Tell us a bit about yourself and why you started practicing Pilates.
Circuit training sessions had helped me get into better shape, but coaches kept telling me I seemed stiff and inflexible while doing the exercises. Somehow I got it in my head that Pilates was a glorified stretching program that would open me up a little. Wow did I have a lot to learn. Myriam Kane (BASI, Virginia) took me under her wing and introduced me to all that Pilates has to offer.
What have you enjoyed most about your Pilates classes or sessions?
I’m not afraid of sounding corny or being cute when I say, “the BASI community.” It is very real and it is alive in every studio I’ve visited — which is 10 so far and counting. As a 72-year-old man I thought initially I would not fit in, but today I know for a fact that I am every bit a welcome and accepted Pilates practitioner. Physically, I have lost more than 20 pounds and as you might expect, I am much more readily able to take on new challenges, especially on the Caddy.
As a relative newbie I also like the idea of being associated with The Best. It did not take me very long to learn that in many places around country and the world BASI Pilates is the “gold standard” for the practice of Pilates. So I was lucky to find Pilates and smart enough to stay with BASI.
And another thing: The other day in Newport we had five guys in the studio all at once, so there’s that. Real Men Do Pilates, and I can do a Tower Prep.
What would you say to someone who is considering starting Pilates?
“Why are you not here already?”
I also said that to Cheryl, my wife, and now she often is in the studio with me.
Share about your BASI Travels
BASI Pilates is practiced just about everywhere on earth, an obvious tribute to Rael’s genius, geniality, and generosity of spirit. Cheryl and I travel fairly regularly between coasts on family business, and also enjoy seeing the world while we can. I know for a fact that when I contact a studio somewhere for the first time and tell them I practice BASI, they consider me to be more than just a one-off drop-in. I have been joyously welcomed and had my practice advanced by Clemencia in Medellin, Alice in Paris, Duanne in Jakarta, Barbara in Singapore, Michelle in Santa Barbara, Jen in Cape Town,
and Mikayla and Julian in Brooklyn. I’m excited to visit the team in St. George this fall.
Anything else you’d like to say
At one stretch I happened to visit three perfectly fine non-BASI studios, two on the east coast and one here in OC. At each one of them, when the instructors found out I do most of my work at BASI, they all said some variation of, “Oh I should go and get my BASI certification someday.” I am not making this up.
I am SO LUCKY to have learned from scratch with Myriam, and then to build my practice in the BASI way but with the individual perspectives of terrific professionals like Tram Thai, and with Jody, who runs a really powerful subspecialty for men (our shoulders and hips are different, you know), and Stella who has offered me important correctives along the way; and it has been great fun to practice with Natalie with whom I just happened to meet in a class one day this spring and who later earned her certification.
But my Pilates heart belongs to my regular teacher. She’s an athlete who preaches “Compassion” and says she doesn’t want to hurt me or make me cry but who does both, regularly — and last week she tried to kill me when we did a Short Spine. I won’t name names but her initials are Runtong Zuo and it’s all good because I was saved by The Power of Aging … and also I know it wasn’t “intentional.” (ha-ha, intentional: get it?)
Tom Goodwin
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