Weekly wrap up. Week 28. 2025.

Athens, training and here comes July!

Forgive me a very short post pending a much chattier one very soon as I have lots to tell you about my week.

Yes, it does indeed look like a toture chamber. To be fair, it sort of is....

I had a very busy 4 days and this is a short post and I will share more in the next week or two.

Athens, July with MK Pilates.

Left home at 4am, arrived back home at 4am. Amazing what you can pack into 4 days but here goes -

Loads of learning, feta cheese, new friends, baklava, Greek police (had to be there), olives, new contacts, inspiration, roof top virgin marys, Acropolis, shopping, mousakka, 40* heat, smallest balcony in the world, reformers, balls, sveltus bands, loads of laughing, Ubers, Greek salad, coffee, fascia, Cadillacs, gossip, more laughing, making connections, anatomy study, shorts, new ideas, new ventures, Quality street, pizza throwing, karate kicks, mamma Mia, skateboarding, breath, my dreadful shoulder alignment, strength v mobility, cinnamon buns, night markets, metro, new cues, new ideas, co contraction (who knew? 🤣), elephants in Tanzania v elephants in Athens, more laughing, brain overload, soldiers Pom poms, wooden penis keyrings (why tho?), worst cabin crew in the world (so bad it was hilarious), full immersion, stories from the original studio, learning from the best, reminding myself why 22 years down the line, I still LOVE what I do, passion, belief in what we teach, the method, practice, physios and osteos and movement specialists, friendly locals, did I mention laughing?, learning from 2nd generation, warm pitta and hummus, tzatziki, cats, graffiti, air bnb, being surrounded by energy and passion and knowledge and experience. Such a fantastic time 🙏❤️

I LOVE throwing in weights, mixing it up, slight deviation here and there but having time like this reinforces to me why I chose Pilates, why I totally trust in and believe in The Method. It works. My God, it works… I am probably the strongest I have been in years, having added weight lifting to my life but on the mat, on the reformer, no gimmicks, just pure Pilates under an expert watchful eye, I was trembling, shaking, complaining, whinging and trying to laugh my way out of the bits I couldn’t do…

The fact is Pilates works, like nothing else does, and the more I know, the more I need to learn. I know I’m in safe and trusted hands and keep pushing forward in my learning journey.

After all these years of training and courses and with the advancement of technology, I always choose to hand write pages of notes in a trusted A4 notebook, complete with stick man diagrams. I have boxes and boxes of these books, and am rather attached to them - some are decades old but I just can't let them go! Maybe it is the physical act of writing things down that help to cement the facts in my brain. Maybe I am just a bit stuck in my ways!

I have so much to share with you both for my teaching but also for my understanding of movment, anatomy and more which I just love learning.

I need to take the time to go over all my notes and digest it. I had this idea of making a start on that on my (late to leave, 10pm flight home) but as you can probably imagine, I was asleep before take off.

Meanwhlle I am really keen to buy another reformer and am just measuriing up in my little spare room studio and wondering how on earth I am going to squeeze it in! While the measurements are not working, I am determined I can work it out!

I am wrapping up now and sneaking off to Swanage tomorrow in my camper van with my dogs and a good book (and meeting 2 online members in their van and friends who kindly invited me) for a few days sitting in the sun, drinking tea, watching Wimbldeon and reading - can't wait! I will be back bright eyed and bushy tailed for Monday.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful weather and have a really lovely weekend.

What is coming up.

WRINKLES? AGEING SKING? Read on....

I am really looking forward to our upcoming Teatime Talk. TUESDAY 15TH JULY. 7PM.

Dr Vix Manning will be telling us about her soon to be published book "The Inflammation Game" and how inflammation in the body can cause all sorts of nasties, not least AGEING OUR SKIN?!! Never mind aching joints - let's talk WRINKLES! So before you skip off for some botox, put this one your diary and remember to share the love and invite your friends and family. As always our talks are free of charge and open to everyone. Head to Teatime Talks on my website for all info and online members will find the link in the live calendar.

Finally... How are you getting on with your July challenge?

