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.

Know Your Pain: Good vs Bad Pain

I often tell my classes that it’s okay to work through good pain (my muscle feels tired and sore doing these squats), but no one should work through bad pain (my join hurts or my tendon feels like there is glass in it when I do that exercise).

The problem is, sometimes the difference between good pain and bad pain is slight or hard to determine. If you are someone who lives with pain, movement might hurt in what seems like a bad way every time you move, but you’ve got to move. If you are an athlete or avid runner, you might push through acceptable pain so often then when you feel actual bad pain you push through it to the point of injury.

So how do you know the difference?

In my role as a Pilates Instructor, I always want people to leave feeling better than when they walked in the studio. I never want people to leave in pain, feeling like they hurt something. That is not the goal of movement. But research has shown that in almost all cases it’s better to move through pain. If you have a surgery, […]

Know Your Pain: Good vs Bad PainMaggie Downie2017-10-25T16:00:36-04:00

Hiking Zion, Bryce, and Arches National Parks

Traveling the world always reminds me why I keep moving. I enjoy hiking, which enables me to see places in the world that are a little harder to get to. I want to keep moving so that I can see the whole world. Here are some of my most recent and favorite spots from a trip out to Utah to hike in Zion, Bryce and Arches National parks.

About 1 hour into the Subway Hike in Zion

Hiking the Subway (Zion): The Subway was the coolest hike I have ever done, but I’ve never had to rappel or swim on a hike before so it got a lot of new factor points. The hike took us ten hours at a pretty leisurely pace. The terrain was varied, but at times we were at the base of very narrow canyons, pushing our packs through first to fit our body after. We could see the ripples of a millennium of waves on the rocks as if the rocks had frozen water in time. I spent most of the hike in awe of our world. This is […]

Hiking Zion, Bryce, and Arches National ParksMaggie Downie2017-10-25T16:00:58-04:00

Teddy Roosevelt exercises and so should you

Teddy Roosevelt also was a boxer.

I’m a sucker for a good historical documentary and Ken Burns. The Roosevelt Documentary on PBS is both all rolled up in one. And, I’m watching like it’s a thriller. I can’t wait to see more.

I’m a day or two behind in my viewing, but the first night we learned that Teddy Roosevelt had terrible asthma and his father recommended he get control of his body through regular movement, exercise and what appeared to be gymnastics. We also discover that Teddy suffered from depression and unnamed demons that kept him on the move in an attempt to keep them at bay.

Clearly there were some physiological issues going on that might warrant therapy today, but movement is really helpful for depression. Exercise directly impacts what happens in your brain. It’s not just about effecting mood either. Exercise makes you smarter. The American College of Sports Medicine published a study that showed students who ran remembered a string of numbers more accurately and faster than student who weight lifted or sat quietly. It is aerobic exercise that seems […]

Teddy Roosevelt exercises and so should youMaggie Downie2017-10-25T15:49:50-04:00

Hiking the Subway in Zion (Not if there is a flash flood)

Rain has never stopped us before. If we are traveling and want to hike, we go, even if we occasionally get strange looks from the locals.

The Subway got it’s name because parts look like an actual subway.

So when we got to Zion Visitor Center to pick up our permit to hike the Subway, we were conflicted when we saw there was a 60% chance of rain the day of our hike. We had taken rappel classes and invested in the equipment (helmets, harnesses, rope, carabineers and more rope and carabineers) we would need along the way.

It turns out 60% chance of rain doesn’t mean there is a 60% chance of rain like I always thought. It means that 60% of the area in question will get rain. And on the Subway in Zion that means a probable chance of a flash flood. When the ranger informed us that she wouldn’t even consider hiking anything with over a 30% chance of rain, and we called Matt’s dad (an atmospheric physicist who can serve as a meteorologist) we begrudgingly decided not […]

Hiking the Subway in Zion (Not if there is a flash flood)Maggie Downie2017-10-25T14:26:04-04:00

Conquering Fear with Breathing and Rock Climbing

I afraid of heights. I’ll go into one of those buildings like the Willis Tower in Chicago, where you can step out onto a glass floor and look down at the city below, and I’ll have to sit down and inch my butt onto the glass without looking down for a quick photo-op. I’ll try not to think about it as I’m waiting in line and then when it’s my turn and I go to step on the glass, I physically can’t move my body. I’m actually crippled by fear. This has happened to me at the beach too with waves that wouldn’t phase a child

I’m a scaredy cat. I try to convince myself that it my fear is totally normal. My brain is actually smarter than people willing to walk onto suspended glass platforms or jump from cliffs into pools of water. My brain recognizes how badly that could all end. But the truth is I want to do some things I’m afraid of. And I don’t want to be afraid.

Sometimes my fear of heights holds me back. I get scared on certain hikes. I am terrified to the point of tears of zip lines. And it’s gotten worse […]

Conquering Fear with Breathing and Rock ClimbingMaggie Downie2017-10-25T14:26:33-04:00

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