This week I melted

Hello hello everyone and welcome back to a new blog post! Hopefully, all going well, this one will actually be posted in time and I won't have lost half of it like last time! I hope you've all had a pleasant week in the sometimes-sun-sometimes-cloudy weather we've been having! I've heard it's supposed to be very warm and sunny on Monday however, and I have the day off, so I intend to spend it either in the sea, on the sea or sat very near to the sea all day long. Watch this space! This past week has been a house-hunting-heavy week, and I've seen a fair few possibilities this week. None of them were quite right though, and so the search continues! There is a lovely one that is soon to come on the market that isn't up yet that I've got my heart set on just from the pictures I've seen, which is probably not a great idea on my part but it's just so cuuuute! (And practical and sensible bla bla bla but mostly cuuuuute!) If it's the one for me, fear not, there will be pictures and then some. Aside from house hunting, it's been work work work and commissions all week, as well as the main topic of this post- I melted. Nope, not from the heat (I'm not down south so there hasn't really been much heat up here to melt in, honestly), and believe it or not, not an emotional meltdown either. Nope, I literally melted. You'll see! 

Last night, which was Thursday evening, I attended my first ever melt class! What the hell is a melt class, I hear you wonder? Well, let me tell you...Now, before I start, I'd like to make it clear that I don't 100% know all the terminology and I am by no means a professional, despite my avid reading, online research and general know-it-all personality. It's a form of Pilates and it's very technical indeed.

If I understood Sandra (Pilates queen, melting professional and studio instructor!) correctly, then this is how it works. Everywhere in your body there is an elastic connective tissue, linking everything together. This tissue is called fascia and they transmit mechanical tension in your body generated by muscles or outside forces. It’s almost like another layer of skin underneath your skin, made from different types of fibres. It is known to be very interconnected, and so you have fascia running throughout your body, from the heels of your feet all the way up to the tippy top of your body. Since the fascia is so connected, it can mean that tension or pain in one part of your body can affect somewhere else entirely on the body, so much so that you mightn’t even realise those two things were connected. Daily life can cause stress and tension in your fascia and this causes what is called ‘stuck stress.’ This stuck stress affects the body’s nervous system and ability to heal itself, and you might not even realise that this is happening. It leads to aches and stiffness and can even lead to further issues like insomnia, neck and back pain and digestive problems. The MELT method works to release this stuck stress from the fascia and works towards healing these problems by gently releasing the stuck stress from the fascia. The connective tissue is rehydrated and the nervous system is rebalanced. Now, that’s the sciencey bit done. I have to admit, I was a little bit skeptical that this was actually going to work, because I had considered myself quite knowledgeable on things like this and I had never heard of a fascia. The class began with an assessment by lying flat on the floor, relaxed with our palms facing the ceiling. Sandra began to talk us through various points of the body, asking us to note any tensions or stiffness and notice where there were gaps between our bodies and the floor. Using some special roller-y doo-da’s (technical term unknown, sorry) Sandra took us through a series of gentle exercises, focusing on different parts of the body at a time. The exercises were varied, some I found quite easy, whilst others, even though I thought I was quite fit, I found very difficult to manage. From my (limited) understandning, I think this is because although I’d like to think myself quite strong, my core strength isn’t as good as it could be. After these exercises, Sandra had us back in the same relaxed position as we lay in at the beginning of the class, and asked us to notice any differences. Well, let me tell you, my whole body felt different. 

I felt like a puddle. Sounds very strange and even though it was only yesterday, it's very difficult to describe becuase it’s a sensation I’ve never felt before! My whole body was relaxed in a way I didn’t know it could be, and the light stiffness in my neck that I hadn’t really known was there when we first lay down was gone, my back felt like it was flat on the ground, whereas before it had been arched tightly and my knees, which have been hurting a lot from running, felt like they actually breathed a sigh of relief! Skepticism out the window. It was truly incredible and I think I might sign up to pilates classes because I want to feel like that again! Aside from how amazing it feels on the day, regular pilates and regular melting (is it used as a verb??) is very good for you in numerous ways, and here’s a list I pinched from Sandra’s website (http://pilates4any1.com/) 

-Re-balancing your body and bringing it into correct alignment -Reshaping your body which will become longer, leaner and more toned -Improving your posture -Achieving the perfect balance between strength and flexibility -Rehabilitation from injury -Relieving unwanted stress 

I’ve linked Sandra’s website above for those looking for more info or wanting to sign up for a MELT class (do it, you’ll feel like a fluffy pancake, which sounds weird but trust me, I dont wanna be anything but a fluffy pancake now) 

That’s all from me this week folks, hope you’ve had a good week and I will catch you next time, I'm off to flop like a pancake somewhere,  Rachel x