Turning Point Pilates - New Space, New Services!

                                                                                                                                                                                           

I first wrote about Robin Solo and her Turning Point Pilates studio back in  2014, and so much has changed since then in just three years that we needed to do an update story. As anyone living in Venice knows, rents are bordering on the criminally outrageous, and Solo has had to move her studio three times due to greedy landlords. Awful Snapchat took over her original studio space in the office park behind Tlapazola, sending her scrambling to find a space that her clients would still travel to. She found a spot on by Alan's Market on Washington Boulevard, and then that landlord wanted to jack up her rent. She needed to find a spot less than a mile away to keep her clients - crucial to any Mom and Pop business, but Solo is just that, solo. She's doing it all herself, like many women these days. She needed a little divine intervention, and found exactly that one day when out looking for her new space.

 

There was a little house on the south end of Abbot Kinney that Solo thought would be great for her studio, only to find that it had just been rented by a boat supply type place. Crestfallen, she walked around the corner to her car, looked up and saw a "For Lease" sign on the building right there. A call to the (cool and fair) landlord told her that this was meant to be.

Turning Point Pilates moved into its new digs this past March, and the clients came with, thankfully. As the only traditional pilates studio in Venice, Solo definitely has a loyal following, yet is eager to share her methods with new students as well. There are a lot of fusion pilates places popping up, and nearly all of them have some corporate backing taking the financial pressure off. As this is a solo Solo operation, she has gotten creative to keep her business/passion thriving.

To that end, after receiving a nano current facial treatment in trade from a friend and seeing the eye-opening results, Solo purchased her own machine and took the training to offer the electrical treatment to her own clients and friends. I'd never heard of this treatment, so Solo offered to have me come in and try it ... especially because I've been having weird stuff with my face lately (mystery swelling, allergic reaction, I don't know). She described it as "exercise for your face", and explained how the more you work out your body, the better it looks ... the same goes for your face.

Little wands are moved across your face, with electrical currents stimulating the muscles in your face, communicating with them to increase collagen and elastin - the stuff that makes you look youthful. It claims to lift, tone, and sculpt your face, and like body exercise, the effects are cumulative.

Well, I saw the before and after pictures Solo showed me from previous clients, and they were impressive to say the least. Like, real, visible improvement after just one treatment. No invasive needles or operations, it's all just little wands giving you electric pulses for about 25 minutes. Pain free. It's actually very relaxing. With all these ladies having Botox parties and doing everything they can to hang on to their looks, it seems like a good time for them to try this easy little boost. I did, and was super impressed. I don't know why, but after my session my face looked even again. My eyes looked more awake. I went to the Venice sign lighting a couple of hours later and the first friend I ran into told me I was "glowing". I'll take it!

You can too. Solo is offering your first nano current facial treatment for a mere $35 so that clients can find out about this new way to look great ... maybe for that holiday party coming up? That's less than half of any facial treatment I've ever had, with actual, obvious results. I have no idea how much Botox (Botulism in your face?! No.) costs, but I know it's way more than $35. That's like two drinks out on Abbot Kinney! Do this instead.

I'm all about keeping Venice unique, as everyone knows, and I'm all about supporting independent local businesses - Turning Point Pilates/Facial treatments is both. Congratulations to Robin for hanging in there and staying in Venice, in what she now calls her favorite studio space yet. Believe me, I know it's not easy doing it all on your own, but she's doing it, and doing it well.

Support local. Support women. Look and feel great. Everybody wins!

Turning Point Pilates
910 Garfield Avenue
Venice
#310-217-7630
http://www. turningpointpilates.com/ facial-treatment/

 *Photographs of Robin Solo by Patricia Rabin

Beach Walks Help

I like to start my days with a walk on the beach. It helps me think. It helps me to remember what is important. It makes me healthier. It forces you to take time to reflect and appreciate all that you have, and how very beautiful the big, blue sea is. It also makes you want to do all you can to protect it.

I was away from the beach for a month, and though I also love my walks around lakes and alongside rivers, it's not the same. The sheer size of the ocean makes you recognize how little you are, and along with that, how not that important the little things that get you down really are. The whole world seems to have gone crazy at times, with big, bad, awful things ... a walk on the beach helps with all of that too. Trust me on this. You will always, always feel better about things after a beach walk. You just will. 

"The cure for anything is salt water - tears, sweat, or the sea." I've repeated this great Isak Dinesen quote so many times, because it's just straight up true. That trifecta of saltiness is the absolute answer for most anything that ails you ... or at least will make you feel better about it all.

I'm always amazed at how few people are down at the seashore doing the same thing. So surprisingly few that we pretty much all recognize each other and wave, with most only recognizing each other from being there. I've rarely, if ever, seen any of the beach walkers/runners anywhere else in town, and that's kind of cool. It's like our own little nature loving club - with no membership dues! It really has so many benefits, I don't even really think about it as exercise ... though it certainly is.

