Three Ways to Keep Moving during the Holiday Season

Learn new ways to keep moving and experience a profound, restorative connection between our mind and body at our third annual Mat Pilates ATX Holiday Class + Celebration on Thur., Dec. 11 at 8:30 a.m. in south Austin at the Circle C Community Center, 7817 LaCrosse Ave., Austin, TX 78739.

New to Pilates? This "bite-sized" workout party is perfect! Laura has been teaching mat Pilates in South Austin since 2015 and always welcomes beginners. Come celebrate movement -- and more than 300 mat Pilates classes in south and southwest Austin since 2022!

This Mat Pilates ATX 2025 "movement party" offers three different, powerful ways to exercise:

1. 20-minutes of resistance training to build strength and improve balance;

2. 20-minutes of mat Pilates to train deep core muscles to support our spine in all positions;

3. and a 55-minute class called Awareness Through Movement to reduce stress and optimize our brain health with its gentle but deep neuromuscular re-education.

   
   

Come ready to workout and expect to sweat -- then leave feeling relaxed and rejuvenated!

We'll open doors at 8:30 a.m. At 8:40 a.m., Laura teaches a 20-minute short Pumped Up Strength followed by a 20-minute mat Pilates flow. At 9:30 a.m., guest teacher Lisa Hueske, owner of Austin Feldenkrais, teaches a 55-minute class called Awareness Through Movement (ATM). ATM cultivates our brain's amazing ability to change and form new neural pathways to improve our movement patterns, reduce pain and stiffness, and enhance our overall well-being.

Each activity in our "Pilates party" teaches our bodies how to move with more ease so you feel better and get stronger. Our celebration of movement is a gift for your mind, body and spirit.

When we expand our ideas about what it means to "exercise," we learn many effective ways to move and feel good. (2023)

Bring your mat and wear your favorite holiday t-shirt or crazy holiday sweater. Hand weights are provided.

💪 Pumped Up Strength - Standing Workout with Hand Weights in South Austin

Our session kicks off with a 20-minute standing workout using hand weights ranging from 5-15 pounds. Resistance training offers benefits including:

• Increased Bone Density: Resistance training stimulates bone growth, helping to prevent conditions like osteoporosis.

• Build Muscle Strength and Endurance: Working with weights makes everyday tasks easier and improves overall health.

• Improved Balance and Coordination: Standing exercises teach us to apply the right amount of effort to our movement and maintain stability over a base of support.

  
  

Pumped Up Strength is a unique resistance-training class format designed by Lauren George of Lauren George Fitness and FitPro Programming.

✨ ✨ Mat Pilates for Core Connections

Then we transition to a Mat Pilates flow, focusing on our spine health and mobility in our spine, shoulders and hips by focusing on:

• Connections Between Our Limbs and our Center: Pilates exercises teach you to activate the deep abdominal and back muscles ("the core") that act as a stabilizing girdle for your spine while moving your arms and legs. This process trains more intuitive responses to prevent injuries and reduce pain from repetitive movements.

• Coordinated Breath and Movement: By emphasizing precise patterns of whole body movements and breathing, mat Pilates cultivates endurance, stamina, and body awareness -- which in turn improves the way we move through life, improving posture, reducing back pain and more.

• Improved Body Awareness, Focus, Control and Coordination: Learning and practicing movement patterns in different positions like sitting, lying on our backs or stomachs, and lying on our sides improves our ability to apply the right amount of effort to achieve a specific muscle action

✨✨✨ The Gift of Awareness Through Movement (ATM): The Neuroplastic Edge

Our "gift" of movement is class called Awareness Through Movement (ATM), led by Guild Certified Feldenkrais Teacher® Lisa Hueske of Austin Feldenkrais. This gentle, yet powerful method of movement is rooted in the science of neuroplasticity—the brain's ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections.

Here are three transformative benefits of Awareness Through Movement:

• Boosts Neuroplasticity and Brain Health: ATM uses novel, subtle movements to challenge ingrained habits. This process essentially "rewires" the brain, creating more efficient movement patterns and improving motor control. This constant learning acts as a cognitive workout, promoting brain health.

• Improves Emotional Regulation: By focusing intense, non-judgmental attention on what you feel and how you move your body, ATM leaves little space for reactive thought patterns. This enhances your self-awareness. Over time, this supports healthy emotional regulation including our ability to stay calm under stress and allow uncomfortable feelings.

• Reduces Chronic Pain and Improves Mobility: ATM teaches you to move with less effort and strain. By identifying and eliminating unconscious tension, you can reduce persistent pain and enjoy more fluid range of motion immediately, benefiting the whole body.

Sign up today for our Dec 11 2025 Pilates Party to feel stronger, stand taller, and discover the incredible potential of your body and its curious, compassionate nervous system.

Lisa Hueske's Feldenkrais Method / Awareness Through Movement classes help me feel better and address recurring neck and shoulder pains from everything that can wreck our joints and posture -- whether it's three decades of desk jobs, slip and fall or ski slope falls, sagging car seats or car accidents, etc. Whatever life throws at us, moving our bodies in a compassionate, intentional helps us feel better. (2024)