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Guest article by Deborah Harris

Let’s face it – unless you have an amazing wedding planner, making arrangements for this most special of days can be both a daunting and exhausting task. Between looking for the perfect reception site, perfect dress, perfect everything else, those who are used to working out soon find that there just isn’t enough time in the day to exercise. New brides often find it challenging to balance the wedding planning with finding the time to take care of their bodies. After all, this is THE most important day of your life and all the eyes are going to be on you. With progressively escalating pressure to put all the pieces together in arranging a dream wedding, a bride can easily lose sight of an important detail: her personal sense of health and well-being.

With just a sliver of time to devote to getting into shape, what is our busy bride to do? Pilates may well be the key that opens the door to your inner happiness and outer beauty. Pilates is so “hot” right now that you can’t shop for groceries or watch “Sex in the City” without someone mentioning how wonderful it is. This technique traces its roots to the 1930’s when it was first recognized by Broadway stars and ballet dancers for its ability to slim the thighs, flatten the tummy, increase muscle tone and improve posture. With over 500 exercises to choose from and innumerable modifications, a certified Pilates instructor can design and tailor a program to fit your specific needs and goals. Pilates will help you get that longer leaner line, the “two-piece bikini” stomach, the flexibility of Yoga, the stretch of massage and most importantly a sense of inner peace.

Because of its soaring popularity, your Pilates choices have expanded greatly over the past few years. Your options range in price and effectiveness from doing a Pilates exercise tape at home, to taking a group mat class with your bridesmaids, to getting a private class on the Pilates Reformer, Cadillac and other pieces of equipment.

Choosing the right Pilates studio isn’t always as easy as picking up the Yellow Pages. The following are some general questions you can use to assess whether the Pilates instructor with whom you are considering investing your valuable time is properly trained and qualified to teach you:

What Bridal Packages does the studio offer?

• Are the instructors trained through a comprehensive, nationally recognized training program?
• Did that training program require both a written and a practical test, lecture, observation, practice and apprenticeship hours?
• How many total hours were spent in the training program?
• How long have the instructors been teaching Pilates?
• What is the studio’s philosophy?
• Are the instructors able to design a program tailored to your specific needs?
• Are they able to accommodate your hectic schedule?
• Are the instructors able to teach the full repertoire of Pilates on all the pieces of apparatus or do they just teach Pilates Mat or Pilates Ball?

Pilates should be challenging but fun and spiritually invigorating. Pilates should give you the body you want and the inner sense of well-being you’ve been missing since you first started making wedding arrangements. If nothing else, Pilates will give you a chance to leave the world of preparations behind and bring back the kid-like excitement of seeing just what you and your body are capable of accomplishing.