Why does exercise hurt so much?

Date: 27 April 2007 08:27:07

I have been doing Pilates for about 4 years now and I love it, but every now and then our instructor takes it up another level and it hurts again! When I started we only ever did mat work which is a series of exercise using various types of equipment such as balls, bands, hoops etc, but a few months ago the studio installed some major pieces of equipment called Reformers (although our class tends to call them the Deformers!) They look like a bench which have a series of pulleys and springs attached to them and you use it to target specific muscles. The mat work exercises follow the same principles, but when you do them on the Reformers it makes them more effective.

So, last night we were doing Reformer exercise including one called leg circles which looks like this (sorry I couldn't find a bigger pic!)...

Basically you have your feet in the straps and then you do wide circles with your legs straight and lengthened. You have to use a lot of core stability to maintain your posture and it is bloody hard work. I am very flexible which means that my leg circles are quite big and this morning my muscles hurt so, so much. I guess it must have done me good but I have sore arms, stomach muscles and legs!!