Anne Samoilov Pilates

There are tons of pilates studios in Los Angeles…even in the small area of Marina Del Rey, there are quite a few pilates studios or gyms that offer pilates classes.

What most people don’t realize is that I am NOT a studio.  I teach clients independently and do teach group classes held at other people’s studios.

If you’d like to learn more about where and when I teach, please email me at: anne.samoilov at gmail dot com or visit this page for more information on Pilates Classes!

Here are my list of favorites places to do pilates in the Los Angeles area…there’s a pilates studio located in Marina Del Rey, one in Santa Monica, and another in Beverly Hills.

Keep in mind, this is my short list…I have several others that I will happily refer you to if you need a specific type of class, schedule, or teacher.

Angel City Body Kinetics
Marina Del Rey, Glencoe Between Maxella & Washington

ACBK is a pilates and gyrotonic studio in Marina Del Rey.  I’m including this on my list because it offers so many different types of classes and the teachers have a good reputation!  Past clients, instructors, anyone who’s told me about this studio has had nothing but great things to say.

Classes offered range from pilates reformer classes to reformer for men, post pregnancy pilates, and prenatal mat classes.

Body Wellness

Located in Santa Monica, 19th & Wilshire.

Lots of group classes, Unlimited Pilates Package, I teach here on Sundays, Great Teachers, Great Clients…Light & Bright studio with such great energy!

Classes include:  Restorative / Low Back Care Reformer Class, Total Body Reformer Class, Core Reformer, Pilates Circuit Classes, Mat/Reformer Combo Class.

Bodyline
Beverly Hills, Doheny & Olympic

Maria Leone owns this rock star studio. She has inspired teachers that she often hand picks from the Physical Mind Certification program hosted by the studio several times through out the year.  The classes will challenge you, but you will never ever get attitude here.  It’s a great environment to learn Pilates and to feel the support of your classmates.  The teachers push you but do it with kindness.
This has to be my favorite pilates studio in Los Angeles…probably because I trained to be a teacher here, but really the quality of teaching/classes/environment can’t be beat!

Classes offered: Group Reformer, Privates & Semi-Private Classes, Professional Classes for Pilates Teachers.

So there you have it!  Try out a class or private sessions at one of the studios and let me know what you think.

What’s your favorite pilates studio and why??  Leave a comment below!

Technorati Tags: pilates in beverly hills, pilates in l.a., pilates studios

4 weeks ago I started a personal fitness challenge to go through the 8-week Action Hero Babe training system for the 2nd time.  I’m 1/2 way through and since I didn’t post my intentions at the beginning, I decided to renew them and post my updated list.

Intention in a Word…

First of all, intention is just a word.  According to Merriam Webster, it is: a determination to act in a certain way.  This is a powerful word that resonates with me way more than the word goals.  Intentions are specific things I’m going to do and am doing right now.  Once I set my intentions I am much more likely to stick to them and reach my goals.

For more on the value of declaring your intentions, I highly recommend reading Dr. Wayne Dyer’s Power of Intention.

Creating an intention list is important in any area of your life where you are looking to achieve some thing.  If you don’t know where you are going or what you intend to do, where will you end up and what will the end result of your actions be?

Here’s why I’m renewing my Action Hero Babe intentions:

1. I often do this at slumps in my training to keep me going to the next milestone.
2. It’s an easy way to inject some new energy into your workouts and really help you push beyond what you were originally trying to achieve in the first place.
3. If I’ve been having trouble in any area, it helps me pinpoint those challenges and get over the hurdles.  Being aware and taking responsibility for my actions–be they victories or off-track moments, really keeps my head in the game.

So without further adieu, here are my personal intentions for the second half of my Action Hero Babe personal challenge.

1. I intend to finish this last 4 weeks of the Action Here Babe training system, strong and dedicated to the workouts.
2. I intend to eat clean 80% of the time — keep white sugars, white flours to a minimum.
3. I intend to eat 4-5 servings of vegetables every day.
4. I intend to get my water intake back to normal — 1-2 liters a day.
5. I intend to do my AHB workouts 3 days per week and 2 Pilates Reformer/Mat workouts on the off days.
6. I intend to go to yoga 1x per week.
7. I intend to make this challenge for myself and no one else.  I’m not trying to impress you, I’m trying to feel better more often…and increase my energy levels.
8. I intend to do an outside activity with my family – every single day.  On the weekends, this activity should be a bit longer than normal.  Every day outside with Mila.
9. I intend to smile much more often than I do already.
10. I intend to do an amp’d up version of my original run through Red Carpet Ready.

Ok…so there you go…now, that you see what my intentions are, why don’t you start your own list.  Be as specific as you can.  The more defined your destination, the more motivated you will be to reach it!  In fact, just be writing this post, I feel more focused and ready to reach my own goals.

Just remember…once you have your goals/intentions in place, all you have to do is plot out those first few steps.  You will be surprised how easy it is to take a few more steps each day.

Post your intention list (if you aren’t too shy) and let me help you stay accountable to those goals!

Technorati Tags: action hero babe, fitness goals, Fitness Motivation, goal setting, intention, red carpet ready

Ok – I’m keeping this short today. I’m headed out in a few minutes to teach my Saturday morning pilates classes.  But wait, I think I have time to do just a little bit of my own pilates workout.

What about you?

