Maggie Downie, Author at Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

About Maggie Downie

Thank you for giving your time to stop and read my blog. I hope it encourages you to keep moving. Move and the body will be happier. And when you're moving you can hike, run, swim in Jell-O, race over non-Newtonian fluids, travel the world or build igloos--if that's your thing. If not, you can watch me do it. This is just a spot to try and feel good about life.

Muse Paint Bar West Hartford

You’ve been mooned by Personal Euphoria

The Personal Euphoria staff went to Muse Paint bar in West Hartford for our quarterly get together. If you’ve never been, check it out. It was so much fun. It’s wine and painting—both superbly therapeutic. Although I think I’m the only one who would take the painting over the wine. We get good attendance at all our staff events (I think we like each other), but this was our best ever attended event (I think the staff likes wine). Love all the colors!

We booked a private class and picked a painting. Because we had a private, when we got stuck the instructor came around to help us individually. At one point, she came to Barb, sitting next to me, and said, “Do you want me to talk you through how to fix that or do it for you.” Barb wanted the lesson. “Talk me through it,” she said. When the instructor came to me with the same question, I was going to be ready with the same […]

Muse Paint Bar West HartfordMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:14-04:00

The Pilates Sexter

Ever heard of chicken sexting? It’s actually pretty fascinating. When chicks are hatched they need to be sorted between males and females, but there is no way to tell which are which, unless you are a professional chicken sexter.

You see, no one who sexes chickens can tell you how they determine the sex. They just know. You become a chicken sexter through the following training:

You pick up a chick

You look at it and say male or female

The chicken sexter who already knows how to tell says yes or no

You keep doing that until you always (or most always) get the answer right.

You are knighted Professional Chicken Sexter

Maggie AKA Pilates Sexter AKA Muscle Whisperer

After seeing enough of them, something in the subconscious can tell you whether a chick is male or female, but you can’t verbalize it. This is true or I am just very gullible. It’s one of those stories that is so good, I want to keep telling it. Either way, I’ve taught enough Pilates that sometimes I feel like the Pilates Sexter, or the Body Sexter, or the Muscle Sexter—call it what […]

The Pilates SexterMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:15-04:00

18 Things Only Pilates Lovers Will Understand

Love to Move: Pilates Teaser

You’ve got your belly button pulled to your spine. And if you didn’t when you first read this you do now.
You know your butt is part of your core because you never get through a workout without feeling it.
When you hear someone say “100” even if it’s not pertaining to Pilates you want to run and hide. Since there is no escaping, you just pray your instructor counts fast.
Relax your shoulders…nuff said. You know you could do this more all the time.
That occasional foot cramp that comes out of nowhere. Ouch! Getting Longer!
You could always be reaching something longer.
The Full Roll Up is the bane of your existence.
You know how hard it is to breathe and move at the same time. In fact, you’re holding your breath right now.
Neutral vs Imprint. You know the difference, but at first you weren’t sure and just knew it had something to do with a teacup balancing on your pelvis. Why a teacup?
You’ve come to terms with the fact that none of the names for […]

18 Things Only Pilates Lovers Will UnderstandMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:26:32-04:00

Listen to Your Body and Feel Less Pain

The mind is a powerful tool, but pit the mind and the body against each other and often the body will win in time. When you’re taking a fitness class, going for a run, a walk or doing anything physical, you need to check-in and listen to your body.

Top: Neck Happy/ Middle & Bottom: Neck Sad

If you feel pain, you must pay attention and adjust what you’re doing. I teach Pilates classes every day and I see people working through bad pain. It’s not a muscle being challenged pain. I can see their neck straining or their back straining. I can say “If your neck hurts lower your head,” but sometimes people keep their head up.

It’s not that people are ignoring me (I hope). Sometimes people aren’t checking in and don’t really notice it hurts right away. Other times people are trying to push through. We so believe in the “no pain to gain” mentality that we are at times willing to work through the wrong kind of pain. There is no need to push through neck pain or back pain. […]

Listen to Your Body and Feel Less PainMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:15-04:00

Take Breathing for Granted? Not Anymore. Layrngospams Make Me LOVE Breathing

I love being able to breathe. Now you’re thinking “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” But it isn’t obvious. Most of the time I don’t notice I’m breathing. I take oxygen completely for granted. And anyone who exercises knows it’s really easy to hold your breath. We hold our breath when we learn something new or do anything challenging. It’s like we can’t chew gum and walk at the same time. Focused breathing is hard. But breathing should generally be automatic.

The reason I’ve really appreciate breathing lately is because I started having layrngospasms. What’s that? It’s when your vocal cords slam shut and you can’t breathe. Much like when food or water goes down the wrong pipe, except you aren’t eating or drinking. Most of the time you wake up from a dead sleep and (as I learned yesterday at my ENT) it’s caused from acid reflux splashing against the larynx—a normal occurrence that is currently really irking my vocal cords. For most people, most of the time the larynx is a little more chill about acid reflux.

It’s terrifying. It sounds like I’m retching or like I’m a cat coughing up a fur ball, but there is no fur ball. This is […]

Take Breathing for Granted? Not Anymore. Layrngospams Make Me LOVE BreathingMaggie Downie2014-11-05T15:23:03-05:00

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