Metropolitant's Fitspiration - Jeremy Lee

Fitspiration – Messages posted along with pictures of athletes to motivate and inspire you to persevere through exercise.

The Metropolitant team scour the internet and speak to folks dedicated to their craft. This new column will showcase fitness enthusiast sharing more about themselves and their favorite exercise.
So stay tuned to get inspired and motivated before your next workout!

For this first article, we speak to Pilates teacher Mr. Jeremy Lee.

J: I am a Pilates teacher at Pilates BodyTree. I have been practicing Pilates for the last 6 years and started teaching 3 years ago. My teaching journey started as part-time teaching Pilates Matwork in the gym and then I was invited to teach group classes at Pilates BodyTree.

M: How did you get started?

J: I became involved in the field of fitness in 2009, and I started my foray in this industry after being certified in personal training. I discovered an interest in Pilates a year later, after accepting an invitation to participate a group class in the gym by a Pilates teacher. My interest gradually grew into passion and love for Pilates and I decided to enrich my learning by undergoing a certification in Pilates Matwork, and then a comprehensive program in Fletcher Pilates.

M: What is Pilates?

J: Pilates exercises challenge your body to create movements using coordination between the mind and body. It demands a lot of body awareness while executing each movement with control and precision. The goal is to achieve a uniformly developed body.

M: How different is Pilates from Yoga?

J: Both Yoga and Pilates works on the body in term of flexibility, strength and posture alignment etc. However, the origins of Pilates and Yoga are different and also certain philosophy beside them. For example, Pilates uses different breathing methods from Yoga and there is no spiritual meditation involved in Pilates.

M: What are the benefits of Pilates and how can it improve people’s lives?

J: Pilates has certainly helped me gain a lot of body awareness, alleviate muscles imbalance and give me a better posture! When I was younger, I participated in competitive kayaking and dragon boating. The nature of these sports exacerbated my existing muscular imbalance and my performance subsequently plateaued. When I started working, poor office ergonomic and reduced physical training led to daily aches and pain.

Only when I started Pilates, I realized how inflexible I was and most of these aches and pain are a result from lack of spinal and joints mobility. From my personal experience, I have seen and understood how potential spinal issues could rob a person’s ability to enjoy daily activities. I am a firm advocate of fitness and believe that the best way to attain optimal health is by having a healthy spine and posture.

M: What are your career goals?

J: Continue learning the work of Pilates exercises and seek opportunity to refine my teaching pedagogy constantly. Then go out there to help people built a stronger body so that they can lead a better lifestyle.

M: How about your fitness goals?

J: Joseph Pilates said this “If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30, you are old; if it is completely flexible at 60, you are young.”

When I am old, I still want to be mobile and have full range of motion around my spine and joints, free from body ache and pain.

M: Share with us your training regime to achieve this mobility that you seek?

J: On top of my teaching hours, which I may already be moving together with my clients, I also invest 2 hours each week in body weight training such as Pilates Matwork and another 3 hours on Pilates Apparatus such as the Reformer, Cadillac and Wunda chair which can provide me extra resistance training because they are spring loaded.

M: Your favorite exercise among them?

J: I like all the exercises on these apparatus! I use to loathe doing spinal extension because of my tight hip flexor and weak back extensor muscles. However after constant practice and gaining more flexibility, it becomes more achievable to do an extension these days. One of my favorite extension exercises is the back bend series on the Cadillac apparatus.