Have a Question About Pilates? Need Some Fitness Tips & Advice?
Finally! Your Questions; Answered!
By: Celebrity Trainer & Owner of Harmony Studios, Karen Schwalbe-Jones
*Karen’s Fit Tip of the Week:
Hello there! It’s been a little while (kids, school, out of school, kids, dogs, etc etc ad infinitum! 
I am now also writing a little Fit Tip for the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. It’s really fun and I’ll put them on here as well!
A heart attack waiting to happen….
A friend’s husband, who was WELL on his way to a heart attack was told by his dr: I can save your life if you can commit to ONE hour a day of movement/exercise. She told me that and I was blown away. The dude is dying and all he has to do in ONE hour out of the 16 or so he’s awake? I’d figure it out, wouldn’t you?
“Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness.” Edward Stanley
Smile! It takes appr 12 muscles to smile and while we could count this as some sort of facial workout , I think it’d be best to think about how contagious a smile is (and why?)!
Scientists have proven that smiling is your unconscious mind taking control. It’s believed that there’s a shortcut to the part of the brain that recognizes faces and expressions.
When a baby or person or if you believe like me..that dogs smile: they really are!
When we smile back at people, we really are!
Happy New Year!
Spices: may block fat!
They may actually help you lower your levels of triglycerides (blood fat storages in your arteries that can cause heart attacks) by 30%! Spices may lower the digestion of fat which in turn can reduce the triglyceride spike that can lead to heart disease over time. Two tablespoons of spices such as: black and cayenne pepper, oregano, paprika, cinnamon, garlic as well as other spices may do the trick.
SKIP COFFEE?!?! Never! I can’t imagine! Never!
However, the second, mid-afternoon cup? Skip It! It’s a better idea to have black or green tea for that pick-me-up. The teas will give you that same boost of afternoon zoom! However, tea will reduce the levels of the stess hormone cortisol which can also lead to you to seek out comfort foods.
TWO TIPS IN ONE! Workouts: rather than rest between sets, do another set of muscles. Alternate and you could burn an extra 100 calories per workout! Eating: put down the juice! It could have twice as many calories and sugar than the real thing. And: less fiber thus, less satisfying.
Workout. Eat not drink. Done. 
Kegels.
I told you we’d chat about them! It’s time to get up close n personal!
When you’re drinking as much water as I advised last time, you’ll definitely want to learn how to hold it a few minutes while attempting to make it to the bathroom!
A pelvic floor exercise, more commonly called a Kegel exercise (named after Dr Arnold Kegel), consists of contracting and relaxing the muscles that form part of the pelvic floor which are now sometimes colloquially referred to as the “Kegel muscles”. This can sometimes help urinary incontinence in both men and women, aid with childbirth and recovery in women, and reduce premature ejaculation occurrences in men, as well as increase the size and intensity of erections (that’s a new one for even me! Who knew!?). After I had my two kids, I practiced my elevator Kegels (up 7 floors and down seven floors! For reals!) so I could, you know, recover. Ahem.
Doing them also helped me “find” my abs. What the heck does that mean? When I’m teaching Pilates, I also tell people to do their Kegels bc it really does help people “find” their abs. No, they aren’t directly related. However, there is definitely something; a correlation if you will, that occurs when people do their Kegels while doing abs work that not only helps them find their lower abs as well as keep them flatter (NO POOCHY BELLIES!!!). I swear by it! Try it and get back to me! You won’t be sorry.
Now that I’ve explained the basics of water and how to keep it from exploding out of you
What do think? Crazy and cool eh? Personally, I think it’s high time to chat more about abs and a bit about the back muscles that are helped using your abs. Next time!
*Karen’s Fit Tip of the Week:
Water.
100 oz a day! Yep, that’s what I said! Yes, you will need to go to the bathroom every hour. But, the benefits of water WAY supersedes your annoyance with making the hourly trip! And, while we’re on the subject, your urine should be pretty clear most of your daily trips to the bathroom.
