Isn't She Lovely: Pilates on Base

Conventional wisdom in the IDF is that the more elite units have the prettiest girls filling roles like shooting and fitness instructors. It is a bold claim that one can only hope will one day be comprehensively checked out. For the present, I can only go on what my own eyes tell me.

And my oh my, what they tell me.

As if my charming Buffyesque shooting instructor was not enough, in my second week of training my platoon was introduced to a beautiful woman whose good lucks are only matched by her vast knowledge of everything fitness related. Her knowledge stands her in good stead as she is our unit's lead fitness instructor. Exactly what that means remains unclear but already it has brought one outrageous perk. A month into training, the fitness instructor led my entire platoon in a Pilates workout. The Nachal soldiers in our battalion milled around in shock and awe, torn between staring at the beautiful instructor and the bizarre moves we were engaged in under her instruction.