Post Natal Yoga/Pilates

Nothing will ever make you reevaluate your priorities like becoming a mom, either for the first time, or the last time.  It is essential that women, as the primary care givers, learn that first and foremost, we must take care of ourselves, or we will not be able to care for anyone else.

That is why this class is so important.

This is a Transitional Class designed to enable you to get back to your regular fitness routine after your baby is born. This class is limited to no more than 10 new moms and will run for 8 weeks.  After the 8 weeks, you should be ready to return to any activity that is within your fitness level.

We will be concentrating on getting your core strength back, working the abs, the upper and lower body as well as helping to deal with the stresses placed on the “new mom”.  Learning to stay calm and keep strong amid the chaos of life is critical to successful parenting.

Join Nancy and the Post Natal Yoga/Pilates class on Saturday, April 4, 2009 from 11:00 am to 12 noon in the Dragonfly Yoga Healing Arts and Retreat Center, 176 Jones Road, Medford, New Jersey, to begin the next phase of your journey as a new mom!

Classes will run for 8 consecutive Saturdays.  You can choose which 8 week session best suits your time frame.  Your baby should be at least 6 weeks old, and your doctor has advised you that it is safe for you to return to exercise.

There is no babysitting offered and you must contact Nancy at gernan16@aol.com or 856-816-1486 for more information and to reserve your spot.

Space is limited and will be given on a first come, first serve basis.
All payments must be made in advance of the first class.

2009 Sessions are as follows:

April 4 – May 23
June 13 – Aug 8
Aug 22 – Oct 10
Oct 24 – Dec 19

Total cost for one 8 week session:  $120.00

Nancy Davis, RYT 200 is a certified Yoga and Pre Natal Yoga instructor through Yoga Alliance.

Exercise during pregnancy benefits baby too. Any interested parties should e-mail or call the Pilates Core Center and/or Dragonfly Yoga studio.

MRK Naturals – Homemade Skin Care Products

Did you see the new beauty products being sold at Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga? MRK Naturals is a new line of affordable, homemade, all natural skin care products for health and beauty. These 100% natural, home-made beauty products with anti-aging properties won’t clog pores. After first use you will notice your skin looking and feeling younger. Mandy Renee Keilwitz, founded the product line from her motto: never put anything on your skin that you wouldn’t put in your mouth.  Following in her sisters’ footsteps and for the sake of her children’s bodies, Mandy began making skin care products at home, using every day, natural, healthy ingredients, such as coconut, grape seed and vitamin E oils, naturally preserved with salt and sugar.

“When I made the decision to pursue a healthier lifestyle for myself and my family, I quickly realized it was not very cost effective for a ten-person household to go all natural, so I began investigating new ways of being healthy that would work within our budget, such as growing vegetables in my green house, planting berry bushes, fruit trees, goji berries, vegetable and flower gardens, and most recently creating my own skin care products,” explains Mandy.

MRK Naturals’ salt scrubs, sugar scrubs and lip balms are made in a variety of scents and flavors from eucalyptus to chocolate. These products are made to order and shipped straight from the Keilwitz farm in the Lower Columbia River Valley of Washington State, to reach you in time for holiday giving. You can visit the website to learn more about these products and their maker, Mandy, at mrknaturals.weebly.com

 

 

 

 

2009 New Years Resolution Challenge!

This is one New Year’s resolution you’re going to want to keep!…

Everyone wants to get fit for the New Year… but THIS New Year we are going to add a little incentive! Sign up for our 12 week “2009 New Years Resolution Challenge,” and you will receive a complete makeover package for $500, valued at over $1,000! Sign up before the program start date of January 19, 2009 and you will receive:

• A comprehensive wellness evaluation by Health Goals Chiropractic
• A nutritional evaluation with NuBalanced Nutrition
• A guided meditation session & discount coupon from Advantage Hypnosis Counseling
• 12-weeks of classes (2 per week) with Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• A discount coupon for Julian Hair and Color Studio
• Three $20 discount coupons for skin care with Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics
• Three $20 discount coupons for massage with Joan Dighton
• New Years Resolution Challenge Party on Saturday, April 4, 2009

You will be given a punch card with a spot for each class, evaluation and session! Upon successful completion of this 12 week makeover program, you will be eligible for a drawing.

 

First Prize:

• 20 class package from Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Complete Make-over from Julian Hair and Color Studio
• 3 one hour massages with Joan Dighton
• 3 one hour facials by Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics + more!

 

Second Prize:

• 10 class package from Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Hair Cut and Color from Julian Hair and Color Studio
• 2 one hour massages with Joan Dighton
• 2 one hour facials by Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics + more!

 

Third Prize:

• 5 class package from Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Hair Cut from Julian Hair and Color Studio
• 1 one hour massage with Joan Dighton
• 1 one hour facial by Donna Radcliffe of Skin Basics + more!

 

All participants:

• 10% off any class package (except 8 class auto pay) at Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga
• Discount from Julian Hair and Color Studio + more! 

At the end of the program Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga will host a party complete with deliciously healthy refreshments. A photographer will take the “after” photo of the group, followed by the prize drawing. Contact Diane Grossman of Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga Healing Arts & Retreat Center to register.

 

*Makes a great gift!*

 

HHS Announces Physical Activity Guidelines

Thanksgiving kicks off a season when Americans typically spend the next six weeks enjoying their favorite holiday treats only to make it their New Year’s resolution to shed the extra three to seven pounds they’ve put on.