Back to water. This plain liquid (no tea, coffee, or anything added) feeds all the good things in your body. Muscles, bones, tissue (including skin) all get more healthy and stay healthier by simply feeding it water! Your metabolism increases when your muscles do. This also means that water will in turn, help your metabolism too!
Fat has no water! Essentially, and in very simple terms, when you drink water, you push out fat. Clearly, there’s a more in depth process that happens but, for the most part, that’s the deal. Ladies, what do you think about having less cellulite!? I thought that might catch your attention!
Not only the aforementioned things occur, but you will be forced to stop drinking all of those other juices, teas etc simply because you need to fulfill the water quota. This alone could help you get healthier and if you need to, lose weight.
Have I made my point clear?
100 ounces of water a day.
*Karen’s answer to a question: What is it about Pilates that can help a Pregnancy? ~
People often assume that we can exercise and “get in shape” in a few weeks. You do have to start somewhere for sure! The reality is, the first thing to happen is that you feel better, then you have more energy and then your body begins to change – if you stick to it. Getting into good shape (which is really what we’re all talking about isn’t it?) and looking great during and after pregnancy is a bit of a longer process and a bigger commitment beforehand.
To begin getting into shape and readying your body for pregnancy, you really do need to think about exercising for the sheer thought of simply exercising with the exclusion of even the thought of pregnancy. If you do this and then get pregnant it will all integrate into the pregnancy perfectly! Of course, I have been working out for over 25 yrs. While I didn’t exercise the same while I was pregnant, I did integrate what I was doing (running, lifting weights, and Pilates- of course!) into my ever changing body.
Getting into the shape that we see in magazines and looking like Heidi Klum or Jessica Alba while pregnant, requires a commitment to drinking LOADS of water, doing your cardio a few days a week, eating nutrient dense foods, and teaching your body to work structurally - a heightened sense of awareness, better balance and coordination. We’ll discuss the last of the list in this chat and the others in later chats, ok?
Pilates demands that we use our brain to coordinate the movement that our muscles are being asked to perform. Did you get that? The reason why Pilates is SO much more effective than traditional exercise is precisely for this reason! Our brains can determine how hard we work out or not.
The quintessential: if you think it, it will happen.
Really! And I am so not the ‘woowoo‘, esoteric person at all!
So you really should believe me when I tell you this.
As you can imagine, this takes time! Kind of like teaching an old dog new tricks…
This is why I tell people that they need one year to get in the kind of shape where they’ll pop! right back into shape after pregnancy. If you’re reading this and working on getting pregnant, you aren’t going to love me huh? What does one do if a year is out of the question?
PRACTICE ASAP!
Take a few private sessions and learn what good form and good posture is. Posture is getting the brain to organize the neuromuscular connections and perform the requested duty. Sound familiar? YES! POSTURE IS EXERCISE!
The next thing one would do is practice those sessions by doing more sessions, more classes, living life with good form/posture while walking, sitting, driving, computering (can we make that a word?) etc. I ALWAYS tell people that, while I see them for an hour a day, a few days a week, I’m just not that good! I really love the kudos when people tell others that it’s all me! But alas, it simply me repeating myself over and over and over, so that the clients can leave me and absorb what I’ve said. They can get an “A” in class but then leave me and mess it all up OR they can make it all that much better -it‘s up to them!
Good posture means that your brain has learned good habits.
Good habits mean that your brain has learned to recognize what is right and what isn’t.
It means we have performed the good posture so often that the “bad” feels wrong.
I hope this all makes sense.
Pilates works better than anything I’ve ever seen because of the demands it makes on your neuromuscular system. Pilates forces you to rethink how you operate through life so that you may bring another one into it healthily and feeling well.
Now if you want to get into the nitty gritty of having a great pregnancy? That is WAY bigger and I’ll talk more about that in my next few articles. We’ll chat about: water intake, Kegels, nutrient dense foods, specific exercises that will keep your booty high, duck waddling to a minimum, help with a flatter tummy and a continued happy sex life.
Chat soon!
Karen