Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog: Pilates Style Magazine

Showing posts with label Pilates Style Magazine. Show all posts

22 July 2008

Olympic Runners Using Pilates

Just read some great news about an old friend, Wendy LeBlanc-Arbuckle of The Pilates Center of Austin in Austin, TX. Her husband Michael Arbuckle used to make Pilates equipment, and his company, Progressive Dynamics, expanded into Peak Pilates.

Anyway, Wendy trains Olympic track star Sanya Richards, dubbed "the fastest 400- meter woman in U.S. history" at the young age of 23. Richards does Pilates twice a week in the Austin studio, and credits her work with Wendy for teaching her how to distribute her weight evenly through her body and feet for a more fluid stride AND for teaching her to breathe while moving so she doesn't hold her breath while running anymore!

According to Pilates Style Richards is taking LeBlanc-Arbuckle with her to Beijing. Go Wendy!

12 March 2008

I Am In Pilates Style Magazine!

Suzanne gerber, the Editor in Chief of Pilates Style magazine visited Parrot Cay back in November when I had just found out that I was hired as the full time resident teacher. She interviewed me, took my mat class and a private on the reformer, and has published a great little article on page 19 of the April 2008 issue entitled, "Pilates of the Caribbean".

"Lynda has a great eye in class, but she really shines one-on-one. In just one hour she gave me tips I’m still using three months later."

Thanks Suzanne!

03 March 2007

Pilates Mat with the Iron Granny

Yesterday I received my Pilates Style magazine newsletter, which I highly recommend as a great free resource. Click here to subscribe. This article was in there and it's so inspiring and such a testimony to the power of Pilates that I am copying it for you here. Enjoy and have a great day!

On the Mat With IronGranny
by Deirdre Shevlin Bell

Lots of people start to take life easy when they hit 60. Not Louise McGonigal. This Canadian grandmother of four is spending her golden years discovering her strength and endurance as an Ironman competitor. Over the past 16 years, McGonigal has competed in 17 Ironman competitions. Last year she won the world championship for her age group in the Ironman 70.3, a race that’s longer than Olympic triathlons but half the distance of the full Ironman.

How does the lively 63-year-old stay fit and focused for these intense competitions? With Pilates, of course. The method prepares her for every part of the triathlon, McGonigal says: “In terms of cycling, you think you’re just moving your legs and need good quad strength, but all that strength comes from a good core. With running it’s a lot of balance and stability,” she points out, crediting Pilates with strengthening her lateral muscles so she’s well balanced in all planes while running hills. For swimming, Pilates helps her to become streamlined and to understand the proper type of rotation the body needs to achieve in the water.

You don’t have to be a triathlete to derive benefits from Pilates in later years, though. McGonigal serves as inspiration to the people she teaches Pilates to at her local YMCA. “As you get older, one thing you have to be concerned about is losing muscle. A lot of women I work with say rather than dancing around in the step class, they like being in Pilates where they’re combating the deterioration that happens with aging, and they do it gently.”

Since McGonigal’s small town of Elmvale (population 1,500) isn’t exactly a Pilates hub, she looks to Pilates Style for stimulation. “When it comes every other month I get my fix,” she says. Her biggest inspiration? Last year’s article on a destination Pilates spa in Italy. “I’ve been there on cycling trips,” she says, “but to combine Pilates? I thought—now there’s a good idea!”