Pilates was founded by Joseph Pilates who was born in Germany in 1880. He spent his childhood fighting rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever. With the goal of becoming physically and mentally strong Joe studied yoga, zen meditation and the rigorous exercise regimes of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Over time Joe became stronger and fitter and he excelled in body building, diving, gymnastics and skiing. During his work as a nurse in the 1910’s he devised a gentle exercise program for patients who were lying in bed doing no exercises. Seeing the improvements in his patients motivated him to explore such exercises further and in the 1920’s he moved to New York where he opened an exercise centre on eighth avenue in which Pilates, the man and the technique, grew in popularity.

Pilates is a gentle whole body workout that uses and moves most parts of the body. Through it you work on posture, range of movement, strength, balance and coordination whilst not forgetting breathing. You or I can tailor you class to focus more or less on one body part. The different exercises and levels allow us to move and load our muscles and joints a little or a lot or anywhere in between.

For almost all of my classes the warm up is done in standing, the class body is done down on the mat and then we are back up on our feet again for the cool down. For that reason you must be able to get down to and up from the floor independently.

There are eight principles of Pilates and there are five key elements. You don’t need to worry much about what they are as I will prompt you when you need to be prompted during classes, but if you would like to know more then keep scrolling!