Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. I'm Alyssa Bereznak, the wellness editor at The Times. Here's what you need to know to start your day:
Spring into movement
At first glance, Pilates looks easy. At least, that's what I remember thinking in my early 20s when I signed up for a class. You get to lie down, I thought. How hard could it be? The answer to that question, dear reader, arrived through a web of soreness that extended across the long-ignored muscles in my abdomen, butt and thighs the following morning.
I had mistaken a serene workout environment for an unserious one. But the "militaristic precision" of Pilates, as Times contributor Jackie Snow describes it in our recent guide to the best Pilates studios in L.A., is exactly what makes the exercise such an excellent method of targeting the body parts we compromise at our desk jobs.
Pilates' many accessories, despite their resemblance to torture devices, are designed to work your entire body, maintaining your skeletal alignment and ideal range of motion for a low-impact, full-body workout. It follows that Pilates is an accessible form of exercise for a whole range of ages (including seniors) and body types. It allows you to be easy on your joints but — I cannot emphasize this enough — not your muscles.
Lauren Quan-Madrid (COO, instructor at People's Yoga) and Leah Rose Gallegos (CEO, instructor at People's Yoga). (Travis Shinn / For The Times)
As is the case with any new form of exercise, expert supervision can be the difference between an effective workout and an unfortunate injury. Which is why we descended on Los Angeles to evaluate the facilities, instruction and vibes of the countless studios that dot our streets and boulevards.
The resulting 26 businesses we highlight in our new exercise guide series L.A. Circuit keep their class sizes small, and therefore provide personalized adjustment suggestions. You can feel confident that any of our picks will be a safe place for you to, like me, realize that Pilates is not as easy as it looks.
If you happen to be an especially dedicated athlete in need of an even tougher challenge, try Lagree. (Just don't call it Pilates.) And if all this sounds a bit complicated, there's always yoga. Either way, I hope this helps give you a movement road map as we ease into spring.
The week's biggest stories
Gov. Gavin Newsom in November 2022 and former President Trump in September 2020. (Rich Pedroncelli/AP; Evan Vuc/AP)
California could lose millions from Trump's tariffs. Newsom plans to sue
L.A. County Sheriff's Department spent $458 million in overtime last fiscal year
- 1,461 of the agency's roughly 10,000 deputy jobs sat empty by March, and an additional 900-plus were held by people out on leave.
- Department data show deputies worked more than 4.3 million hours of overtime last year.
A mysterious week for wildlife
Get ready for the L.A. Times Festival of Books
More big stories
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This week's must reads
Tracy Turner, owner of the Wynola Junction, looks over pictures that fell from shelves when a earthquake hit Monday in Julian. (Denis Poroy/Associated Press)
This little-known earthquake fault has been quiet. But it can unleash devastation across SoCal. Below California's famed beaches, mountains and metropolitan areas lies a sinister web of earthquake faults — some so infamous that their names are burned into the state's collective consciousness. While not a household name like the San Andreas, the Elsinore fault is part of a larger seismic zone that experts fear and believe more people should know about.
More great reads
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For your weekend
Paint the Night, the popular evening parade introduced for Disneyland's 60th anniversary, returns for its 70th. (Paul Hiffmeyer / Disneyland Resort)
Going out
Staying in
How well did you follow the news this week? Take our quiz.
(Staff and wire photos)
What politician popped up at Coachella? Plus nine other questions from our weekly news quiz.
Have a great weekend, from the Essential California team
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
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