By Nichole Zuckerman — Pilates Educator, Teacher Trainer & Director of Polestar Pilates USA
Opening: Movement Changes
You’re a runner. You run through the spring, set goals, watch your pace change, feel yourself getting stronger.
Then summer arrives, it’s hot… and running doesn’t feel the same – so you swim!
At first, maybe swimming is the alternative, but hen something happens. You start setting swimming goals. You notice your stroke. Your breath. The number of laps you can swim without stopping. You start looking forward to the pool.
And then fall comes. You lace up your running shoes again, and somehow, you’re 5% stronger than you were last fall.
Movement has seasons, and maybe our job isn’t to resist them. Maybe it’s to notice them. Unless you live in a place with completely steady weather, the reality is you will have to adapt your movement throughout the year. And even if your routine is inside a gym, shifting modalities and goals will help you become a more well rounded mover and experience new fun ways of moving.
Sometimes the Season Chooses You
Sometimes the change is environmental: Summer gets too hot to run. Winter moves you indoors.
Sometimes it’s an injury: You assess. You adapt. Maybe the miles disappear for a while and the Reformer becomes your practice.
Sometimes it’s pregnancy: Your speed changes. Your capacity changes. The quantity of movement may change.
But none of that has to diminish the quality of your movement.
You can still bring your breath, your attention, your curiosity, your positive mental outlook.
Your presence.
Quality Is Available in Every Season
We often measure movement by what we can count: Miles, Laps, Repetitions, Weight, Pace, Classes.
But there are qualities of movement that don’t disappear when the numbers change.
- How present were you?
- How well did you breathe?
- Did you listen to your body?
- Did you notice the people around you?
- Did you enjoy being there?
These are things we can practice whether we’re running ten miles, walking around the neighborhood, swimming laps, taking a Pilates class, recovering from an injury, or moving through pregnancy.
Notice Where You Are
There’s another gift in allowing movement to have seasons: you start noticing them. The light reflecting across the ceiling of the indoor pool, the first leaves changing on your neighborhood walk, the feeling of coming into the Pilates studio when the heaters turn on for the first time in winter, the energy of a class at the end of the school year, when everyone is talking about summer and getting ready for vacations.
Movement becomes one of the ways we experience time.
Instead of constantly asking, What did I do? How far did I go? How hard did I work?
We can also ask: Was I there for it?
Bring Your Vibe to Your Tribe
Presence isn’t only something we practice for ourselves. Every pool, studio, trail, gym, class and neighborhood has a community around it. You get to contribute to that community. So, if you can… Be the person who gives the high five! Be the person who says good morning. Learn someone’s name. Encourage the person next to you. Thank your teacher. Thank the person at the front desk. Notice when someone hasn’t been there for a while.
Bring your vibe to your tribe, support the people around you, and hopefully allow yourself to be supported, too.
The Practice That Lasts All Year
Your movement will change. There will be seasons when you feel strong and fast. Seasons when you slow down. Seasons when you explore something completely new. Seasons when your body asks you to reconsider what movement means altogether.
The goal doesn’t have to be holding onto one version of yourself all year. The practice can be learning to show up fully for each version.
Bring the quality, the breath, your presence. Bring the “good morning”, the “thank you” and the high five.
Because those are always in season.
You can find Nichole on social @nicholemoves and on the Polestar Blog
Read more from Nichole: The Best Teachers Teach In The Moment
