UPDATE 9/10/2020:
The summer outdoor studio has been a great success! I might do it every year. However, the mornings are getting colder and we know the rain will be on its way soon, so I will be moving everything back inside. In preparation, and to add a further layer of protection (along with masks, cleaning and distancing), I have purchased a Molekule air purifier. This will be running at all times and has been shown to destroy 99.9% of airborne viruses. According to the Molekule website:
“Molekule’s PECO technology has been demonstrated to capture and destroy airborne viruses, including testing of proxy viruses for novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and influenza. While we have not tested on SARS-CoV-2 specifically, Molekule devices do meet the performance criteria recommended by the FDA guidelines for use in reducing exposure to SARS-CoV-2 in healthcare settings.”
In addition, the Molekule eradicates the full spectrum of indoor air pollutants, and is the only air purification technology that can destroy airborne viruses. So, I feel confident that we can work safely indoors with very little risk of virus transmission.
Brace Point Pilates is open and serving clients in our new outdoor studio!
The research on COVID-19 is telling us that transmission is much more likely indoors than outdoors: the virus dissipates quickly in fresh air and sunlight can help disinfect surfaces.
I have moved the studio outdoors for as long as the weather remains warm enough. It is actually really pleasant! We are on a covered back deck, surrounded by greenery which offers total privacy. There is an infrared heater aimed at the Reformer for cooler mornings. Both the client and I are masked.
Clients enter through the front door, proceed to the powder room to hand wash, then down to the studio. For $80 clients can purchase their own personal straps (made of fabric which is difficult to sanitize between clients). All equipment and surfaces are thoroughly cleaned between clients.
As we move into the darker, colder, rainy days, I will be researching air purifiers, portable room ventilation, and UV disinfecting lights so that when it is time to move back inside, I can create the safest environment possible for my clients, my family, and myself.
Remember that exercise is known to help boost your immune system. During World War I, Joe Pilates was interned in England as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man.
The health conditions in the internment camps were subpar, but Pilates insisted that everyone in his cell block participate in daily exercise routines to help maintain both their physical and mental well-being. However, some of the injured German soldiers were too weak to get out of bed. Not content to leave his comrades lying idle, Pilates took springs from the beds and attached them to the headboards and footboards of the iron bed frames, turning them into equipment that provided a type of resistance exercise for the bedridden “patients.”
These mechanized beds were the forerunners of the spring-based exercise machines such as the Cadillac and the Universal Reformer, for which the Pilates method is known today. Pilates legend has it that during the great flu epidemic of 1918, not a single one of the soldiers under his care died. He credited his technique (which he called “Contrology”) for the prisoners’ strength and fitness—remarkable under the suboptimal living conditions of internment camps, which were hit especially hard by this deadly flu.
So, if you are hesitant to go back to your gym or even your indoor Pilates studio, please consider coming to Brace Point Pilates for one-on-one outdoor training.
