One thing ANY body needs, whether for sport or to sit at a desk is a body that works well and is pain free.

What is your perception of Pilates? It’s just a bit of breathing? It’s really gentle? It’s something ladies who lunch do? Comments I’ve heard many times and it’s always a bit of a kick when you can show someone it’s not any of those.

I always joke back to when I first went to a gym a few months after having my son. I had the usual induction - handed a bit of card on which was the bog standard starting point for a 30 something new mum. It was the same for everyone. No one had looked at me as a individual. I was lumped into the female/post pregnancy/age bracket and that was it.

No one took the time to look at ME - at MY BODY, at what it could do, what problems I might have had. They certainly didn’t look at me from a joint movement perspective.

At the time I had just finished working in a career that spanned film, theatre and the last ‘proper’ job in a London advertising agency. I knew nothing about movement, good or bad. So I listened to the (really young) guy who took me round the bits of equipment, do this level on this machine, press that button, do these 10 times and repeat.

So off I went and caused myself a few pains and problems. But I carried on, thinking pain just means I’m using muscles that have not been working for a bit. Not realising that my poor body was struggling under loads it wasn’t ready for and joints that were not capable of moving through ranges of movement I was expecting them to deal with. But with no understanding WHY.

When my small boy started school I started my Pilates training and what a revelation.

Not only did I learn exercise, but I learned WHY! And that is how we teach. You need to know the WHY! What is the benefit of an exercise? What is your body going to get from it? Why break it down and build up slowly. There is no point in pushing your body into positions or asking your joints to move in places they are not used to without some prep or understanding what it happening here. But get the WHY straight and you can understand the process and you buy into it.

Consider this…if you went for a tennis/golf/riding lesson or any other lesson for that matter, you would be watching and listening. You want to know the setup/start position, you want to know what bits need to move and when, you want to have feedback to know how you are doing. To our way of thinking, you should ALSO do this if you do any workout, even by yourself. How can you correct something you are not even aware of? How can you improve something you are not tuned into?

So don’t be fooled by our approach, we really want you to get the very best out of your body and that means you get the best out of each exercise. Some of the seemingly simple exercises are really hard on the brain - listening to your body, getting the feedback from it. We are constantly giving you input, but the real breakthroughs happen when you spot the differences yourself. It’s a much more intelligent way to workout. Look at the picture below..a side plank on a reformer. That is a challenging exercise to do and WAY harder than your usual side plank. You need more than just brute strength to do that.

So..get to know us and…

• how we teach

• the terminology we use

• the alignment and posture for each exercise position

• get to grips with the basics of Pilates - we promise it won’t be wasted time!

• then join a regular class

Leave your earbuds and Metallica/Barry Manilow in your gym bag, you will not be needing them.  We want you tuning in to your body and pick up any little cheats it might be doing rather than being distracted by music.

CAN I HAVE SOME STRETCHES PLEASE?

MY HAMMIES ARE ALWAYS REALLY TIGHT AFTER A RUN

Instead of needing a hamstring stretch – it’s actually more important to work out WHY the hamstrings are clearly having to work so hard, what’s NOT working that the hamstrings are having to take up the slack, so to speak. Where in that kinetic chain of movement is something out of whack?

You can apply that scenario to many bits of our body. And that’s the beauty of our classes, it’s not just following a teacher having their own little workout, we are watching you, giving you feedback on the movement patterns we can see you doing and offering you some adjustments or alternatives to get sound movements in your body that will reduce injuries further down the line.

So at any level of fitness, we can add benefits to your workout regime. From a 7am Group Reformer class with Ben or an Intermediate Online mat class with Lola , we can find ways to challenge your body to bring another level to your fitness and you might be surprised at what we can unlock.