The Toronto Quarterly 5 is Out

11. Literary Pilates

My pilates teacher said, “You don’t need a pilates instructor. You need an exorcist.”

I am a famously bad pilates student. In the old days, I would have been in the remedial class with others who were physically geeky and destined for careers in academia. Now, I am mixed in with fit, fine women who have stomach muscles and a refined understanding of right and left.

Building muscle tone is not so much about heavy lifting. It’s about repetition. It is about trying and trying and trying until you get better -- similar in many ways to writing. Those first few pages or lifts, you think, I can do this. A few more and you’re exhausted. Only over time (maybe) do you build the strength to make it look easy.