In my mid 30’s I had an accident that prevented me from returning to the gym.

I was a crazy gym person who had been a competitive body builder and worked very intensely on my body, sometimes training up to two hours a day.

My doctor recommended that I should try Pilates (yes, in Australia doctors recommend Pilates rehabilitation before most other forms of therapy AND you can claim it on your health benefits!) to aid my recovery.

As soon as I started Pilates I was hooked.

The thing that I loved the most was that it was intelligent and I could work exactly as my body and mind needed each time I trained.

That was 13 years ago.  Now it is my life, profession and passion.

Yesterday, for the first time since starting Pilates, I trained with another professional who took me through a high-intensity workout.

This form of exercise is very popular at the moment, especially for people who want to loose weight.  I nearly died!  I thought I was fit!  But the thing that really got me thinking, once my ego and competitive nature were put back in their respective boxes, was why would I do this to my body?

This morning, at our Barre Pilates class, I was speaking to one of our clients about my experience as I was still considering another round (due to my ego being out of it’s box again!) and they told me about this report about a well known BBC reporter who had had a stroke after vigorous exercise.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22150091

Immediately I made a decision to modify my next session, trust my experience and own professional advice, follow my intuition and listen to my body.

We recommend listening to your own limits and work within them.  All of our clients know that I will test them!  The Catalan’s don’t call me ‘the exterminator’ for nothing!  But let’s do it safely.