January 2022 Online Pilates Retreat – Restore Your Foundations

Reconnect to your mind and body this January. Restore the foundations of your health and wellbeing with an online January Pilates Retreat.

Starting Monday 3 January 2022 with a last class to celebrate on Monday 31 January

This isn't about giving anything up, penance for Christmas or new year resolutions. Over the past two years we have had to give up plenty, time with loved ones, work, social interaction, activities we love, routine, freedom and it’s been stressful. This is about giving us time to recharge our spirits, refuel our energy and making some space for our wellbeing.

Participating is not about beating yourself up if you do not make a class. Recordings are available if you can’t make a class, want to do a class again or would rather do it on another day.

This is your retreat time! From the comfort of your own home you can design your own experience. You could participate in sessions only on the weekend with the recordings, live one day a week, all the live sessions days; whatever works for you. If by the end of the month you add in a session of Pilates a week that you were not doing before and a little more “me time” that will be a bonus.

We will use Joseph Pilates "Return to Life through Contrology" to move our body. Working through his 34 exercises to establish a meaningful moving meditative practice. Don't worry you'll feel the work!

Week 1 we will start with the foundation exercises.

Week 2 we will introduce props to support our work starting with a small ball or pillow.

Week 3 we will use a stretch band

Final week we will come back to just our body and a mat for our final practice.

Joseph Pilates devised this exercise order for you to teach yourself from his book "Return to Life Through Contrology." It was to be something that in time you would remember and would become yours to use; a litmus test for how your body is feeling, a way to come back to your body. As you felt more at ease in your body with your movement, feeling your flexibility and strength improving Joseph Pilates knew that you would want to maintain your practice and even practice more often.

"Why? The answer is simple: The exercises have stirred your sluggish circulation into action.........Your brain clears and your will power functions." Joseph Pilates, Return to Life Through Contrology

How will the Pilates challenge work?

2 classes a week will be live with the recording added to the private Facebook group for those that cannot make the live session https://www.facebook.com/groups/sharepilates

Monday 7pm (GMT) Live Zoom class

Wednesday 7.30am (GMT) Live Zoom class

On Fridays a recorded class will be added to https://sharepilates.com/this will cover everything from the previous two live classes with no stops and starts. From previous feedback I know some of you can find it difficult practicing a recording of a class again because of some of the stops and starts where we chew the fat on something live.

This Pilates exercise retreat is suitable for beginners to more seasoned practitioners as we will start with the foundations, which you can continue to use. We will then use props to help deepen the work and then will bring everything together in the final week.

The January Pilates retreat starts Monday 3 January with a last class to celebrate on Monday 31 January. That's 13 classes over the month! You could commit to one session a week, all three sessions a week, you could even commit to do Pilates everyday repeating classes or using any of the on demand classes so you do a new class every day from the 3 January to 31 January.

It is entirely up to you! This is your retreat! Make of it what you will!

Each week I will provide you with a breathing exercise to practice, with prompts and reminders to do so over the week. Just a few of the benefits that have been found from practicing breathing exercises are:

Relieving stress
Lowering blood pressure
Lowering your heart rate
Reducing pain
Improving your cardiovascular system
Improved sleep
Improved immunity
Improved energy
Improved concentration - some people call it an energy reset
Improved pelvic floor health
Improved abdominal tone

and so many more I will talk about during the Retreat.

We will also look at other things we may want to try or just think about for now, meditation, journaling, reading, eating more fruit, cooking, drinking more water whatever may float your boat.

To join in you simply need to be a member of https://sharepilates.com/free-trial/by midnight Saturday 1 January as Zoom links and details will be sent out Sunday 2 January at midday (GMT). There is a 14 day free trial, if you cancel before the 14th day you pay nothing.

Who is this Online Pilates Retreat for? If you are looking to make time, space, find motivation to get more movement in your life and make your time for you! This may be finding an hour over the week to practice a Pilates session and a walk/read/meditate/pamper yourself, a couple of Pilates sessions or more. It’s up to you! Anyone looking to start Pilates, try Pilates, do more Pilates, understand more about the method, anyone looking to improve their flexibility, improve their strength, improve their stamina, relax, tone up. Whatever your motivation to start my aim is to give you some tools to make it easier for you.

If you have any questions just let me know, email info@sharepilates.com, DM on Instagram @cynthiayoungpilates or on Facebook @sharepilates

Cynthia