No live classes on Friday but a full timetable next week and LOADS of new facts, information, class ideas and more coming your way soon.

Have a great weekend.

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I know I need to lift weights but WHAT do I lift?

By juliet • September 3, 2026

SUE SUE SUE - I'm sorry for those who thought I had finally lost the plot (and GREAT to see two of you laughing as much as me) as I managed to squeeze that into a class online yesterday. Still making me laugh out loud. If you havent yet seen Ann Droid on Iplayer, do yourself a favour and settle in. It has got to be one of the daftest, funniest things I have seen in a very long time, and having started to use Chat Gbt a lot more, it is uncannily accurate. How they acted those roles, I have no idea. Just genius. I met one of our online friends for coffee this week and every time we drifted into more serious subjects, we just kept coming back to quoting lines from the series like a couple of daft kids. I highly recommend! And so to weights... It can be really overwhelming. I saw a post recently online that said "I feel more peer pressure in my 50's to eat protein and lift weights than I ever did in my teens to take drugs"! You can't go too far without being bombarded with podcasts, documentaries, magazine articles and radio interviews all promoting the need for a healthier lifestyle and how to achieve it but it can seem too much and very confusing. We recognise that Pilates is excellent but on its own, is not enough. The ideal blend is to practise Pilates, lift weights and then also bring in your walking or running or cycling or tennis. A bit of everything really. We have already discussed the "WHY" element of lifting weights and if you are still unsure, scroll back a few weeks as I have written a few posts on this but there is no denying the many ways it helps us and I regularly get comments on where in your day to day lives you see the benefits. I LOVE this! However, we are still not sure about how heavy to go so let's try and break this down and make it easier to understand . “Heavy” is personal—it means a weight that challenges you, not a particular number on a dumbbell. As a beginner, start light enough to learn the movement and stay in control. If you’re aiming for 8–12 repetitions, the final few should feel noticeably harder, but you should still be able to complete them without swinging, rushing or changing your posture. Aim to finish feeling you could manage another two good repetitions if you had to. If you reach 12 and feel you could easily do several more, try the next small increase in weight. If you can’t reach eight without losing technique, choose something lighter. Different exercises will need different weights, so one pair of dumbbells won’t suit everything. Take time to find your starting point—there’s no rush to lift heavier, and muscle effort should never mean pushing through pain. If you are swinging the weights about, rushing the movement or feel you could do more, you are not lifting heavy enough. If you can't maintain an appropriate posture, are holding your breath or using momentum to lift the weight, it is too heavy.

The Autumn Series and what is coming up

By juliet • August 27, 2026

What to expect as we head into the Autumn Series

Kayaks, clip boards and spinning for Prince Edward.

By juliet • July 30, 2026

As I go all things NF show for a week, I thought I would share some of the memories with you.

Balance. What does that mean to you?

By juliet • July 23, 2026

It's all about balance.

Why slowing down can give us so much more.

By juliet • July 16, 2026

Slow down.... which is what I did on a fabulous day at Wimbledon!

Tennis, Football, Ghosts and Hipflexors!

By juliet • July 9, 2026

WHAT a week it's been...

Route planning and going back to the fundamentals

By juliet • June 25, 2026

Firstly and most importantly, what a wonderful group we are! While several of you very sensibly chose not to travel on the hottest day ever recorded, and some of you are just too far and even overseas, we had a really great turnout for our first Summer Picnic on Wednesday. Ironically I had been searching for somewhere with shelter incase of rain - how could I have possibly known that we would need it for shade. We met in a beautiful venue, with a very welcomed sea breeze and had a great catch up over some amazing picnic offerings. It is always such a joy to bring us together and our social events are something that (as you know), I value enormously. While we continue to grow and reach ever further online, the funny thing is that we are so sociable and the more we meet up for things like this, the better connected we feel when we have a pre class chat online. The photos don't really do it justice and I apologise to those I haven't included but I chose not to use my phone too much and to just capture a few snaps of a really happy lunch. Thank you to those who came. It is always such a pleasure to see you.