Again and again you see people living a life of limited mobile, discomfort, and downright pain. Due to a problem that could have been rectified in 3 weeks, or at most 6 weeks, but now has become a chronic injury.

Doing nothing is the worst than in engaging risky activity prematurely. Not that I suggest either. After a relatively brief downtime, depending on the seriousness of the injury, and of course, consulting your doctor, you begin therapy. The therapy morphs into a weight-training program that turns your weakness into the strongest part of your body.

If you have sciatica or its tendencies, you need to come to Yoga Class this Friday. It’s important part of what you’re body needs to learn to fix spinal irregularities. Stiff neck, hips, knees, shoulders, wrists, ankles, almost anything. Don’t believe anyone who tells you there’s nothing do about it.

The recipe for a perfect back is 2-fold: stretching and strengthening. You have to curl, arch and twist the back. And you have to do back-strengthening exercises to build up the muscles around the injury. This recipe has been forged in the furnace of experience. And my back, with its own up-and-down history, is perhaps the best proof of its success.

Yoga brings harmony to the body and mind. Weight-lifting contours the body like nothing else. And Abs Class puts the focus on the hitherto most neglected part of the body.

Ciao, Pietro

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Thickening with age isn’t inevitable. However you get your cardio, though tennis or hockey, or even Abs Class, isn’t going to completely undo this tendency. You have to get a handle on your diet. And when you lose the handle. You have to find it again.

I believe the body needs to be empty from top to bottom for an extended period every day. The entire length of the alimentary canal. Nothing in the stomach or bowel. It gives your organs an opportunity to shrink back to normalcy, undoing years and eventually decades of being stretched and over-taxed.   

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Teaching yoga has had the unintended consequence of enriching all of my other classes. Spin, Abs, Weight-lifting. And it has enhanced my personal training, too. It’s taken everything to a whole new level.

The reason? Not only does it give you more tools in your exercise toolkit, but it brings out a more conscious meditative perspective to any and all workouts. And grounds you and brings you back to reality, your breath.

The penchant for restorative poses and extended strategic stretches is calming to the nervous system. Or should be. Yes, your hips, hamstrings, lower back, primary and secondary muscles, regaining and retaining youthful pliability.

I leave the subtle muscle groups to Ian:) He could charm the birds from the trees. Come bask in the glow of his warmth tonight, and benefit from the breadth and depth of his knowledge of yoga in all its genres and manifestations. 

Last week of classes before our vacation. Congratulations, my dear friends and neighbours, you’ve got a whole week off. Do something, will you, a plank a day, pigeon, touch your toes… next class after this weekend is Weight-lifting Tuesday on April 9.

One more weekend. Abs is on.  Ciao, Pietro

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You probably noticed this hunky guy in the front row at Abs Class.

One of the initial recruits from Spin Class at Systems Fitness, Owen has always been supportive of what we do here at Studio 2388. Even trudging through the snow on blisteringly cold nights for Weight-lifting Tuesdays. After a long days work. That’s right, he often walks all the way from the Queensway.

We respect his dedication. And appreciate his good-natured companionship. He’s one of the few who keeps pace every step of the way. Even those nasty modifications to the plank, making an already painful situation even more agonizing. He’s learned to love that sweet agony. And makes abs work a priority along with cardio, strength training, and stretching when he can and has to.

Owen, leg-and-glut dominate through genetics, has begun to develop a powerful upper body to go with the lower. The two of us are neck-and-neck on the squat rack. Doing squats alone is not ideal. It’s safer, and certainly more fun, under the encouragement and watchful eye of a spotter. That friendship becomes part of the reason you get there.

If alone be conservative, and drop weight in favour of more reps. Know your limit, and stay well within it. It happens, knees buckle. You can lurch forward or back. Better just to do other things until you have that person to back you up. Taking precautions is why I’ve had remarkably few injuries in my classes over the years and decades, touch wood.  And the injuries have been just the normal minor pulls and strains you recover from quickly.

Owen lives with his wife, Vicky, and his two beautiful kids. He coaches his ten-year-old son’s hockey at George Bell, conveniently. And his daughter, Sydney, 12, with her natural athletism, has even joined his father for Abs Class on occasion.

Setting a great example. Ciao, Pietro

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