I recently worked on a show and a woman was there to promote her anti-aging games. She told me that the single most important thing anyone can do for their health and well being was to fit in at least a 30 minute fast walk every day. Everyone can do that - and when you do, it puts of heart disease, stroke, some kind of diabetes, dementia, and over just a short amount of time, makes your pants bigger. Just do it!

 On the way back today, I saw a little needlepoint pillow just lying there on the grass in a yard. "A true friend is a found treasure." I sure have been learning the truth behind that this year ... the value of having someone who is there for you, no matter what, cannot be overstated. The value of finding out who you cannot count on is also way up there ... and sometimes painful and surprising - but awfully good to know.

You true friends - and you know who you are, because you feel it too - are sincerely the wind beneath my wings. May we all soar together!!

Turning Point Pilates - The Classical Studio In Venice

I just took my first Pilates class ever. And I loved it. It always seemed like a lot of rigamarole for a lady who prefers to do my exercising outside, preferably free and alone on the beach so I can think, with no one yelling at me what to do, in my own world. Classes, equipment, a bunch of other sweaty people ... none of that is really my style.

Then one day Robin Solo, owner of Turning Point Pilates in Venice, reached out to me and invited me to come and try a class. I'll pretty much always try something, so I went. And I can still feel it - in a good way.

Turning Point offers instruction (since 2006) from their sunny Venice loft space in the traditional, classical Pilates methods founded by a German fellow, Mr. Joseph Pilates in the 1940's (a photo of whom hangs over the front desk). It was developed to strengthen all the muscles at once, around a strong core, and became very popular in the dance world, for the lengthening and strengthening it offers. It soon took off so that all sorts of people got into, and greatly benefited from it. It's popular because it does give you a hot body, but also makes everything better and easier for you, even just getting up out of bed every morning. It engages all of the muscles, all of the time. And you can sure feel it - as you're doing it, and for a couple days after, in my case.

"Each movement is a whole body effort, but it's mental exercise too. It's cerebral," Solo told me right before getting me on the reformer. That's another bonus ... you're concentrating so hard on your muscles and the movements, that there really isn't room in your brain to think about your work, or your dude problems or if you want to go to that art opening or not that night ... it's all about what's going on in your body at that moment. For someone like me who has a hard time shutting off my thoughts all the time, it was a welcome hour of total concentration, of my mind working only on my body. It was rad. And both easier and harder than I thought. Easier because the movements are completely manageable and the machines ("reformers") are only there to help you. Harder because those little movements in short sets soon had me sweating for real, and standing on quivery legs. Later that night, it hurt when I laughed, a sure sign that something had worked. And worked hard.

Solo (no relation to Han) is a native Californian, who after burning out on years of "soulless" film production work, really wanted to do something that she felt mattered and made people - including herself - feel good. She took Pilates classes and realized that was what she loved and wanted to share with others, in the traditional way. "I wanted to help people feel better, and this changes peoples' lives. There's a real gratitude factor." I get that. I'm in, I thought...

No sooner had she said that, then a delivery guy opened the door and asked Solo if she would accept a package for a neighboring business (they're located in that office park between Zinque and Tlapazola, smack in the middle of Venice, so you can just walk or bike over, but if you have to drive, there's easy, free parking). He glanced around and said, "Is this a Pilates studio?! I totally owe my walking straight to Pilates! I broke my ankle and they said it was so bad I might not walk again, but I started doing Pilates and it's awesome.! Can I take a card?" He did, and he'll be back, this big guy shouting, "Yay Pilates!" as he left out the door. It was a perfectly timed testimonial, sure, but I too could already feel relief in my hunched up writer's shoulders immediately after my session with Solo. No joke. I feel taller after one class. So I too will be back.

"Lots of classes out there are fusions, like Pilates on meth, " explained Solo when teaching me about the original way. "It's hard for boutique businesses to compete with all the chains (Venice doesn't believe in chains, remember?), and I don't want to dilute the purity of Pilates" - so she stays indie. We like that here. And this is the real deal. Taught the way Mr. Pilates taught it. Legit.


Working and living in Venice, Solo enjoys exactly that ... being able to walk or bike to work. Walking the canals. Observing the ever-changing graffiti, and like me, loving the Art Crawl when it's on. She loves her Hal's and Primitivo, but like most people I speak to, the most important thing to her about Venice is the community. If you're part of it, you know what that means ... the friendly waves, the knowing your order, the having your back if you need it from people who also came here to live because it's special ... and needs to remain so. The Community helps to ensure that it will.

About Venice, Solo says, "It feels good down here." It does. Even more so when your body feels good and you walk a little taller around town.

Try it. You will like it.

Turning Point Pilates
612 Suite A Venice Blvd.
(Sign in driveway, between Zinque and Tlapazola)
Venice
310.217.7630
Class schedule at turningpointpilates.com

*Solo is pictured here doing way harder stuff than I did. Don't be intimidated by her moves, you can totally handle it. Her clients range in age from early 20's to almost 80's, in all shapes and sizes. You got this.