Pilates in a hospital??

If you know me at all you know I don’t sit still for very long.  When we are at a family gathering and everyone else is hanging out in a chair or a couch in the living room, you can often find me on the floor balancing in my favorite rolling like a ball position and maybe sneaking in a few rolls!  Movement is second nature to me and if I have to sit still for too long it drives me a little stir crazy!

Just last month I found myself at the hospital for the day with my mom who has having an outpatient surgery.  It was a Monday and quite honestly I was looking forward to having a day away from the studio (something I don’t do often) and having some time to catch up on some writing, planning and business stuff I had been needing to get done.  One of the things on my to do list was to plan daily exercises for our December Pilates at the Office Month.

After we arrived at the hospital and checked in I found myself doing what most people end up doing at the hospital:  sitting and waiting.  First we had to wait to get checked in, then wait to talk to all the nurses and doctors, and then wait for surgery time.  After what was probably only an hour or so of waiting I was already tired of sitting.  So I started doing the things I usually am telling my clients to do….shoulder rolls, figure four stretches, neck stretches and …it helped.  We hung out a while longer (sitting again) and then they took her to surgery and I was off to sit and wait for another couple of hours in a surgery waiting room.

I got my wifi set up, found a seat and got to work.  I wrote a blog, scheduled some social media posts and again I found myself… tired of sitting.  I went for a quick walk and took the steps downstairs to grab a snack and then decided to go up a few extra flights and back down on my way back to the waiting room.  The movement definitely helped! All I could think about is how can people sit at their desks for 8 plus hours a day???

Inspired by my discomfort of having to sit I decided to tackle my project of finding 31 daily office exercises that we could share for Pilates Office month.  So I started making my list and of course trying them out as I went, which felt really, really, really good.  Many of the exercises I could do without drawing a whole lot of attention to myself.

Most of the people in the room were too busy on their phones, watching Jeopardy on TV or talking to notice me, but every once in a while I would catch someone looking at me with that “what is she doing?” look in their eye.  Secretly I’m guessing they too had been sitting all day and probably wanted to join me.   Grin.

If you are one of those many unfortunate people who sits at a desk or maybe in a car for long periods of time during your work day I hope you’ll try out some of our daily Office exercises and let us know if they help you.  Be sure to share them with your coworkers, they will thank you!!  Even if you don’t sit all day at work you may find yourself somewhere where you have to sit and wait (the hospital, your kids soccer tournament or maybe just waiting for the mechanic to work on your car).  We hope you’ll be inspired by our daily Office exercises to add in a little more movement throughout your day!