Happy Memorial Day! 

Today is more than a long weekend—it’s a time to honor and remember the brave men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to our country. We are deeply grateful for their courage, their dedication, and their unwavering commitment to protecting our freedoms.

In the spirit of remembrance and gratitude, let’s also take this day as a reminder to pause, reflect, and appreciate the community and freedom we are so fortunate to enjoy. Whether you’re spending the day with family, enjoying the sunshine, or simply taking a moment of stillness, I hope you feel grounded, grateful, and connected.

Our Theme this Week: Awaken Your Body

Prepare to Step into Your Power from Within

Theme Overview:

This week is all about reawakening. Whether you’re returning to your mat or starting fresh, it’s time to tune back into your body—your breath, your posture, your strength. Before we dive into our upcoming four-week series, Power from Within, we take this intentional pause to reconnect and realign.

This phase is gentle yet purposeful. We’ll use props like foam rollers, resistance bands, and light weights to support, challenge, and enhance your movement experience. Consider this your reset—an invitation to awaken both body and mind.

  • Breathe & Reconnect

In Pilates, the breath isn’t just background noise—it’s a tool for deeper connection, better movement, and greater awareness. We will use a foam roller to open the chest while practicing lateral side breathing and posterior breathing. Your breath is your first movement. Let it guide everything else.

  • Mobilize Your Spine

The spine is the core of Pilates—literally and energetically. Creating movement and awareness in the spine awakens your whole body. Expect a lot of articulation of the spine, as well as foam rolling to open thru each vertebra.

  • Ignite the Core

True power starts with connection, not intensity. This is the time to re-engage deep core muscles: the pelvic floor, transverse abdominis, and diaphragm. Notice how small movements with deep focus feel more effective than big ones done mindlessly.

  • Open the Heart & Shoulders

Shoulders and chest are often tight or collapsed from daily life. Now is the time to open up and release that tension. Posture is not about stiffness—it’s about space.

  • Hips: Grounding & Mobility

Your hips hold tension, emotion, and stability. Releasing and strengthening your hips allows you to move with freedom and strength. Our focus will be to work lateral hip stability, hip strength and hip mobility. We will also use a foam roller to release deep tension in the hips

Presence Over Perfection

Now that you’ve touched on breath, spine, core, shoulders, and hips, we’ll bring it all together. Focusing on moving with awareness, not perfection.

Expect to:

  • Combine foam roller core work, banded glute exercises, and light-weight arm sequences into a short full-body session.
  • Move slowly, coordinating breath and movement. We will use props to assist and challenge during various exercises.

Integrate & Prepare

As you wrap up this reawakening phase, notice how your body has shifted—not just in strength, but in awareness. This is the ground you’ll build on during the upcoming Power from Within series.

Ideas in between classes:

  • A body scan while lying on a foam roller.
  • Light stretching with a flex band.
  • Gentle arm and leg swings to reintroduce flow and energy.

Ready to Begin Power from Within?

After this weeks classes, you will feel reconnected. You’ve reset. Now you’re ready to build true strength—from the inside out. Our next series, Power from Within, will take you deeper into strength, control, and grace using your core as your source. Props will continue to support and challenge you along the way.

Join us next as we shift from awareness to activation—because power doesn’t come from pushing harder, but from knowing exactly where it lives within you.

I look forward to seeing you in class!

Mary Jo Training