This week's Exercise of the Week is looking at hip strength and stability.

This is a sequence that I filmed just over a year ago, I put these exercises together for everyone to be able to achieve them and fully benefit from doing them regularly.

It is a perfect sequence for those of you who are still fairly new to our Pilates classes, and a great maintenance programme for those of you who are more experienced. It is a combination of stretch, mobility and strengthening for the key muscle groups that are responsible for a fully functional hip joint. As with all our routines, I want you to keep away from ‘pain’ so work at the appropriate level for your body.

Fairly regularly I am reminded of how easy it is to let the actions or behaviour of others affect my general feeling of wellbeing and my beliefs. And fairly regularly I remind myself that I have no control over what or how others behave, but I just have to accept that it is different and then I have to move on.

But — truthfully — how can we do this successfully and not let it affect us in a negative way?

It's not always that easy to have our own emotions and behaviour challenged and use it in a positive way, learn a lesson and become better as a result. To have a better mindset we can’t ignore the ups and downs of life and pretend they don’t have an impact on our lives. However what we can do is to focus on our intention, keep the specificity of our intention at the forefront of our minds, review our intention on a daily basis, recognise that it can shift and doesn’t need to be permanent, but recognise also that your movement and your direction becomes more certain as a result. 

Here's a great quote:

It's about maintaining a course and direction no matter the condition of the seas you are in.

(Brian J Grasso Mindset Matters Most).