Graham started his Pilates journey with me in May 2007 after his wife Joanna, who had already been practicing  Pilates with me for just over a year, started to experience life-changing results and you can read Joanna's story here.  When Joanna became pain-free with Pilates she began to envision her future filled with amazing experiences and travel adventures such as walking tours in various locations around the world.  I shared her enthusiasm for her new life filled with possibility but raised an important point with her  "What about Graham? He doesn't do any exercise and he has back pain.  You don't want to use your newly gained fitness to push him around in a wheelchair in your old age."  Joanna's face said it all as she realised Graham could prevent them from enjoying an active future of travel.  Less than a week later Graham booked in for an Initial Assessment with me,  and in February 2020,  as he is about to...

Joseph Pilates said "Change happens through movement and movement heals." Many people recovering from an illness, injury, or surgery are still following the outdated idea of "resting" or avoiding movement at all costs and genuinely believe they are giving their body the best chance of recovery.
In 2020 this is, unfortunately, a misguided approach and numerous studies have been conducted that have shown the enormous benefit that movement contributes towards healing.  There are of course some exceptions to this rule and movement should be avoided for conditions such as fractured bones and spinal cord injuries among others for example.  As always you should seek advice from a medical practitioner before commencing a movement program to ensure that movement is appropriate for your condition.

What Is Movement?

Movement is essential for our wellbeing and our survival as a species.  Once we have lost our ability to move through injury, for example, we become completely reliant...

As we leave 2019 behind and head towards a new decade in 2020, this is the perfect opportunity for a more detailed analysis of your health and fitness goals, not only for the coming year but for the entire decade ahead.
Many years ago now, a friend and colleague revealed to me that he was 4 years into his "10 Year Health Plan".   Initially,  I was quite amazed as I was used to setting goals with a 1, 2 or even 3-year timeline,  so 10 years seemed just a bit too organised for me.  Now, as a huge fan of mindfulness,  I'm all for living in the moment however after considering the benefits he received from his plan, I became convinced of the advantages.  There are some things in life you really don't want to leave to chance!

Why Do I Need A 10 Year Health Plan?
As maintaining our health and fitness is something that requires gradual and consistent efforts, you don't want to wake up one day and realise you are failing to maintain your health and rapidly...

Originally, during dissections of cadavers in the anatomy lab, fascia was regarded as little more than ‘packing material’ and discarded in order to get to the so-called “important structures” below.  The First International Fascia Conference was held as recently as 2007 at Harvard Medical school and since then ongoing research has emphasized the importance of the role fascia plays in the body. 

Joseph Pilates' dream was to have his method of exercise taught in every school and every hospital around the USA,  if not the world.  All these years later he could never have imagined how popular his unique method of exercise would become,  but in the modern world,  the need for children's  Pilates classes has never been greater.  Many of my clients who started Pilates well into adulthood have often commented that they wished they had the opportunity to learn these valuable Pilates skills and been educated on how to move their bodies more efficiently as children and their lives would have been so much easier.

"Civilization Impairs Physical Fitness" - Joseph Pilates
Unfortunately, many children are just as sedentary as adults now, due to their overuse of electronic devices.  Whether you are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, carer or a concerned friend, we all owe it to the younger generation to guide and encourage them to move as much...

Recently some of my clients were discussing how long they had been practicing Pilates which led me to wonder which one of my clients had been coming to my studio the longest.  That honour goes to Joanna who has now been coming to Pilates twice weekly since her Initial Assessment with me on 3rd February 2006.  At the time of writing, she has been practicing Pilates at my studio for just over 13.5 years.  At 61 years young, she often says she feels so much fitter and stronger now than she did 15 years ago and she is constantly increasing her fitness all the time. 

More than 17 years ago I started Pilates when my friend who had already been practicing it for several years told me on multiple occasions that I had to do it too.  When I asked her what it was exactly she couldn't tell me.  Just that it was something that would benefit me greatly, would change my life and I would probably want to become a Pilates Instructor.  What was she talking about?  She also said it would take some time for me to grasp it and not to expect too much to begin with but once I did get it, I would love it. Finally, without  Google to help me back then and no other information I bravely fronted up for an Initial Assessment at an extremely reputable Pilates studio and have never looked back.

Why Was It So Hard For My Friend To Explain What Pilates Is?
Pilates can mean different things to different people.  So I'm going to outline in this post what I believe are the benefits of Pilates that set it apart from other movement or exercise...