Pilates: And Psychology 101

Sometimes when you’re guiding another along her path, you find a bit of your own. So it was that I found a bit of mine when my daughter’s dance instructor suggested she take a Pilates class to improve her flexibility and I tagged along. Difficulties with scheduling caused my daughter’s path to veer in a different direction but mine remained steady.

For the better part of four years I’ve faithfully appeared at the appointed times for my weekly workout sessions with the Cadillac and reformer. Some describe the Cadillac as a trapeze table or a set of monkey bars. To me it looks like a scaled down, bare boned, twin sized canopy bed with acrobatic paraphernalia attached which is used to stretch and strengthen muscles. The reformer is an oarless footless rowing machine. In essence, it’s a carriage attached to a platform by a series of springs that can be set at different tension strengths. Your body weight also adds to the resistance.

My upbeat instructor Katie would also faithfully appear, with her encouraging intermittent shouts of “That’s its”, “Goods”, and “Two Mores”. It all worked for me. That is until my rollerblading fall this last spring. My fall conveniently coincided with Katie’s absence to give birth to Adeline.

I, on the other hand, gave birth to a left wrist… four months, soft cast, surgery (metal plate, screws), hard cast, and physical therapy. Pilates was my next frontier.

--Private session, as a start, Katie said would be best. -- Better to evaluate where you are.

Prior to the accident, I split a session with two others.

Private session. Assessment time.

Just minutes in, my psychology 101 hell started:

--Oh my God, What the hell are you doing? I’ve been good. I like it on the couch. I haven’t had to worry about your 10,000 steps every day. You haven’t even brought it up. It’s been nice taking it easy. We’ve been fine. I’ve been fine. (Id)

--You haven’t been fine. You haven’t been good. You’ve been healing. I’ve been giving you a break. But now it’s time… (Ego)

--You’re wrong. I was fine. Tell you what. Let’s get up off this reformer, walk out the door, get in the car, take a nice ride home, get out of these ridiculous workout clothes and lay on that comfy couch, turn on some Olympics… And I will show you just how fine I can be… (Id)

--That’s it. Enough. You just don’t remember. You used to be strong. You and me together. We were strong. It’s important that we do this to be strong… Ok. That’s it. I’m done. Shut up. Just shut up. Focus… Focus… Focus… (Ego)

The Id you see is the part of the brain, according to Freud, that is our pleasure seeking/pain avoiding part. It’s that passionate emotional part. The part of you that looks toward immediate gratification like sitting on the couch and avoiding Pilates. The Ego part of the brain is the part that is more in touch with reality. It is the part that is more concerned with the long term consequences of just sitting on the couch. So many times, the Ego is balancing; is engaged with reality testing. Balancing and reality testing with the Id and reality testing with the Super-Ego who was just about to weigh in.

The mind argued. The body struggled. But one hour later, my first Pilates session ended.

I could tell that Katie set the reformer springs on a lower tension—probably the tension I started on years ago. Yeah. So. And I didn’t work the upper part of my body either. Not with the wrist. Not yet. Charitably, the other two women I would normally work out with were off that week so I didn’t see them after class.

---So, Katie, do you think I can join the other two next week?, I ask hopefully? (Super-ego)

She looks down, then up.

---I’m thinkin’, we may want to wait a few months maybe.

--Yes. Maybe we might. I say. (Ego)

The Super-Ego is the part of our brain that strives for perfection. It’s our Ego that tries to keep that our Super Ego in check too. The Ego pulls our Super-Ego into reality as it does with the Id.

As I walk to my car, I can feel my eyes tearing up, realizing it will be quite some time before I am where I was. But as my living breathing Alter Ego friend Leslie says, -- You may not be running with the big dogs yet, but at least you’re not sitting on the porch. Damn straight. I’m still on the path.

Patricia Nemeth received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor). She earned her Juris Doctorate and Masters of Labor Law degree from Wayne State University School of Law. She is the founding partner of Nemeth Law, P.C. which is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2017. Patricia decided to start a personal blog because she wanted to write about topics other than the law.