why is variety important when it comes to your health?

Written By Millie Shiers

By Millie Shiers, Founder of Olive & Winnie Wellness

What do I mean by variety?

A variety of class styles is something we are strong believers of over on Olive & Winnie Wellness. One of the reasons I created the platform is because I struggled to find platforms with the variety I felt I needed to achieve my best health, both physically and mentally. I do not believe that there is one form of movement or mindfulness that covers all areas of our health, so a balance is important.

variety for our physical HEALTH

When it comes to our physical health, we need movement that strengthens our muscles, movement that challenges are cardiovascular system and movement that improves mobility. If one of these things is neglected, we are far more likely to experience physical discomfort or injury.

CLASSES FOR STRENGTHENING

  • Pilates offers low impact strengthening that often focusses on our smaller, stabilising muscles. There is a common misconception that Pilates does not build strength, however I have experienced first hand how much Pilates can bring an amazing amount of strength. Pilates is amazing for improving posture, building muscle tone and strength and reducing injury.

  • Weight-based classes offer a higher impact form of strengthening. Weight lifting is amazing for improving bone density, particularly as we age, as well as building strength in our more dominant muscles.

  • Yoga asana (asana - physical posture or pose) is also great for strength building. Although building strength is not the main intention of Yoga, it is one of the great benefits to this class style, particularly for our core and upper body.

CLASSES FOR CARDIOVASCULAR HEALTH

  • HIIT (high intensity interval training) style classes target our cardiovascular system by increasing your heart rate through high-intensity movements.

  • Pilates, Strength & Yoga Asana are not typically thought to benefit our cardiovascular health, however more dynamic styles can gently increase your heart rate over a sustained period of time.

CLASSES FOR MOBILITY & FLEXIBILITY

  • Pilates offers exercises that will improve your mobility mainly by focussing on spinal articulation. Watch out for classes that claim to be ‘Pilates’ that never include spinal articulation based exercises as this is a core principle of Pilates. Pilates was designed to improve spinal health by strengthening our muscles that support our spine and moving our spine in different directions to improve mobility. In Pilates we try to move within five different spine shapes to help with this: forward flexion, extension, lateral flexion, rotation and flat back. Pilates also includes exercise that will improve flexibility in our muscles and mobility in the rest of our body.

  • Yoga Asana is amazing for improving mobility and flexibility. Again, it is important to remember that all physical benefits of Yoga are not the main intention, however it is great to appreciate the benefits.

variety for our mental health

Our mental health also requires variety; we need classes to help us slow down and calm the mind, as well as classes that will energise and uplift us. It is important to learn what you need at different times and what will serve you best.

CLASSES FOR SLOWING DOWN

  • Classes such as mediation, breathwork and some forms of Yoga Asana (Slow Flow vinyasa & Yin) are amazing for slowing down, increasing presence and surrendering to the moment. Classes that offer an opportunity to slow down are often the classes that people find the hardest to prioritise in today’s busy society, therefore I would argue that these classes are the most important for our health in such a busy world. When we are constantly running in overdrive and our nervous system is stressed, we are massively compromising our physical and mental health. To read more about the link between the mind and body, read my previous post.

  • Pilates classes that focus on slower movement and stretching can also be amazing for slowing down, however it is important to also make time for classes where there is complete stillness!

CLASSES THAT ENERGISE

  • Classes that train our physical health are also great for energising us and lifting us up. For example, when we exercise physically, we release endorphins, which is often referred to as a ‘happy hormone’.

what we offer to help you to build this lifestyle

I appreciate that amongst work, family and friends, throwing in these priorities can seem overwhelming, however I truly believe it can be simple and easy. I also believe that when you are able to prioritise your health, work, family and friends becomes easier to prioritise. Our Olive & Winnie members receive lots of extras that help them to integrate our classes into their lifestyle - we have weekly newsletters where we discuss different themes, such as how to ‘Prioritise You’ and ‘The Link Between our Mind & Body’, we release weekly schedules and we have various collections for different times of life (see our collections here).

Our video library includes videos under 10 minutes, and we really do believe that starting small is massively helpful.

The online on-demand element of our platform also really helps with simplifying your healthy lifestyle - you can take us with you, wherever you may be travelling to, you can choose times that work from you, and most importantly, you can do classes at home.

Finally, we offer a variety of class styles from a variety of teachers so we really can help you with all elements of your health.

If you have any questions about how else we can support you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us via email or instagram (@pilateswithmillie | @oliveandwinniewellness | hello@oliveandwinnie.com)

Millie x

Millie Shiers