For nearly 20 years I have enjoyed Marco Island Yoga on the beach. They offer one class a day, Thursday-Sunday at 8:30a.m. and Monday-Wednesday at 5:30p.m. People of all ages and abilities participate. I have attended when the class size was 5-10 yogis or as many as 50. You can't beat the outdoor studio setting of sand, ocean waves, and blue skies plus the occasional dolphin dancing in the gulf. A donation of $10 is suggested and people often bring a beach towel or yoga mat for practice. The "guides" as they often refer to themselves, provide gentle instruction with overall quite basic, beginner movements. The emphasis is on breath, balance, and awareness. They avoid complicated instructions or advanced poses.
Today's practice began with the guide reflecting on the words: "strength" and "flexibility." As I have emphasized before in Pilates, both are valuable. Strength without flexibility yields rigidity; flexibility without strength yields instability. We want a portion of both and to achieve this we must self-reflect on the strength/flexibility continuum within ourselves. The relationship between the two is symbiotic. When you work on increasing the strength in a lunge position, your flexibility will also be enhanced.
Pilates and yoga are practices that require both strength and flexibility. For instance, the Pilates exercise Single Leg Circles requires core strength to stabilize and hip flexibility to mobilize. Likewise, Tree pose in yoga requires strength in the standing leg and flexibility in the opposite hip in external rotation. There is never a pose where the only goal is flexibility or the solitary objective is strength; instead it is a beautiful blend of qualities that allow us to move, bend, balance, and even sometimes stumble and recover!
These objectives on the mat, of having both a balance between strength and flexibility, are equally valuable for life off the mat. Can we show strength while also being flexible with the challenges life presents? Can we be rooted in our values without being stuck in our growth? I admired the many people who attended today. Many were newbies, in a regular studio their form would have been corrected, adjusted, or physically supported but Beach Yoga is not a normal studio. It is much more reflective of real life. We falter, sometimes we are oblivious to our form but simply doing the best we can, we have sand, wind, and waves "interfering" with our balance but we continue to breathe. Inhale fully and exhale completely. Does your belief system say you can only be strong or you must only be flexible? Can you show strength while also being flexible? Can you be flexible but still exhibit strength?
I would love to have you join me for March Matness Pilates where we will regularly explore these concepts of strength and flexibility through our Pilates practice! Venmo@tiffany-larson-32 to reserve your space.
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