Endeavor Forever

Hello, Marjolein.
There were so many wonderful calls during the August 24 Pilates presentations on QVC that I was unable to get through while you were on air, but I wanted to express my gratitude for what you have done in bringing Pilates to us, especially through QVC.
 
As a 51-year-old female, I have experienced challenges in maintaining fitness over the years due to bilateral femoral rotation (outward). This has never been severe but has been awkward enough that each and every exercise program or piece of equipment required modification on my part in order to achieve results. Traditional aerobics routines, for example, include lateral movements that are difficult to accomplish properly with this femoral rotation. Weight bench leg extension apparatus exercises for quads and hamstrings never precisely target the muscle groups as needed. Staying properly positioned on a Gazelle is almost impossible, as the feet tend to toe-out during use of the machine. Even simple warm-up or cool-down stretching exercises have had to be modified, slightly, and basically everything I do has to be adjusted to avoid lateral knee strain.
 
So--I started with the small barrel/magic circle/mat workouts and quickly found that THIS is something I can do like everyone else! It wasn't long before I purchased the Stamina Aero Pilates ProX P556 from QVC--and it's great! It is a delight to be able to work all muscle groups--and obtain an excellent cardio workout--without adjusting every move to accommodate for a personal torsion. But perhaps the biggest plus is that using this machine has begun re-training my body. At 51, while I don't expect miracles after a lifetime of dealing with and accommodating for a torsion issue, I am definitely seeing changes in posture, resting stance, and in leg alignment. To me, this is almost more important that the fact that I have lost my "baby-bearing" pooch and have almost lost the back-of-the-arms loose skin due to tricep development.  Ah--if only Pilates worked on the face; having lost 38 pounds now on Pilates, I find that everything is toning up except the facial lines resulting from weight loss. :)
 
Thanks, again, Marjolein, for all you do and for making this life-changing process and machine available to us.
 
Stacy Mulder
Endeavour Forever!