Stress-Free Wedding Planning

Planning a wedding can be stressful! Here are a few tips to help you release tension and have a healthy body and spirit for your wedding day.

As you may have seen or heard, Pilates builds a strong, long and lean core using deep abdominal muscles. But there is another use for Pilates that many people only associate with practices such as yoga and meditation. Pilates is commonly used for stress and tension relief, and it can be vital in the wedding-planning process. Regular practice and mastery of the technique stretches, strengthens and tones muscle, improves posture, flexibility and balance, and unites mind and body.

Here are a few suggestions I like to provide my clients with, in addition to their regular workouts, to relieve stress and tension:

• Take baby steps. Thinking about 30 minutes of an activity may feel overwhelming when your energy is low. Decide you'll just do a few minutes of something. Chances are, you'll start to feel more energetic and will keep going.
   
• Keep it simple. Sometimes the thought of changing into workout clothes can seem like climbing a mountain. Choose activities that require very little preparation like walking, gardening, cleaning the house or some gentle stretching.
   
• Ask for support. It helps to have a workout buddy to keep you honest. Try to get a friend or family member to meet you once a week for a walk in the park or a local fitness class. Knowing someone’s waiting for you makes it easier to get going.
   
• Give yourself extra time to warm up. If you're doing a high-intensity activity (like running or aerobics), give yourself more warm-up time than usual. If you usually start out jogging, start with a slow walk. Allow your body all the time it needs to get warm and allow your heart rate to climb gently.
   
• Give yourself extra time to cool down. It's always a good idea to end your workout feeling good. Give yourself a good ten minutes to wind down and then spend a few minutes stretching.

Kloey Hanson is the owner of Hot Body Pilates, a nationally acclaimed Pilates studio in the heart of the Gaslamp Quarter. hotbodypilates.com

For more of Kloey's fitness tips, click here

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