THE RITUAL OF MOVEMENT

MOVEMENT IS AN ACT OF SELF-CARE

In a world of weight-loss quick fixes and a pervading concept that exercise is all about maintaining your figure, Milena is on a mission to re-frame the narrative and fix the relationship we all have with movement.

For her, the word ‘movement’ tells a more accurate story than ‘exercise’. Movement is all about looking after your body; it is an act in taking care of yourself, showing up for yourself and your health. “We really need to reevaluate the relationship with movement in our bodies rather than simply doing exercise for the sake of exercise. Everyone needs to move in order to be healthy, every system in your body is effected by movement so having a well-balanced movement system is the key to a healthy lifestyle,” she says. The old-school mindset of strength, endurance, flexibility and cardio being totally separate is gone. We need to seamlessly blend these principles alongside efficient movement.

DO WHAT YOUR BODY LOVES

Milena’s movement rituals are about going out and doing something you love, that your body loves and that makes you feel good. For her, this starts with a run. She gets up before dawn breaks daily for a run along the coast from Dun Laoghaire to Dalkey or Blackrock to Sandymount. "This is the headspace I need to tackle whatever the day has in store as business owner, and a busy mum too. After my run, I treat my body to a Gyrotonic movement session," she tells us. Gyrotonic is a movement workout Milena has just launched in Ireland. It’s a posture-perfecting workout of fluid movements on a hand-crafted wooden machine that gets your body moving in the way in which it was designed. Celebrated by A-listers like Lady Gaga, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, Julieanne Moore and Liv Tyler, the exercises are performed in a continuous flow from movement-to-movement, creating a feeling of space between your vertebrae – essential for hunched-over bodies that are used to sitting at desks or driving all day.

DAILY RITUALS

Making movement like this a daily ritual improves joint mobility and flexibility, keeping your bones, muscles and collagen from dehydrating, which is how the ageing process happens. “As you move towards your later years, your bones become more brittle. Incorporating movement like Pilates or Gyrotonic as one of your daily or weekly rituals is about maintaining life and not allowing the natural ageing process to slow you down,” she says. And, of course, there’s allowing your body little indulgences too, "I always try to take a moment of indulgence during a busy day to use a luxurious fragrance in a shower gel or body oil, and one of my favourite weekly rituals is a bubble bath every Sunday night to prepare my body and mind for the week ahead."

READY TO EXHALE

Whether it’s a morning run to clear your head, Gyrotonic or Pilates to incorporate deep inhales and long exhales to keep you connected with your body, the ritual of movement keeps you feeling strong, your mind healthy and your body young. "Being aware of your body while it is moving means you feel better in yourself and more in-tune with patterns of discomfort. After all our bodies were designed to move in multiple planes of direction," Milena confirms, "It’s like nutrition for your body, quality, quantity and looking after yourself matters."

MILENA’S SUNDAY SELF-CARE FAVOURITES

A VIRTUAL VISIT TO PLATINUM PILATES

While the studio is temporarily shut pay a virtual visit to @platinumpilates for an Instagram live class today.
www.platinumpilates.ie