Glute Exercises

[tulip]

Tulip, remind me: Do you go to a Pilates studio and, if so, do you do mat or reformer classes?

At the moment, I do mat exercises at home and have for the last few years. I took two years of really high-quality classical Pilates training when I lived in DC, which gave me the basis for doing the mat exercises at home now. I considered a two-year course of study (classes and instructor-training) to become a classical Pilates instructor, but did not pursue it because of Life Issues. Last year, I joined a very small, very high-quality classical Pilates studio in my city, but my schedule did not allow me to continue. I would like to supplement my mat work with reformer, but it's too expensive for me at the moment. As I understand it, however, the mat series is very effective if you do them correctly, and the reformer and other apparati are bonus. That has been my experience.

Pilates has really helped me overcome IT band issues, hip problems that were so bad I could barely sit down and had trouble walking and was rarely pain-free (I couldn't even get comfortable to sleep), and all sorts of shoulder and back problems (because it's all connected). Those problems stemmed from a lifetime of poor posture and bad habits that led to a weak core and improper form in my everyday activities. I credit classical Pilates for helping me overcome some potentially debilitating issues with my hips and back. The Pilates butt is a bonus, but it does get back to the glutes that Selkie mentioned wanting to work on in the original post.

I think it's relevant that at 44, I'm in much better physical condition than when I was in my mid-late 30s and in near constant pain with no relief in sight except for cortisone shots. I have no back pain, no hip pain, and am very pleased with my strong core. I think the best combo would be a PT who was also trained in Pilates, but I'm no expert on the topic. I'm just offering my experience.