Friday, Day 22 - Today we packed up again and piled everything back into the car, this time to head over into Germany and the Black Forest. No mishaps with the navigation or leaving things behind this time, thankfully, so we just went for it, arriving at the campsite we had booked in the Northern area of the forest at mid afternoon. We unloaded everything all over again and got the tent up and all our crap back into the same untidy places it was in a few hours earlier in Switzerland.
While my husband put the kids to bed that night I decided I’d get on with the pilates session I needed to do for the day - it’s week 10 of my programme now, and in this week I had chosen to go back to basics and give everyone a reminder of how to take it down a peg and reconnect with all those moves we have built up from. What I love when teaching this is the joy on my clients faces when they realise how much stronger and more aware they are now compared to when they first did these moves. It always good to challenge yourself, but sometimes taking it easier to be able to feel and then move with great quality is a lovely experience. Lying on my back looking up at the trees and the gathering moths and night fliers, then breathing and feeling where my spine is I felt very lucky to have these little moments of peace, and these opportunities to give time to myself each day. It’s something so hard to remember how fulfilling it is, and yet something so crucial to our mental health and wellbeing.
I also managed to do the strength session for this week fitting in the exercises just before it got completely dark. There’s a little children’s playground next to our tent so I used the equipment there to hook my band on to for the exercises. I had to take the photos the next day, however because it was too dark to get them that night.
Exercises were:
1) Clam in side plank with mini band - into a side plank but with knees on floor, band around knees and then press top knee up against resistance
2) Bent over row, palms facing forwards - strong back and core in start position, arms long, pull until elbows past body, shoulder blades squeeze together
3) Cossack squat with ball (or other small object) out front - this is a super deep side lunge with bum right down to heels if you can, preferably with heel down, the ball just gives a bit of direction out front for your arms although you can hold a small weight instead. The most important thing here is go down, and then squeeze everything to come back up - core, glutes, the ball, everything squeezes into your centre.
4) Band Pull down - I always want to get arm exercises in somehow every strength session as it’s so lacking for all of us. In this one it’s a lat pull down - arms start in a Y shape and pull out and down to sides.