With two-thirds of Americans already being overweight or obese, additional holiday pounds can wreak more havoc on people’s bodies than the obvious extra padding. Holiday stress and excess calories can precipitate attacks of angina or even a heart attack in people with underlying disease.

Therefore, the new exercise guidelines, released last month by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, are just in time to get an entire population moving.

This is the first time that the government has issued specific guidelines on how much exercise, types and intensities are appropriate for people of all ages and physical conditions.

Ayurveda – Know Your Stress Type

Ayurveda is a system of healing that integrates basic physiology, emotional disposition, and spiritual outlook, then presents all three in the context of the universe itself.

We often speak of stress in terms of situations we find ourselves in – traffic jams, looming deadlines, getting laid off. But Ayurveda holds that stress actually originates in the mind. “Fundamentally speaking,” says Nimi Nitai Das, an Ayurvedic physician in Boston, “stress is a disorder of rajas.” Rajas represents passion or undirected activity; it’s one of three universal qualities, or gunas (the other two are sattva, or “purity,” and tamas, or “inertia”). According to Ayurvedic texts, too much rajas shows up in the mind as attachment, craving, and desire – by their nature, these impulses can’t be satisfied and therefore create a negative psychological disposition.

GYROKINESIS® Now Offered at Dragonfly Yoga & Pilates Core Center

After experiencing many personal struggles and chronic illnesses, Juliu Horvath spent many years in self-exploration and study. These experiences not only led him to true healing, but he was also inspired to create a movement system that offers the same benefits offered by yoga, dance, gymnastics, swimming and tai chi, but is not derived from these other exercise modalities. Some of the hallmarks of  GYROKINESIS® exercises are the fluidity of the movements and the ease with which one can perform them.

GYROKINESIS® exercises allow one to work on the entire body through seven natural elements of spinal movement: forward, backward, left side, right side, left twist, right twist and circular, as well as all other joint articulation.

This approach systematically and gently works the joints and muscles through rhythmic and undulating movements. These movements stimulate the body’s internal organs while different corresponding breathing patterns are integrated along with the movements.

What is Yoga?

Many people think that yoga is just stretching. But while stretching is certainly involved, yoga is really about creating balance in the body through developing both strength and flexibility. This is done through the performance of poses or postures, each of which has specific physical benefits. The poses can be done quickly in succession, creating heat in the body through movement or more slowly to increase stamina and perfect the alignment of the pose. The poses are a constant, but the approach to them varies depending on the tradition in which the teacher has trained.

Yoga is a scientific system of physical and mental practices that originated in India more than three thousand years ago. Its purpose is to assist individuals achieve their highest potential and to experience enduring health and happiness and improve the quality live.

Pilates Helps Correct Posture

In Pilates, we pay a lot of attention to how our body parts are lined up in relation to each other, which is our alignment. When we stand or sit, we usually think of our alignment as our posture, but good posture is a dynamic process, dependent on the body’s ability to align its parts to respond to varying demands effectively. When alignment is off, uneven stresses on the skeleton, especially the spine, are the result. Pilates exercises, done with attention to alignment, create uniform muscle use and development, allowing movement to flow through the body in a natural way.

For example, one of the most common postural imbalances that people have is the tendency to either tuck or tilt the pelvis. Both positions create weaknesses on one side of the body and overly tight areas on the other. They deny the spine the support of its natural curves and create a domino effect of aches and pains all the way up the spine and into the neck. Doing Pilates increases the awareness of the proper placement of the spine and pelvis, and creates the inner strength to support the natural curves of the spine. This is called having a neutral spine and it has been the key to better backs for many people.

For more information about Pilates, please visit us on at www.PilatesCoreCenter.com

A Beautiful 7-Night Eastern Caribbean Cruise Retreat

How would you like to spend the last long weeks of winter this year? How about watching the sunrise break over the open ocean as you begin early morning sun salutations at 6:15, then nourishing your body at a breakfast buffet  …Or sleeping in ’til noon and waking up on a sunny water slide? Enrich your day with a full availability of workshops, yoga and Pilates classes… settle in for nighttime meditation at 10:00pm (and get zen on the dance floor afterwards perhaps??).

Cruise the Eastern Caribbean on the Carnival “Liberty” with Pilates Core Center and Dragonfly Yoga March 21 – 28, 2009. We will depart out of Miami and visit San Juan, St. Thomas and St. Maarten. Join us on a retreat of world and self-exploration in pursuit of wellness, balance and personal growth (and fun!!).

Enjoy a week of Pilates and Yoga classes, meditation, workshops on wellness, nutrition, as well a other topics of interest…all this and more!!!

Life After Hip Surgery

Nancy has been a client of PC2’s since we opened in May 2005, and has since become an instructor on our staff.  Nancy shares the story of her hip surgery and how Pilates helped her to recover.

–D. Grossman

To make a long story short, in Dec 2002, I had a total right knee replacement and thought everything would be fine. In June 2003, I began to experience sciatica in my left leg. I thought I pulled a muscle, overstretched, or simply overworked my leg. I was wrong. The pain worsened, and in April 2006, I began Pilates Reformer classes. I loved the reformer instantly, but was experiencing pain when I used the leg straps. My legs weren’t the same length, certain moves were painful and walking with a limp was noticeable. I was teaching yoga by this time and was concerned that something was seriously wrong.