Hello! I’m Cambrey.

Cambrey Thomas

Hello! I’m Cambrey. I’m a professional writer and fitness enthusiast from Detroit. After rolling with the punches of 2020, I decided I would make 2021 a little better by recommitting to my health.

The first thing I did to get fit in 2021 was subscribe to several YouTube fitness influencers. When that didn’t work, I bought a jump rope and an exercise mat. Next, I got a hula hoop and set a reminder on my phone to use it every day. Whatever I did, I could not bring myself to workout at home—especially not after a year of being at (and working from) home. So, I signed up for Pilates at Equilibrium, one of my holy grail exercises that always inspires me to move.

I started doing Pilates in 2010 when I moved to New York City for graduate school. I’d read about the method in the magazines I hoped to one day work for and was so excited to start that I, while still in Detroit, blindly picked a Lower East Side studio and purchased a class pack.

I liked Pilates because each class left me feeling taller, stronger, and more graceful—which is exactly what I needed after a day spent hunched over and writing on my laptop. Like Joseph Pilates, I had a very sickly childhood and was not used to feeling well in my body. But, with each class, I gained more confidence and body awareness. Because of this, I approach Pilates as a recalibration tool and return to it to return to myself.

Equilibrium has such a warm atmosphere, so it was only natural that I started to get to know the staff and Nancy as friends. From this place, after sharing that I had some time off, Nancy issued a friendly challenge using one of Joseph Pilate’s most famous quotes: “You will feel better in ten sessions, look better in twenty sessions, and have a completely new body in thirty sessions.” We wondered out loud together what this would look like and then she challenged me to find out.

I will be writing here about what happens over these 30 sessions, done consecutively over 40 days, as well as sharing more about using Pilates as a tool to thrive and how I’ve used it on my own journey to healing.

I hope you will follow along for the journey and be inspired to try Pilates for yourself!

To see video updates, make sure you’re following Equilibrium on IG at @equilibriumpilates and me at @Cambreynoelle