Week 27. 2024. So how do I find a good teacher?

Ok, I understand about Pilates. Now how do I find a good teacher?

I mean obviously I would like to say you find a cheerful blonde lady in her mid 50's who teaches online and all will be well, but of course other varieties are out there!

So, you have decided to take up Pilates, or you have relocated or you have decided on a change. Whatever your reason, there is so much choice out there, how do you know where to go for classes and to make sure you will be taken care of?

I am always amused by people who say "Oh I tried Pilates but I didn't like it/found it boring/didn't like the teacher".....if you go for a haircut and you don't like the results, do you just not have your hair cut anymore? No of course not. You ask friends, you look around, you try again... and so the same applies here. If you really don't get on with it, then fair enough but don't give up after one class or one teacher who doesn't suit you.

I would say first of all, be very clear on what it is you want to achieve. Are you attending because you are recovering from an injury and your clinician has told you that Pilates will repair you in order to return to lifting weights/running marathons or whatever? Do you want to go because all the other mums at school are doing it and you don't want to be left out? or is it because you have heard so much about it and understand that it will only enhance your life in so many ways by building strength, mobility. balance, mind body connection and will help you to do all the other things in your life with more efficiency?

For my part, I don't mind if you don't really love Pilates but you understand that it makes such a difference to your cycling or tennis. Great because then you will be committed and work. If you are just tagging on because your neighbour says it is brilliant, then your attitude is going to be different. So as I say, be very clear on what you hope to achieve.

I have only ever once been asked if I am insured and what my qualifications are. Once. In 20 years. Please ask your teacher. Where did they train? How long have they been practising? Are they insured? Are they CIMSPA registered - this is a good source as in order to be registered, you are required to provide evidence of ongoing learning which would be my next question. Never trust a teacher who doesn't "practise what they teach" and are they committed to further learning?

Do you want an instructor or do you want a Teacher? Yes, there is a big difference. If you are looking for a full body workout that looks like Pilates, then you can find many, many instructors. If you want to practise Pilates, you need a Teacher. Someone who understands the Method, the history, has researched and learned about the origins and adaptations and who fully understands what makes Pilates the unique form of exercise it is. Either is fine of course but again, be clear on what you are looking for. An instructor will give you a super class (hopefully) but a Teacher will want you to learn more about your body, how you move, connect to the Mind Body connection and leave the class slightly. more aware of this than when you arrived.

I spent 6 years working as a teacher trainer and through that, have made many friends, learned a lot about people and seen a lot of very successful teachers evolve and grow. There is room for so many different types of people on this earth but for me, someone who turns up late, flustered, with paperwork in chaos and a bag full of excuses is not someone I would choose to have a class with. I would expect my teacher to be clear on what the purpose of the class is going to be, a brief overview of what to expect and an appropriate welcome and intro.

One of my big no no's and something I harped on and on about with my students was "Get off your mat!" - a teacher who doesn't leave their mat is a lazy teacher! I have occasionally been challenged on why I am not doing the class with my participants but if I am, then how on earth can I observe you from different angles, and correct where necessary? While there are music based classes with choreography that need the instructor at the front, leading the class, Pilates is not one of them and if your teacher treats your class as though it is her/his own, look elsewhere.

No-one can know everything and it might be that you need a more specialised teacher - someone who perhaps works more on orthopaedic conditions, or perhaps pre/post natal. Again, ask your teacher and if you have a very particular need, then you are best advised to find someone who is more trained in that area.

Your teacher needs to be able to adapt and modify to be all inclusive. Of course you need to make sure the class is the level best for you which might well mean that you need to go at a different time to your friend or that you can't drop in after work but it will pay off in the end. Either way however, your teacher should be able of offer alternatives for you and break down the moves if required. My own personal take on an advanced class is that you are not required to do all the moves at an advanced level but you have enough knowledge and experience to adapt for yourself without holding up the class.

