ABout pilates

Pilates focuses on core strength but also aims to improve mobility, flexibility and overall body strength, general fitness and wellbeing. Regular Pilates practice can help improve posture, muscle tone, balance and coordination, joint mobility and minimise the risk of future injury. Many people also find it is helpful in relieving stress and tension. 

I would describe my classes as a sort of "Pilates Fusion" meaning that I love to combine Pilates exercises with my other movement and remedial therapy knowledge to provide modern pelvic floor and core exercise prescription that is fit for purpose for the life we all lead.  Whether you join a class or book a 1-2-1 session, my carefully planned programmes incorporates fully integrated pelvic floor, core and breath work into common, everyday movement patterns.  Each class starts and ends with variety of delicious mobilisations and releases to leave you feeling and moving more freely.    

Pilates was developed by Joseph Pilates who was born in Germany in 1880.  As a child he was plagued with rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever.  In order to overcome his health issues he studied and devised an exercise programme with the help of his father, a former gymnast, which helped relieve his symptoms and restore him to good health.  He eventually gained enough strength to become a bodybuilder, diver, skier and gymnast.  He moved to England aged 32 and was interned by the British authorities during WWI.  Joseph’s interest in health and fitness continued to develop during this time and he trained and rehabilitated other interns in the camp.

In the early 1920’s Joseph moved to the USA.  On the journey over to the USA he met Clara, who would later become his wife.  In 1926, he and Clara opened a studio in New York.  It was here that he taught his method of exercise which he named Contrology.  The studio was shared with the New York City Ballet so many of his students were dancers, as well as gymnasts and athletes.

Contrology was renamed Pilates after Joseph’s death in 1967.  It was introduced into the UK in the early 1970’s by Alan Herdman.