In the words of Joseph Pilates himself, this:

​

'method develops the body uniformly, corrects wrong posture, restores physical vitality, invigorates the mind and elevates the spirit'.

​

Pilates quite literally 'centres' around 'contrology'- being fully in charge and control of our body from the centre/core - mainly the abdomen and spine. 

 

Pilates gives us the opportunity to re-focus both our mind and  body back towards 

moving in its optimal (neutral) position, where gravity is equally distributed throughout the body, joints are aligned appropriately and muscles are balanced and effectively recruited.

 

 It helps us to restore natural, normal and great ranges of movements we all enjoyed as children, before bad habits (slouching), working conditions (bending over someone/something/sitting for long periods) or injuries tricked us into other, temporarily easier ways of moving. When our body is out of alignment, the length and tension of our muscles, tendons, ligaments and connective tissues are negatively affected, more strain is placed on joints and movement is affected and over time, we are moved even further out of alignment. These new, faulty movement patterns often feel comfortable and become our norm; our 'posture', until the body sends us pain signals, alerting us to the fact that somethings not quite right. It's at this stage, many people often gravitate towards Pilates. 

​

Having good alignment is also so important for our major body systems (nervous, respiratory, digestive immune)  to  work more effectively, and  efficiently. For example, a slumped/rounded shoulders position can impact lung capacity, which could in turn result in shallower breathing leading to less oxygen and ultimately less energy. Try it for yourself, right now; imagine,  a string is lifting the crown of your head up  uptowards the ceiling. Take a deep breath and see how that feels (note Doctors often ask us to sit up straight when they listen to our lungs). Next, take a deep breath and imagine the same piece of string is gently pulling your head/spine forwards, to where the wall meets the ceiling. Notice the difference? I personally feel the benefits of the lifted (string to ceiling) posture.

​

It's therefore no wonder we take so long making sure you start each and every exercise from the best position, in neutral alignment throughout the entire body. I'll teach you how to do this, and how to incorporate this into your everyday life.

​

​

​