Alusha's blog

Hi! My name is Alusha, and I’m this summer’s intern at Bälans. I’ve already met a few of our regulars in class this week and I’m excited to meet the rest of you throughout the summer. I was quite unsure what to expect coming into this job and I certainly didn’t expect how much fun I would have in my first week. It’s quite a change from doing Geography at St Andrews University, but a very welcome one. My back is certainly thanking me for doing some proper exercise as opposed to the usual days in the library.

Before I came to work here, I didn’t realise how much I’d be able to get involved with every aspect of the business. This week so far, I have: taken pictures of my boss doing teasers (something I’d never even heard of before coming here) in a field of oilseed rape; helped a 4 year-old repurpose Pilates equipment for a hilarious obstacle course; been treated to an amazing deep tissue massage and met a whole bunch of amazing people. And that’s on top of all the amazing matwork Pilates, BarreConcept and apparatus Pilates classes I’ve had the opportunity to attend. (I did do some work in amongst there, I promise.)

All of these unexpected opportunities got me thinking about what my goals are during this internship. Some of the more obvious ones kind of come with the job description. For example, I want to learn more about what it is to market a business and I want to help people hear about all the workshops, classes and courses that go on at this amazing Pilates studio in Perth. Alongside these goals, I am eager to use the opportunity to do so much Pilates to it’s fullest. It’s these fitness goals that I think can really showcase the work that’s done here, as well as what a difference practicing Pilates can make to a lay about university student like me! I’ll revisit these goals as I go through my 10-week Pilates Journey.

My starting point for this journey is as someone who has done some Pilates in the past, but never with such top-quality instructors. I’ve done a little bit of various forms of exercise throughout my life, and I’m really not a cardio person, so Pilates is right up my alley as a solid work out without having to do any running! In terms of fitness goals, I’m hoping that my time here doing Pilates in various forms will enable me to create a better posture. It’s something I’d love to have sorted before I go out on my first solo long-distance walk. Hopefully, using Pilates to create better posture will help ease to the weight of the various tents and other bits of gear I’ll be carrying.

My bad posture is one of my Mum’s pet peeves and something I definitely need to work on. I tend to spend a lot of my day sitting working on a laptop or hunched over taking notes in lectures. I’ve therefore got the same posture problems that so many people have, namely that my neck and shoulders are hung forwards and all of the various surrounding problems that come along with this.

Doing Pilates here at Bälans has already started to help with this. In one of the sessions Joakim was rather alarmed at how joyful I found it to stretch out my trapezius muscles by simply pulling my shoulders down. Coming out of that class I felt much more upright than I have at least since I started university. Similarly, when I came out of BarreConcept I felt like I could have balanced a book on my head, like a proper debutante. We’ll see over the coming weeks in what other doing Pilates at Bälans makes changes to my everyday life.

Until my next blog post, I’ll see you in class - Alusha