A good teacher will challenge you and push you but also support and encourage so that you come away feeling you have achieved in some way. Maybe you managed to do 3 reps with both legs in Table top this week or you performed the seated work with your legs straight - a little win from when you started a few weeks ago.

Personally, I do something different in every class and would completely lose the will to live if we had to repeat the same class for 6/8 weeks but I know for some, this works. However if you find you could run the class yourself and are on automatic pilot, then perhaps you are due for a change of teacher.

If you want to chat a lot then you will need a different teacher perhaps from someone who wants to concentrate and focus. If you fancy a workout that is low intensity but are not really bothered about understanding Pilates then perhaps choose a class that is more general as believe me, it can be really challenging to manage a class where everyone is focused in their practise and there are those one or two who are not as considerate about timekeeping and concentration!

Your teacher should be able to give you some time before or after the class for any reasonable enquiry and if they can't answer on the spot, agree a time to follow up. This can be tricky in the larger chain type gyms where classes can be huge but you chose this class, you have paid and you are entitled to be cared for. Talking of huge classes - really not ideal AT ALL but that may be all that is available to you in which case, please make sure that your teacher allows you to move places so you are not in the back corner every week and that he/she is always walking around to see that everyone is working correctly. If you cannot see or hear clearly, please do speak up and ask to be moved.

It is SUCH a personal thing too. You need to feel safe, supported and understood in order to achieve. I also believe you need to have fun! If you don't like me, please find a different teacher who is a better fit. We cannot possibly all like everyone and you will do a lot better if you like and "get" the person teaching you.

This is YOUR class. If your instructor spends more time talking about their domestic problems than teaching, look elsewhere. If they haven't corrected you in any way or given any feedback, look elsewhere. If they are constantly late, distracted by their phone, have obvious class favourites or short change you on time, look elsewhere. If they do not check your physical well-being on a regular basis or adapt for that strain from gardening or that crick in the neck, look elsewhere. If they are reluctant to offer information on insurance, qualifications or training, run elsewhere.

However, if they understand how to best accommodate your level and adapt accordingly, if they have a class prepared and offer support and encouragement and give you time to ask questions and feel a sense of achievement then do please thank them. We work very hard you know!

Next week - what makes a good client... mooowhahahahahah

What we have been up to!

We had a really windy "Let's launch Summer 24"beach class on Wednesday.

Clare and I were so pleased to actually see eachother in person and were delighted to see such a good turnout, both on the beach and online. I was thrilled at how many of you made the effort and of course it is always lovely to get together.

We managed a very blustery class in the July sunshine, some drinks up the road and were home in time for the England/Switzerland kick off.

Put Wed 11 Sept in your diary for our "Closing the Summer on the beach" class and drinks.

As you recall, we had to cancel our Isle of Wight jolly but are planning to hopefully make it happen on Wed 7th August but I will confirm asap.

I believe there have been 3 birthdays this week but perhaps the one to draw attention to is a certain lady who has just celebrated 80 times circling the sun. Many, many happy returns from us all and please find good company in the Octogenarian's club who are rolling up, lifitng weights and inspiring us all - not me yet by the way, despite someone who shall remain nameles, asking on the beach if Clare was my daughter!!

My goodness, we have been busy and the library is postively bursting with new content.

In the libary this week -

Up Against the wall, Abs on Fire and "Some of the moves we don't do as often" (mixed ability)

Tues functional strength and Friday 8am Abs and legs (both in Strength)

Clare's Wed class (in her very own section)

Fitbands full body and full body moblility (all levels)

I am slowly wading through the library content and taking out some old classes while we load up all these sparkly new classes so if there is anything you particularly like, please let me know,

Why not try a class that you may not usually attend - you may suprise yourself!

So I hear that French lessons, Walking and doing daily exerise are some of the choices for the July 21 day challenge - any other takers? how are you all getting on? I would love to hear.

I am positively brimming with ideas and inspiration from my podcasts, not least Gabby Logan's reference to our 50's and 60's being a snipers alley... so many fascinating lessons out there!

What is coming up.

