Mat Pilates: improves posture, de-stresses & strengthens core

Equipment Pilates: more challenging

Cardio: burns fat, de-stresses, strengthens & tones

Ante natal: Preparing your body for labour & maintaining your figure during pregnancy

Post natal: returning your body to its pre-natal state by strength & core stability exercisesBring baby along to Mother and
baby sessions

German born Joseph Pilates, was a very frail child, suffering with asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. He turned to physical fitness to improve his health, and also studied a variety of different disciplines from which he devised the Pilates method. From an early age, he was fascinated by anatomy and spent hours studying the way in which animals moved. He read all information on exercise, and studied as many systems as he could find, including Greek and Roman training regimes and, of course, yoga – an influence in Pilates today. By the age of 14 he was in such good shape that he modelled for anatomy charts.

He was originally a body builder and circus performer who moved to New York in1920s. There he opened a studio, where he trained actors, elite athletes and rehabilitated professional ballet dancers and Broadway stars. Among his many famous clients were George Balanchine and Martha Graham, although these days devoties are Madonna, Sharon Stone, Julia Roberts and the San Francisco 49ers!

He invented unique exercise machines such as the Reformer and the Wunda Chair which were designed to create a perfectly balanced body by strengthening and lengthening muscles.

The New York dance community embraced the Pilates system as a way to build strength, suppleness and an elegant type of elongated muscle without bulking up. For years, Pilates was one of the best-kept secrets within the dance community. Now it’s mainstream.