DECEMBER IS UNHINGED. YOUR WORKOUT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE.

Hi, it’s Maria — and every December, without fail, I watch all of us slowly unravel into slightly unhinged versions of ourselves. Not in a dramatic“ everything is falling apart” way… more like a “why am I suddenly triple-booked and eating peppermint bark for breakfast?” way.

December has a personality of its own.

It pulls you in five directions at once, hands you a to-do list you definitely didn’t agree to, and somehow convinces you that you can maintain a social life, a

workout routine, a cheerful disposition, and a fully decked-out home all at the same time.

And because we’re all shapeshifting daily — festive one minute, frazzled the next

— it becomes really easy to drift away from yourself. You start running on autopilot. You start saying yes because it’s easier than saying no. You start

thinking you can “get through it” instead of actually feeling any of it.

This is the part where slow resistance training becomes the unexpected holiday hero.

Not because it’s a workout.

Not because it’s on your to-do list.

Not because

“you should stay consistent,” whatever that even means in December.

But because when the entire month feels like chaos on wheels, moving slowly on purpose becomes the secret reset you didn’t know you needed. There’s something almost comically grounding about shaking through a slow lunge while your brain is trying to remember if you wrapped that gift, responded to that text, or thawed something for dinner. You physically cannot spiral about your life while you’re counting tempo and trying not to fall off an X-Former.

It demands presence in a month that demands everything else.And in that weirdly magical way, the slowness puts you back together.

It gives you breath you didn’t realize you were holding.

It gives you focus when everything else is noisy.

It gives you strength when the rest of your energy is being borrowed by, well… everyone and everything.

That’s why every version of December-you benefits from it — the social one running from event to event, the tired one who needs twelve hours of sleep, the

emotional one who cries at commercials, the overwhelmed one who hasn’t eaten

a real meal in two days, the sentimental one who loves every second of this

season but also might combust if one more person invites her to something “fun.”

Slow movement doesn’t judge which version shows up. It doesn’t care if you’re thriving or hanging on by a peppermint-flavored thread. It just meets you exactly where you are and gives you a moment to remember,

“Oh right… this is what it feels like to be in my body again.”

And honestly? That might be the most important part of December — not the

perfect plans, not the matching pajamas, not the back-to-back events… but the

small moments where you finally feel like yourself again. The moments where

your brain quiets, your breath returns, and you get even the tiniest break from

performing the holidays.

So if this season is doing the absolute most — which it always does — you don’t have to. You can slow down.

You can breathe. You can shake through something that recenters you.

You can give yourself 45 minutes to reconnect with the person underneath all the roles December piles on top of you. And the best part?

Every version of you this month is welcome.

All of them need that slow, intentional moment.

All of them walk out feeling better. One breath. One shake. One very necessary pause from the holiday circus.

From my core to yours,

Maria Stege

Founder & CEO,

BARE Pilates Studio

…and that’s The Naked Truth.