You’ve just finished your workout. Maybe you like spinning or you have a solid weight training routine you follow.  Maybe you do a combo of High Intensity Interval Training on Cardio machines along with circuits.  Perhaps you keep it simple and go for a run every day.  How ever you choose to workout…you probably have 5 minutes left at the end of every workout to do just a little bit more.

Here is a quick 5-minute pilates workout that I like to do at the end of my workouts.   I even take 5 minutes on days when I’m not moving around too much (i.e. thank you computer!) to do these simple exercises.

1. Chest Lift – Ab Prep – 10x
2. Chest Lift with Twist – 10x each side
3. Single Leg Straight Leg 1 – 10 switches
4. - then with hands behind head – 10 switches
5. Criss Cross – 10x each side
6. Breaststroke – 10
7. (Swimming on all 4s if you can’t be on your belly)
8. Plank on Forearms – switch weight forward and backward at the end to stretch out calves. – hold for up to 30 seconds

Make sure to do some gentle stretching and relax in child’s pose after you finish.

Check out this quick pilates workout video I did yesterday…you’ll notice I got down and did pilates in my jeans.

Have a great day and try to find 5 extra minutes in your day to do some pilates.

Technorati Tags: 5 minute pilates, mat pilates, mat pilates video, pilates video

Biological Clock Ticking? Are you currently in the “working on it” phase of getting pregnant?

Do a quick search online and through your local bookstore and you’ll quickly find a ton of resources related to pilates and pregnancy.  There are videos, books, blogs, studios focused on guiding you through your pregnancy and then helping you bounce back quickly using pilates workouts & techniques.

But what about before your pregnancy?  Should you prepare your body in any way prior to getting pregnant?  Should you avoid doing sit ups or other abdominal work?

Let’s start with the basics of preparing your body for pregnancy…

Fitness Strategy

• What’s your goal here…to get in shape, lose weight, tighten up, build muscle? Think about this and understand that you will feel like you step back a bit when you get pregnant and your body starts changing. That said, if you start out in great shape, you will have an easier time bouncing back after you go through pregnancy and have an actual baby!
• Decide which activities fit into your strategy — maybe you already have a workout routine and just want to add pilates to the mix.
• If you need help deciding what your “strategy” or plan of attack will be, let me know. I will point you in a few directions that are right for you.

Nutritional Habits

• Clean up your act big time.  The cleaner your eating habits are, the better you will stick to them.  Take it from me, once I got pregnant, my already floundering sugar/fast food addictions flourished.  If you build a habit of eating well, making your own food, limiting sugars and really taking care of yourself, it’ll be much easier to stick to it.
• See my post on Doing a Kitchen Cleanse!

Consistency

• Set a schedule of workouts…and do the work. Even if you don’t work at the same intensity every single time.  Show up. Do the work to the best of your ability on that day.
• Keep your goals written down and read through them often.  Keep them posted on your fridge or in your home office.
• Set a routine for yourself that includes things like the workout, what your snacks are, walks, routine activities that will become your anchors when you are pregnant.

Habits and The Myth of the “Free Pass”

There are no bullet points here.  Just one main point I want to make…people love saying, oh you have a free pass for 9 months.  People said it to me often and they will say to you…maybe every day even.

No you do not.  While you can definitely eat more calories…you can also start some bad patterns of eating, and little to no exercise… You are building habits that will be tough to break.  If you breast feed, you will continue those habits because again you’ll be famished from all the nursing your little one does.

There is no free pass. Habits form easily…and take a lot effort to break.  Be prepared for this reality.  I’m not saying you have to be perfect, but the less you veer from your good established clean eating, the less you’ll be fighting your way back to pre-pregnancy weight.  So don’t go hog-wild and think you can finally down pans of brownies and lasagna with reckless abandon.  Sure, have yummy foods but try to fill up on healthy foods.

Now that you know the basics to getting your body in shape and ready to get pregnant (this sounds bizarre, but you know what I mean), read on to find out how to integrate pilates into the mix.

Your Pilates Pregnancy

• Find a studio that has at least a few prenatal pilates classes.  Start taking whatever type of class you want. Get to know the studio, and then continue there once you are pregnant.  Email me if you are having a tough time finding a good studio in your area.  I know several great pilates studios across the U.S and here in Los Angeles that specialize in these sort of classes.
• Find a physical therapist that also specializes in prenatal and postnatal care.  While it seems very L.A. to go to physical therapy for all the aches and pains of pregnancy, you don’t have to endure them for long.  I speak from experience that this type of treatment is great — you’ll strengthen areas of your body you need to keep strong fro delivery, get TLC in those tender/achy spots, and feel great when you leave…plus, your insurance covers it…so do it.  If you live in the Los Angeles area, please check out:  Bebe PT in West L.A. and Playa Del Rey.
• Start doing pilates at home using a DVD or online video.  Check out my recent post: “Simple Pilates Moves for More Energy?“ to get you started.
• Start right now!  Pilates workouts can be as short as 10-15 minutes to start getting all the benefits it has to offer.

I realized that I forgot to follow up on my Kitchen Cleanse SEVERAL WEEKS ago. Well, I just did another mini-cleanse, so here are some pics of the fridge…

You’ll see some things still in there that aren’t on a clean eating food list…  I can’t make everyone in my house be on my quest, so I’ll need to be a bit stronger, avoid using the condiments that I don’t need and the snacks that don’t fit into my clean eating plan.
Ok…so that’s the kitchen…

Next up: Defining my intentions…