I am taking a few days off from Tuesday lunchtime next week and Clare is covering on Thursday. Please note there are no live classes on Friday but you have lots of new library content!

Clare and I have got our heads together to make sure that we have some time off here and there, but continue to offer you as much as we can. Clare will be covering here and there and there will be a couple of Wednesdays when you will find me waiting for you in Clare's place. There are a very few days with no live classes but they are minimal and I do hope you will see how hard we work to offer as much as we can.

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Weekly Wrap up. Week 18. 2025.

By juliet • May 1, 2025

USE IT OR LOSE IT! I saw a post on instagram that I shared today. It is a video of a large family posing for a group photo, with many of them sat on the floor. Once the photo has been taken, they try to get up and that is where chaos happens (along with a lot of laughter) as they are clinging onto eachother, trying to get to their feet and getting into a total heap. Very funny... but also not... I was involved in a workshop today at Limewood and the phrase "Use it or Lose it" came up in the presentation. We all know the saying and can use it quite flippantly but how about acknowledging that if we no longer perform that particular activity, our body thinks it is no longer required and we find we CAN'T perform that movement. We need to condition our body and therefor when we first try a new exercise for example, we can feel quite unstable or uncoordinated and lacking in proprioception but as we repeat and practise, the move becomes more familiar and we grow in confidence and ability. Think of some of the sequences we do in Pilates or some of the more complex moves in our weights work - not for the faint of heart and performed only once we have built up the skills and have the coordination and understanding of what needs to go where. However as we stop doing those (or any other)moves they quickly become harder to reach. If you haven't seen it, do please watch "Secrets of The Blue Zones" on Netflix - about communities where people not only live beyond 100 but do so with good physical and mental health. It is a superb watch but the factors are the same in each community and one of them is of course, exercise, be it walking up a practically vertical hill to church or getting onto hands and knees to tend the garden daily. Whatever you do or don't do, please don't be the one rolling around because you cant get up from the floor!! Using it beyond all reason this weekend however are Lou and Clare - please join me in wishing them the very best of luck as they set off together at 6.45am on Saturday to run 100km around the Isle of Wight. If you recall, they did 50km last year and that achievement set them up for going the full distance this year. It also did something else as I went over to watch them and had a bad case of missing out, as I can no longer run and realised how much I missed the training and camaraderie of an endurance event and it was off the back of this experience that I came home and bought a new bike. So a year (and lots of cycling and joining a club) later, I am also off to the island on Sunday to cycle 100km on the IOW Randonnee. I respect that my challenge is nowhere near the scale of what Lou and Clare are undertaking but there are some big old hills over there... good job we have a Bank Holiday Monday to recover!!

Weekly Wrap up. Week 17. 2025.

