Image provided by Patricia Pena
Hey, my age is: 41
Erica Bloom |
Founder Erica Plum Pilates
Book a Pilates session with Erica Bloom, and in addition to revitalizing muscles you never knew existed before, you couldn’t help but feel dread. Everything about her is an inspiration – her glowing skin, graceful body, a string of beach hair, plus her amazing range of knowledge: She has studied nutrition; It has developed programs to assist people with osteoporosis, structural alignment, and rectal detachment; She previously had childbirth and postpartum doula; It is one of the biggest names in Pilates. “My normal body type is different from what I achieved with Pilates,” says a single mom of two in Manhattan. “Pilates allows us to continue to move beautifully as we get older, while a lot of exercise techniques break down the body and cause injury as we get older.”
It’s hard to imagine, but before Bloom started her successful business – she had well-ventilated studios in New York, Los Angeles, the Hamptons, and the Amanyara Hotel in Turks and Caicos, and she’s also now studying remotely – she was unhealthy. “I suffer from an autoimmune disease, and I was very sick from it,” she says. “Biomedicine didn’t have the tools to make me better; I was determined to figure out how to feel good and not die young. I began to explore nutrition, acupuncture and other ways to support myself and my body.” She was always aware of muscle and movement mechanisms – she grew up in a family of physicists and was a professional dancer in her twenties – so she earned a degree in various body treatments and eventually turned to Pilates to help rehabilitate herself after suffering an injury. Her mastery of anatomy is one of the reasons why she is an intuitive coach with such ingenuity, able to spot even subtle flaws by just peeking at a client who is still fully standing.
At 41, Bloom looks impossibly chic in the spandex she spends most of the week in and exudes a calm, radiant energy partly attributed to a robust routine of clean skin care and childbearing. “I’m healthier and more connected to my body now than I was before I had my children,” she says, “I think it’s possible for anyone.” Her advice on aging gracefully, perhaps unsurprisingly, begins with Pilates.
1
Make work cheerful
I wake up every day and want to do Pilates. Never, I’m not in the mood. I taught at 6:30 in the morning, and I couldn’t wait To enter the studio. For the business part of running a company: Hire people who know more than you, who have a similar outlook on life, and who bring you happiness. Does work ever stress me out? I can’t allow it – my work is all about calm.
2
Caffeine only in the morning
Caffeine can cause anxiety, and I don’t sleep well if I take it later in the day. Drinking coffee when you are tired ignores the signal. If you are tired in the afternoon, this is an indication to consider your sleep or eating habits. It can be as simple as someone not eating enough lunch, making them sleepy in the middle of the day. Just drinking water or taking a break to detach from the screen can be very helpful in giving yourself a nudge.
6
Go thin
With makeup
I don’t want makeup to change my look, so it’s more about enhancing than covering. What’s great about clean products is that they are healthy for your skin and support it with nourishing ingredients. I apply Tata Harper’s lip and cheek color to my lips, cheeks and eyes for natural redness; Make a little more mascara from Ere Perez; And smooth on tinted moisturizer with SPF from Josh Rosebrook.
7
Good fats make great hair
My texture is naturally curly, but for me, the key to healthy, shiny hair is eating the high-quality animal products, fats, collagen and Vitamin B12 that they naturally provide. I eat renewed and pasture farmed meats and boil bones to make broth. I don’t eat or buy processed foods.
If I had breakfast (skip it if I’m not hungry), I would have eaten a scrambled egg and cruciferous vegetable salad with lemon, salt, and olive oil. For lunch, I like protein – pork or salmon – with two different types of green vegetables, like braised chard or broccoli. I try to avoid snacking by eating enough at every meal. If I need to eat something, I try to get more of what I ate in my meal. For dinner, I might eat a freshly grown, grass-fed, local steak. coleslaw; And other vegetables for dinner. If I’m craving carbs, I’d add pumpkin, beets, or something cruciferous, like cauliflower.
9
Love all wrinkles
If you enjoy life – love your family, or get orgasms – the wrinkles on your face look good. I didn’t grow up in an environment where physical beauty was important, and then, as a professional dancer, I was more focused on how I performed as an athlete than on how I looked. There was a woman who became friends with her when I first moved to New York and had a huge impact on me: She was always happy, confident and had beautiful folds on her face that showed off her beauty and intelligence.
10
Cut sugar
I don’t eat refined sugar. I think a lot of people don’t necessarily like how it tastes; They just love to share. It also has strong emotional ties: we think of it in a festive context. My kids and I used to celebrate holidays and special occasions by doing an activity together instead of doing, say, eating birthday cakes. We are a sugar free family, but we’re not restricted. If someone has cookies in a friend’s house, that’s okay. We have steaks, bacon, vegetables and have a lot of joy around the food. My philosophy about drinking is: Enjoy it. But I don’t do it if I realize that I want to drink because I’m not treating the emotions.
11
Stay calm (and dance around)
The more we can transform our nervous system from fight or flight into a place of rest and calm, the less we age and feel better. I have daily practices to keep me calm: I do a restorative movement based on the Feldenkrais method [a technique that uses gentle movement to retrain the body to move more efficiently], And I connect with nature, whether by spending time looking at the sky from my balcony in the morning or going for a walk when I’m not in town. I dance to indie post-punk music in the ’90s – so random, but it’s my favorite. I don’t meditate every day, but I do the work of breathing. Cooking also relieves stress.
12
Embrace the beauty and power of childbirth
I became a midwife because I wanted to help women make better choices, ask questions, and educate themselves before going into labor (I am not currently practicing). I previously worked in the emergency room and witnessed women experiencing obstetric and gynecological emergencies. Often times, they weren’t given options, and I saw surgeries that didn’t necessarily have to be performed. Biomedicine is incredible and saves lives, but I felt we needed a better way to support women at birth. So I left the idea of ​​becoming a biomedical doctor and transitioned to prenatal Pilates, rectus diastasis [helping to rebuild postpartum clients’ core after the separation of abs during pregnancy]And pelvic floor rehabilitation. Pregnancy and childbirth can be all about connecting with your body and knowing how strong your heart really is. You don’t have to be stuck with some issues: you can strengthen and change your body and feel stronger after giving birth. I had wonderful, joyful deliveries and orgasms and saw that it was possible. It wasn’t just about luck and genetics – my son was recently and his rope was wrapped around his neck. But I still managed to have some lovely childbirth experiences.
13
Your body can change
I suffer from scoliosis – it’s in my family – and one of its consequences is that it makes you shorter and rounder as you get older. I am committed to resisting that. You can improve the curves of scoliosis with movement and alignment, just as you can change bone density by changing the way you move: If you put more weight on one foot throughout your life, the bones in that foot will be thicker and denser. This can happen all over the body. Pilates increases awareness and strengthens the connections in the body, supports breathing and meditation, corrects posture, and teaches the body how to maintain correct biomechanical movement. I love adding Bala Bangles – weights allow you to feel the muscles you reach and help to coordinate and improve the look and feel of the body. Keep your weights light enough so that you can do a full range of motion, while keeping the core muscles of the joints and posture muscles occupied while working your target area. The result is a healthy body and lean muscular appearance.
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