Weekly wrap up. Week 29. 2025.

Centering

"Never trust a teacher who isn't committed to ongoing training".... was something I used to preach when I was tutoring. The world of health, fitness and exercise is ever evolving and as soon as we learn something new, we find a hundred more things we still need to know.

For me, it gets my grey matter working, gives me a reset and just shows me how much more I still need to learn. I come home with pages of notes, spend hours researching and studying and hope I can retain at least 50% and put it into practise.

Pilates is a unique form of exercise and while people may be frustrated if they don't "feel the burn" or find that it is not a weight loss option, this is to slightly miss the point. I love mixing it up and we often step away from Pilates in its purest form and then BANG! I go total technique nerd and we go back to "The Method" and, as we found this week, it is just something else! There is nothing else like it.

We have the Pilates Principles that are applied in our practise and today I want to talk about Centering . There are various ways to understand this but fundamentally, we want to move from a stable centre (or trunk) to stabilise and support the spine, maintain correct posture and permit movement. This can often mean that we move less and that our range is much smaller while we learn the ability to keep that centre connection.

We are familiar with the terms "neutral" and "imprint". While imprinting is a correct adaptation to engage additional abdominal muscles to support the spine, the progression or end goal is to be able to move from a neutral place. Scientific testing has shown beyond all debate that to go into "imprint" is to switch off the posterior chain of muscles so while we have the added support of the "global" or more superficial abs., we have lost the power of our deep, postural back muscles and we are therefor not fully embracing "being centred".

While I have always taught that we want to progress from imprint to neutral, it was during my recent training with Michael King that we did some movement tests and I really GOT this in a whole new way..and I cannot wait to share this with you. We have been working on a much slower, more neutral approach this week and I have had some wonderful feedback on how hard you have worked.

Joseph Pilates wanted us to move with more balance and efficiency and through his work we find what muscles aren't moving and learn how to to get them woken up and active.

I LOVE throwing in weights, using a band or making it pacy and burney - we like to have fun and add variety.... but then we press pause, take it back and practise The Method in it's purest form, no excuses and it is a humbling rain check on how hard it is, as we slow down and keep that centre connection - it is SO powerful. These skills help us lift our weights with better form and coordination, help us lift heavy bags or small children, spend all day in the garden or do whatever it is we love to do.

Remember -

We don't come to Pilates to get better at Pilates. We come to Pilates to get better at LIFE!

Thank you to Dr. Vix Manning for her fascinating talk on Tuesday. We had LOADS of questions for her and I think we could have listened all evening. She gains extra points for having delivered from a hotel lobby having been stuck in hideous traffic to Cardiff for her daughter's graduation so thank you very much Vix. For more info, please head to Teatime Talks on my website where you can find links to Vix's clinic and to buy her book.

Teatime Talks takes a break for August and we are back with a bang in September with arguably the world's leading expert on research into the life and works of Joseph Pilates. I cannot wait to host Jonathan but in the meantime, if you are on FB, you can find him at "Joseph's Legacy - Pilates 100 +"

SHOPPING!

For those who find holding a resistance band diffcult on the wrists, may I direct you to the "Sveltus elasitband" and if you go via Amazon, the middle of the road one is the green, 10kg one. It has loops which are really useful for putting feet in but also, putting your hands in to save you gripping. Cost arond £14.

NEW in the Library

Following on from my comments above, I recorded this Monday's All levels back to basics class which covers in depth how to understand imprint, netural, Pilates breath and more and I do encourage everyone of all levels to do it. Apologies for forgetting the Monday start time and. running over - this is a full 60 min class. (All levels collection)

Today's Strength class - legs and abs. This will be done as both one full class and broken into 2 halves, one of legs and weights and one of fit band. The full class will be in the Strength collection and the two short halves will be in the Snack Bar)

What is coming up.

What would you like?

I am writing up the live calendar so if there is anything you would like to see included, please get in touch but FYI - I am bringing in....

The Hundred - and all the ways we can do it.

The Mighty 5 - join me to find out more

Reformer on the mat - taking the studio equipment moves and doing them on our mat - some small equipment needed. Mixed ability and all levels.

Pilates and the Wall (of course you have one - you must have at least 4? - maybe take this class outside?)

Next Tuesday 9am, I am repeating this week's Functional strength class and recording as requested.

If, like me you are a Michael Mosley fan, you may be interested in a series filmed before his untimely death and now being shown on C4 called "Secrets of the Superagers". I really enjoyed "Secrets of The Blue Zones" on Netflix and very much look forward to seeing Michael's findings.

I hope you find a way to keep your garden from wilting as we head into a hosepipe ban and wish you a lovely 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.

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Kayaks, clip boards and spinning for Prince Edward.

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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.