Slacking, but With GooD ReasoN

Been slacking on posts as I have been mad busy. Trained all day Saturday and Sunday for my Pilates certification. Still have 30 hours of teaching to do before I am the real deal. My instructor is so qualified it is unbelievable. She has taught in so many fitness fields and has learned from the best! Her name is Melanie Johnson and I am lucky enough to have discovered her in New Haven.
Melanie is a third generation classically-trained Pilates teacher (training lineage by generation: Joseph and Clara Pilates > Kathy Grant and Romana Kryzanowska > Peter Roel, Phoebe Higgins, Susan Moran-Perich > Melanie Johnson). Her certifications include the PhysicalMind Institute, Power Pilates and The Pilates Method Alliance, all which demand complete training on all of the Pilates apparatus from beginner to super advanced levels, including over 600 apprenticeship hours. She has also completed advanced training with PEAK Pilates, BASI, Polestar, STOTT and Balanced Body University.

Melanie is a Level I certified Gyrotonic and Level I certified Gyrokinesis instructor, having completed her teacher trainings in New York and her final certification in Miami under the direction of Juliu Horvath. She is also the only instructor in CT who is certified to teach Fletcher towel classes. More on Ron Fletcher in future posts.....

In addition, Melanie has studied dance and yoga for over 30 years. She has completed trainings in The Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais and The Franklin Method. Combining 25 years as an ACE and AFAA certified personal trainer and fitness instructor, Reiki I and II, and NIA instructor, Melanie teaches with exceptional skill, insight, creativity and compassion.

One misconception about Pilates is that people think it is a chic exercise regimen. Joseph Pilates, however, originally was a boxer and taught it to men only. He was ripped in a 1940's kind of way, pre-steroid and HGH use. Pilates first came to the US in 1925.

Pilates was originally a gymnast, diver, and bodybuilder, but when he moved to England in 1912, he earned a living as a professional boxer, circus-performer, and self-defense trainer at police schools and Scotland Yard. Nevertheless, the British authorities interned him during World War I along with other German citizens in a concentration camp on the Isle of Man. During this involuntary break, he began to intensively develop his concept of an integrated, comprehensive system of physical exercise, which he himself called "Contrology." He studied yoga and the movements of animals and trained his fellow inmates in fitness and exercises. It is told that these inmates survived the great pandemic of 1918 due to their good physical shape.