By juliet • April 24, 2025

Blink and you miss it. There went Easter. I hope you all had a lovely time doing whatever you got up to and we now enter the summer term. I mean we don't really have terms but if we did, this is it... exams, summer uniform, netball and cricket and dusting off the bbq's. Personally, none of that really applies to me... well perhaps the summer uniform as I drag my shorts blinking and yawning from the back of the drawer. As for netball - I used to absolutely love it. I was always in the school team, playing Centre or Goal defence and did briefly join Lymington as an adult. When my girls were at prep. school, they reinstated a teachers v parents netball match and we won by a country mile -none of us really knew how but me being me, I went full out to start a mum's netball club one evening a week. Before we knew it, "friends" had mentioned us to the Bournemouth and Southampton leagues. This was very, very scary as we were just running up and down shouting "is that allowed? what are we supposed to do here? did that count?" so clearly in our infancy and anyway, we didn't have any matching kit but we did have a lot of fun - well, until someone went over on her ankle which promptly broke and that was the end of that. I have been spared life as a cricket mum or widow but sitting in a deckchair for hours in the sunshine pretending to watch sounds wonderful to me. As I watch my nephews revving up for the start of GCSE's, I thank my lucky stars those hideous days are behind me. I have a vivid memory of sitting at the kitchen table trying to revise while my mother sat outside in the garden listening to Wimbledon on the radio and the two are forever linked for me. Wimbledon with exams not my mother. Apparantly we have wonderful weather next week so dig out your sunscreen and if you can make it, I will be teaching on the beach for Monday and Tuesday's classes. We went through the 34 Moves recently and the upside down/inversion moves are usually the ones that need the most practise. You can really get a deep dive into these moves on the studio equipment if you ever go to a studio but we have several in our mat work - Roll over, Rolling moves, High bridge, Control balance, High Scissors and Bicycle. Remember that Joseph Pilates' philosophy was to perfect on the studio equipment and practise on the mat, hence we use all sorts of equipment and creativity to recreate as close to the studio work as we can for the vast majority of us who do not have access to a fully equipped studio. Why inversion? Gravity can lead to compression of the spine and their little shock absorbers known as discs that can become dehydrated. When we tip our body upside down, we can reverse the gravitational pull. This can help to create more space between the verterbrae and studies suggest that this allows for the discs' soft tissue to absorb moisture and rehydrate and plump up. Exercises like Roll over or the rolling moves can provide a massage for the spine and fascia as well as improving spinal mobility and of course, abdominal strength. (please note in photo above, my right arm is not perfect - my wrist should be flat and my arms could be stronger and better connected to the floor but it was the best pic I could find for now and I wasn't sharing that space with anyone else so it was a mediocre me or nothing!!!) Want more? Well, it is widely believed that being upside down can stimulate the lymphatic system and help with lymph drainage. Also the action of being upside down can increase blood flow to the stomach and therefor help with digestion and digestive issues. You don't need to be performing an advanced Control Balance move - some of the rolling moves and spinal extension we have been working on do the job in a modified way and anyhow, high blood pressure, glaucoma and spinal issues are some of the reasons why full, advanced inversion is not ideal - there are always ways to adapt, modify and practise safely. What we established in our 8am class yesterday was how many ways we can break down, build up and practise. For example, consider the Roll up, Roll down and Roll over as exactly the same exercise but variations come from the position you start from, how you work against gravity and whether it is your upper or lower body that moves. Thinking about Roll over, and going into the inverted positions (where your hands support you from under your hips), we worked on how to open up the chest, the need for strength through the traps, lats and triceps, length in the hamstrings, strength in the core and so much more. So for example, to improve High Scissors, you could consider side lying chest opener, Roll down with arms behind you, Saw and upper body only double leg kick - all moves to open up the chest and strengthen the upper body. In addition, hamstring and hip flexor stretches. Focus on pelvic floor and deep core connection so lots of abdominal and core strengthening- we could (and do) a whole class on moves to prepare us for one single and seemingly evasive exercise. What we do know is that to get better, we need to practise - a few daily exercises relevant to what you need to build on will make ALL the difference so.... with that in mind, I am going to start planning some workshop style classes again as we haven't done this for a while so your input would be welcomed. What moves really challenge you and what would you like to work on? I will get my creative hat on and build a class around the strength, stretch and mobility we need to focus on. What I continue to hear from you (and feel for myself) is the benefit of building strength from lifting weights and how that really helps with your Pilates progess. Isn't it great!!

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Weekly Wrap up. Week 9. 2025. It's nearly our 5th Birthday!

