The Psoas Vs. Mark Twain
When I worked at The Mark Twain House & Museum people were fascinated with my job. They were interested in what I did; they were interested in Twain; and they were happy to listen to stories of the different people I’d gotten to meet there.

Now that I teach pilates, people are noticeably less interested. In fairness, I think it’s less about pilates and more about Mark Twain. When I taught high school people weren’t overly interested in the day-to-day details about what was going on in the classroom.

Working at the Twain House was a great experience, but I’m happier running my own company and teaching pilates. Now I get to read books about the body instead of books on Twain—both great. But most people are less interested in my job then they used to be.

Over the weekend I attended a psoas workshop in Boston. The psoas is one of the hip flexors muscles. It’s a muscle I didn’t know existed before I started teaching pilates, but since I’ve discovered it I find it fascinating. But almost no one else seems to. All last week if friends asked me how work was going or what was new, I told them I was really looking forward to this psoas workshop. Since no one knew what that meant, I learned to say, I’m really looking forward to this workshop on a very interesting muscle that is problematic for a lot of people. It didn’t matter—a glaze came over their face. It was actually a conversation stopper.

And I guess it isn’t the same as working at the Twain House when we had events with Spike Lee, Hal Holbrook, Kurt Vonnegot or offered haunted tours of the house. I’m aware of why the psoas might be less slightly interesting to someone.

But towards the end of the week last week, I was vindicated. A client came for a private and said that she was told she needs to work on her psoas. My heart literally fluttered. This is pilates. We are always working with the psoas in one way or another. And when I told her that I was going to be going to a workshop on the psoas, she actually got visibly excited. A win!

I guess I have to make it my new mission to make everyone as familiar with the psoas as they are with Mark Twain. Should I feel daunted by this task? Because I am a little bit, but I’m ready to try. Hey, even Mark Twain had a psoas.