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.

Senior Summer Challenge –Year 2

Attention Class of 2023!

Personal Euphoria is excited to announce our KEEP Moving Challenge:

One student from the graduating class of 2023 will be awarded a $500 scholarship.

To participate you must:

- Create a Free Account at Personal Euphoria
- Take On-Demand Fitness Classes for FREE between June 1^st – August 31^st, 2023
- Use code CLASSOF23CHALLENGE23 to take classes for FREE (for 2023 high school graduates only)

The scholarship will be awarded to the participant:

- Who took the most classes from the Personal Euphoria on-demand channel between June 1^st – August 31^st, 2023.
- The award is conditional on the full-time enrollment of the winner in an accredited U.S. college or university.

Rules & Stipulations:

- Participant must have graduated from private or public high school in the U.S. in 2023.
- Participant must register for classes at the Personal Euphoria site and use code CLASSOF23CHALLENGE23 to take fitness classes.
- Participant must complete each workout video for it to count.
- More than two workouts per day will not be counted.
- The free […]

Senior Summer Challenge –Year 2Maggie Downie2023-05-15T15:00:25-04:00

Are Your Workouts Fun?

When was the last time you laughed while exercising? When was the last time you were excited to get up and move?

When we are children, movement is almost always playful and unstructured. Kids bounce around, they run in circles. Eventually they organize movement a little more in games of tag, frisbee, or capture the flag. Through college some people play sports which is still physical activity in the form of a game, even if people take it seriously.

But usually after college, workouts tend to become more standard. And while that can be great, it doesn’t entice everyone to get moving. Research shows that to be motivated to move we need exercise to be fun and novel. So when you are bored with your exercise routine or need motivation to get started, think like a kid.

How can you make movement more playful? Here are some ideas:

Balance

Whether alone or with someone else playing with balance can be functional and fun. You can simply balance on one leg. If you feel safe, try closing your eyes. Or you can balance on a tool like a balance disc, half foam roller, or BOSU. […]

Are Your Workouts Fun?Maggie Downie2023-03-25T13:42:05-04:00

Pysanky Party

Ukrainian lore claims that the fewer pysanky eggs made each year, the more evil there is in the world. Make more pysanky eggs and evil diminishes. With that in mind, Personal Euphoria will be hosting a virtual Pysanky Party. All proceeds will be donated to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.

Maggie Downie, owner of Personal Euphoria, has been making Pysanky eggs since childhood. She will teach a virtual class in Ukrainian Egg dying. The $10 charge to join the class will be fully donated.

After the event Maggie will additionally auction off an egg and donate funds raised.

Whether you’ve always wanted to learn, think watching could be a meditative, or are just interested in Ukrainian Eggs or supporting the Ukraine, we’d love to have you join us.

To register go to Personal Euphoria. Click “register” or “log-in” on the top right. If you don’t have an account you’ll need to create one. Then click “online classes” top right, then “live virtual classes” and you’ll see a link to sign up for our Pysanky Party!

What: Ukrainian Egg Dying Class Fundraiser for Ukraine
When: Tuesday, March 21, 6-8pm
Where: Virtual via […]

Pysanky PartyMaggie Downie2023-03-08T09:58:47-05:00

How’s that New Year’s Resolution Going?

Do you make New Year’s Resolutions? No judgement either way. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don’t. This year, my resolution was simply to simplify (turns out that isn’t so simple). A friend, Tishler Coaching Services, also turned me onto the Winter Warrior—it’s not quite a resolution, but a commitment to walking 1 mile a day, outside every day in January. It helps me KEEP MOVING and meets some of what’s needed to help me stay active.

If you are still sticking to your New Year’s Resolution, you should feel like a rockstar as most people have already given up on their fitness resolutions. The day most people stop is January 19th. If you never make a resolution, you might be thinking, “yeah, what’s the point?”

The concept in theory is good. We want to start fresh. Get ourselves on a healthier path. But to increase our chances of success, we need to rethink how we structure our resolutions (when it comes to fitness anyway).

We need to consider all we have to GAIN from adding more movement into our lives. And then let GAIN serve as an acronym for ensuring that what really motivates us to move is tied together […]

How’s that New Year’s Resolution Going?Maggie Downie2023-01-29T19:07:19-05:00

Exercises to Relieve Holiday Back & Neck Pain

Have you ever spent a day baking cookies and your back aches halfway through? Tis the season of back aches and neck kinks. There’s a lot we look forward to this time of year, but much of it comes with a lot of prep work. And even if we enjoy that, it can add to the time we spend hunched over. This hunch (kyphosis) can aggravate our back and neck.

But not to fret. There are moves you can do to counteract that forward bend. First remember, our low back and neck can move much easier than our midback. All those pesky ribs protecting our internal organs makes it a little hard to get mobility in the mid back. So, when we hunch over a lot, bending back becomes harder and harder to do from the mid back and we do more and more from our neck and low back. So, while it is okay to bend back at the lower back and neck, you do want to be mindful that you move from your middle when you want to counteract the slump of a long workday or baking marathon.

Moving from our middle […]

Exercises to Relieve Holiday Back & Neck PainMaggie Downie2022-11-21T21:16:10-05:00

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