the next one. I was shocked to see the shelves empty yet again. It was Monday 9th March, I had just finished teaching a class, and it was 7.30 pm. By the time I returned home it was 8.30. I told my husband we needed to get on to the supermarket website and book a shopping delivery. There were none.
That was it. Having driven to various supermarkets and come home only to surf the various British supermarket sites to feed my family and hit a brick wall, I felt the panic rise up.
My husband was the calming one who said “no problem, let's just go to the CoOp and see what we can get.” I must point out now and give you all a giggle that his only item on the list was whisky. Mine was enough food to eek out the week, when I was sure things would return to normal.
We had some success in the East Anglian CoOp. Phew!
I then emailed my clients giving them the option of an online class, or if they were happy to continue coming to my studio, then I was happy with that so long as they washed their hands before class and after. The cleaning of the Reformer and Pilates equipment is standard anyway.
I am fortunate enough to work mainly with companies and private clients so I didn't think it would be a problem, and thankfully the move to Zoom was quite easy as no one wanted to miss out on their classes. (At least, that’s what I tell myself!)
Although my clients who love the studio equipment and all the benefits it offers were very down-hearted when we were ordered into lockdown by the powers-that-be.
But the joy of Joseph Pilates’ system is that the Mat is in fact the hardest piece of apparatus. By working out on the mat with my eagle eye watching you and finding out what exercises are really hard for you to do, or that just feel unnatural to your body, is a great opportunity for me as a teacher to think outside of the box and use your wall, sofa or indeed a chair to help you. Grabbing those tins of tomatoes and using them as weights to help in connecting your shoulders to your back in a roll up is a bonus! You not only get stronger but you also get some passata in the process!
Nothing is more satisfying than seeing a client progress from not being able to do the roll over to actually doing it. She may have to use her sofa or indeed press her arms into the wall to achieve it but how wonderful to watch her succeed with something she couldn’t do before.
So why am I writing this post? I think it is to simply say “Thank you” to all my clients for continuing to work with me. For changing the way in which we do things, for your trust and support.
We will all come out of this stronger, wiser, and a little more prepared for what ever hurdles life throws at us.