By juliet • February 27, 2025

I very nearly missed it. I was thinking about an April challenge or similar when I suddenly realised that WE ARE 5! In March, we will have been online for a whopping 5 years and as we grow ever stronger, this needs to be celebrated! Friday 17th March 2020. I was in a totally empty Beaulieu Village hall as everyone was staying home and with legs shaking and heart racing, I leant my phone up against a speaker on the stage and started my first ever Facebook LIve class. A lot has happened in 5 years and we are all far more tech savvy now but this was ground breaking for me at least and I was terrified. Seeing little hearts and smiley faces floating up the screen as more and more people logged on was the biggest support I could have imagined. That week before what we all knew was coming, I was facing the “what’s next” along with millions of others. For me, “what next” was a 3 day non stop run of no sleep (adrenaline has many uses) and a huge learning curve. Along with fellow fitness professionals, I was learning how to use Zoom, membership platforms, booking programs, how to manage my website, multi screening, recording and editing. There were a lot of tears and coffee and I did not see my bed for 3 nights straight. BUT…. (indulge me here please) scrolling back through my old blog posts (still there for you to see!) I saw my first post about Live, free Facebook Pilates on March 20th and my first calendar of classes the same week as we went into lockdown. I went live, online for free every day, one way or another for 6 weeks right at the start. It nearly killed me and how Joe Wicks kept going, I do not know but I am so proud of that and what we achieved together. I was reaching into countries all over the world as at that time, not as many people were offering this and as everyone was at home, time zones were not as relevant. Friends and family were sharing the links so that they could do classes together and see eachother from wherever they were. To be honest, it is all a bit of a blur (as I am sure it is for many, many people) as I just fought hard to save my business and my sanity. I do vividly remember one class where we had zooms from Australia, America, Qatar, Dubai and Mallorca. I wrote it down on my office whiteboard where it stayed for years. It was just surreal and I honestly could not believe this was me! I was doing all this on my laptop mirrored to my TV, in my lounge! You saved me! I was on my own and horribly lonely and isolated and slowly going a bit mad and “having” to log on daily and be positve and upbeat and full of energy to motivate and inspire you genuinely saved me. I have removed most of the old lockdown content and anything that still triggers me into a shivver of how awful it was, but one thing that I hold in my heart with enormous pride is my online community. I am more proud of this than I can begin to descibe. You are my family. I created this, built and nurtured it and continue to be indescribably proud of what we have all acheived together. Our Christmas lunches, when I sit back and see so many friends, the care and what we share - please know that it means the world to me. We have got up to SO MUCH online over 5 years. I am not going to go back over it because a) it is all there in old blogs and social media posts and b) full disclosure, I am only truly, this last year, coming out of what the lockdown era took out of me and I do not wish to revisit it but…. True friendships have grown and we all know we really are “SO MUCH MORE THAN PILATES”. Only last week when a group of us met for a walk, I took so much from hearing you talking about how much YOU get from it - not just the exercise but the daily morning chats and check in’s, the community and support - that you cannot believe how you used to do one class a week, whizz in, whizz out and that was that until the following week whereas now you are doing multiple classes a week and what’s apping fellow members, logging in to see friends and sharing so much. I have been able to teach from Cornwall, Botswana, Croatia ,Pembrokeshire, the local beach…. and as my feet get ever more itchy, the wonders of online means have van, have wifi - you can come with me! I have never wanted to go down the commerical studio route. That was never for me. Far too restrictive - and as online works, the world awaits! So here we are. This last week we have beamed into MELBOURNE (furthest reach so far!), Singapore, Tanzania, Germany, France, Spain, Greece and never forgetting the Isle of Wight… we have more members than ever, a wonderful variety of classes and the library has had another update with more to come. Teatime talks are shaping up (new page on the website under construction), we have 2 socials in the diary and it’s still only February. This year is my 20th anniversary as a Pilates teacher and 22 years since I started out as a Personal trainer. As the wonderful Master Teacher Michael King (who I am going to for a week of Pilates in Crete in May) says - “Old Pilates teachers never retire. We just roll down one day and never roll back up” For our fifth anniversary, it seems only right to go back to where it started so bear with me and watch this space as I plan a collection of extra FREE classes available to EVERYONE, some on Zoom, some on instagram live. This will be week commencing March 24 March and PLEASE put Saturday March 29th in your diary and come to Beaulieu village hall for old time’s sake for a FREE class open to ALL starting at 9am - and coffee and pastries up the road afterwards at Steffs. I will sort the times and days and post next week and in our members’ calendar but everyone is included. Do also keep March 11th in your diary for the first of our Teatime talks - again, open to all. The wonders of being online.