THANK YOU to everyone who joined in with the KNIPS 10 day challenge — 10 minutes of Pilates every day for 10 days — proved to be very popular. It’s all in the can now, and recordings of these workouts are available for JTP Zone members to do at any time.

Next week's face-to-face classes are running as normal. We are hoping that Mary will be fully recovered and able to teach her classes on Wednesday. Replacement classes will be timetabled and those affected will be notified directly.

Some people love it, some people don’t … I love it but I don’t find it easy. If you have any stickiness in your spine the Shoulder Bridge will find it for you. It’s a good exercise for mobility of the spine, but also works all the big muscle groups, such as gluteals, quadriceps, hamstrings and of course the core. Great for stability too, particularly when starting to add in progressions of marching legs, leg kicks and so on.

This exercise is often recommended for people with knee problems to strengthen the muscles going into the knee joint, but also to help alleviate lower back pain … depending on the cause.

As with all Exercises Of The Week, I advise you to work at the appropriate level for your body and keep away from pain. If you have any specific spinal conditions such as osteoporosis, remember that some exercises may not be recommended for you.

Let’s look at the word Crisis … the implication is that it isn’t good. If something happens unexpectedly in your life and your reaction is to feel in shock, stress, fear, you might use the word crisis to describe it.

When I look back on my life, I have probably used the word crisis to describe lots of things. My car breaking down when I am travelling for work — a crisis; my toilet getting blocked and not being able to unblock it and having to wait for plumber — a crisis; the boiler breaking down and not having hot water — a crisis; people becoming ill and being rushed into hospital — a crisis!

Crisis is probably an overused word, but actually at the time of events happening if it produces a feeling of intense difficulty or even danger for us, then it probably is the correct word to use.

If we look up the meaning of the word though, it does suggest that a crisis is a time when a difficult or important decision must be made. Here is a quote which I love:

I love a good crisis. The word ‘crisis’ has a bad reputation … A crisis suggests something terrible … but really a crisis is just a point at which we change and move on.

Jimmy Carr … yes the comedian

Because when we change and move on, we are growing, we are making decisions that will improve our situation, we will make changes that will benefit us, the crisis will give us the opportunity to take a step forward and possibly lead to bigger, better, happier times.

So next time you feel you are going through a crisis, remember that going through this time will lead you to make decisions that will move you forward and not keep you stuck in difficulty or danger.