These are the questions women actually ask me, in the studio and before they've booked. If yours isn't here, ask me directly.
A contemporary approach to the classical method Joseph Pilates created in the 1920s.
The principles are his. The order is mine. I choose it around the body in front of me.
Classical follows the order Joseph Pilates set down in the 1920s. The same exercises, in the same sequence, every time.
Contemporary keeps those principles and lets the order move. It was shaped by people who brought in what had been learned since, from biomechanics and physical therapy, and that's where my training sits.
The spine is where you feel the difference most.
The classical order asks for a lot of flexion. Rolling up, rolling over, curling forward. That was built for bodies that moved through a day very differently from ours.
Most people arrive here already flexed. Sitting, driving, the phone, the screen. The day has rounded them forward before they walk in. More flexion on the apparatus isn't giving them anything they're short of.
So two things changed. Neutral spine, where the natural curves are supported rather than flattened. And working in all planes, not only forward and back.
We also know more now about loading a spine with low bone density. That's part of why I look before I load anything.
What I'm after is length and opposition. Not pressing the back down, not curling it up. Lengthening it.
There is a deeper difference underneath all of this.
In a classical room, if an exercise is hard for you, the reading is that you are not ready for it yet. The exercise does not change. You are expected to grow into it.
I work the other way round. The exercise changes.
Modern life does not produce a standard body. It produces a right side that does more because of the way you drive. Hip flexors shortened by eight hours in a chair. A thoracic spine that stopped rotating because nothing asks it to.
Once you stop assuming one body, you stop teaching a sequence and start teaching the person in front of you.
That is the whole reason this is one to one.
Classical isn't wrong. It asks you to meet the work. I'd rather the work met you.
No. Flexibility isn't what you need to start, it's something that comes later if it comes at all. What matters at the beginning is that you can move a little and you're willing to pay attention. I've had clients who couldn't touch their knees on day one and did perfectly well.
Usually because something else isn't carrying its share, and the neck is right there to help.
So rather than correcting the neck, I'm looking at what we need to wake up underneath it. Once that's working, the neck tends to let go on its own.
Yes. Core strength is a large part of what the work is, and it's one of the most common reasons women are sent to me.
What I'd add is that core isn't only the abdominals you can see. It's the deep abdominals, the pelvic floor, the back and the breathing, all working together. That's what we build.
I'll start by looking at how you're standing and moving so we know where to begin. Then we build from there, at a pace that's safe for you.
If you're feeling abdominal work in your lower back, something isn't set up right, and it's worth stopping rather than pushing through.
Usually it means the position needs changing or the exercise needs to be smaller. That's the kind of thing I'm watching for in a session.
Working with me privately, I'm choosing the movement that strengthens the core and the back together, even when we're focused on abdominals. It's all connected.
Because you're not symmetrical, and nobody is. You carry a bag on one shoulder, cross the same leg, sleep facing the same way for thirty years, and the body organises itself around that.
The side that struggles usually isn't the weak side. It's the honest one. The other side has found a route that doesn't ask the same muscles to fire.
Footwork is usually where we begin on the reformer or chair.
It looks simple, but it's doing a lot of heavy lifting. It wakes up your legs and hips, reveals how your knees and ankles track, and sets your alignment for everything that comes after.
It's also where I learn the most about how your body moves in the very first few minutes.
Pilates focuses on moving the body in a way that challenges stability, along with strengthening. Those two together are what make it harder than it looks.
A seasoned instructor understands that combination and keeps it in mind, along with safety.
Most people are surprised. Something small and slow, done well, asks a great deal more of you than something big and fast.
In a class the work is built for the room. Here it's built for you, and it changes as you change. If something isn't working halfway through, we do something else. Every session at GLOW Body is one to one or duet.
No, and I'd say the opposite. The work matters more as we get older, not less. Balance, bone loading, staying upright, getting off the floor without thinking about it. I've started women in their seventies who became the most consistent clients I have.
A lot changes in these years, and the body you had at twenty, thirty and forty isn't the one you're working with now.
What Pilates offers is strength work that's precise rather than punishing, and real attention to how you're standing and moving. Where we start is your body today, not the one you used to have.
Things begin to fall into place. Muscle memory returns, and relearning proper recruitment makes a real difference, particularly for women who haven't had an active past.
Once you've been cleared by your doctor. We start gently and we start with what's underneath, because the abdominal wall and the pelvic floor need attention before anything gets loaded. I assess first so we know what we're working with, then build from there rather than jumping back to where you left off.
That depends entirely on what's going on, which is why I look before we do anything.
Some of what I see is an old injury. Some of it is years of standing and moving a certain way. Either way, I'd want to look first.
Every session here is one to one. Anything that creates pain we avoid, and we work around it to get things moving and build strength where it's safe to.
That depends on what's behind it, so I'd want to look first. An old injury is one thing. Hours looking down at a screen is another.
Tech neck and forward head posture are common now, not to mention all the bending and imbalanced movement a day asks of us. Alignment plays a large part in why muscles end up tight.
So we work in all planes of movement, to counter that flexion and forward imbalance. And a lot of it starts further down than people expect. The feet, how you land, how you move. The neck sits at the top of all of it.
Anything that aggravates it, we leave alone.
Shoulder pain is the most common thing women come to me with.
Your shoulder blade sits on your rib cage, so the mid back and the scapula are usually where I start. Mobility first, then strengthening the shoulder girdle, and we stay well away from anything that hurts.
Frozen shoulder is one to see your doctor about first. Then we work alongside that.
Not on its own, and I'd be careful of anyone who promises that.
What it changes is how you carry yourself, and how the muscles begin to lift and streamline the body. As you start recruiting properly, some women find inches coming off the waistline and hips, the arms tone, and the posture lengthens.
Consistency is what makes the difference. Your body counts the hours you put in, so staying with it is what brings the results.
