The Pilates studio's blog is a weekly update with tips and ideas about Pilates and movement. Do you have a question about Pilates? Read this blog we probably answer it!
Our teacher Kay came to the studio one day with a
story. Her daughter had came home
with a data collecting assignment.
Her class was studying averages and creating a data set. The assignment: Go home and calculate
the time that your parents can stand on one foot with their eyes closed. Well, Kay and her partner Ann are both
endurance athletes, they have both completed the Iron Man, and well lets just
say they thought they would have no problem with this challenge. That is until they tried it. Kay came to the studio and told us this
story and well the “balance challenge” was born.
At The Pilates Studio, we have been “gathering data” (the
quotes speak to the fact that this is data gathered with little control and
really unreliable iphone timers), and the small data set that we have has led
to some "findings…"
First, there is great disparity between the right and left
legs. Second, only one person has gotten more than two minutes logged. Finally, people always seem surprised
by their abilities. Also, the eyes closed thing makes this challenge tough!
What can we do with this pseudo data? The first thing that comes to mind is
track improvement. We can begin
here and then as strength increases we could see if maybe just maybe
the balance will improve. We could
try to decipher what kind of workout would improve balance. IS it merely just practice? Or does hip strength need to be part of
the regimen?
But apart from the “data” that is being collected, something
else very special is happening.
The community at The Pilates Studio is cheering each other on. There are bystanders applauding as
another person’s name goes up on the board. We all stood in amazement as one young woman stood perfectly
still on one foot with her eyes closed for 2 minutes and 36 seconds. This is the stuff that gives the
balance challenge its power. We
can talk about data and we can talk about improvement, and we can try to
decipher which workouts facilitate improvement in balance more than the others,
but really, the real meat of this challenge is in the community. We are all working together to improve
our balance.
Here is a graph of our balance challenge so far. As you can see we are all over the map,
but really who cares about the data?
At The Pilates Studio its about camaraderie!
CALL TO ACTION: Join The Pilates Studio in its balance challenge,
have a friend time you standing on one foot with your eyes closed. Then send us the statistics. We will keep track and periodically
post updates. Join the community
at The Pilates Studio as we work to improve our balance!
No comments:
Post a Comment