Pilates

Pilates is a form of exercise which focuses on core body strength. It was developed by Joseph Pilates around the 1950's initially as a rehabilitation of injured soldiers on the war-field. It traditionally uses machinery that was developed from the hospital beds used and then also from Joseph's own creations, using pulleys, slings and sliding tables. The machinery was created for smooth loading of body parts using spring based resistance. There are a series of mat exercises. Exercises are developed around loading all body parts, while activating core muscles in the abdominal and trunk regions.

There are groups of stabilising muscles which support the spine. These muscles are in the abdominals, pelvic floor and deep in the spine itself. These are stabilising muscles and only produce small but essential forces to the abdomen, pelvis and spinal levels. A balance of both deep stabilisation and large trunk muscle strength is needed to strengthen the spine.

Early research in this field in the 1990's looked at structural unstable spinal problems and the effect of the stabilisation musculature on them. Since then, there have been limitations researching the effect of muscle stabilisation because of the individuality of people's spinal problems. Some people need training of the deep muscles and to rest from their activities, while others need to work on imbalances of strength between abdominals, hip flexors, gluteals and back muscles. The biggest problem in strengthening the spine is that everyone's spine is different and individual care is needed to assess your problems and the strategies to strengthen your spine are again unique.

Pilates is great because it focuses on the deep stabilisers of the spine while teaching breath control and maintaining muscle control and posture control while exercising. The control is hard to execute and therefore a trained instructor needs to help you to achieve this control. If you lose the control, it may even feel like you're doing the right thing, but you may be using the wrong muscle groups and thereby strengthening the wrong muscles. Our classes are perfect in the sense that there is substantial feedback of your technique. We have a maximum of 4 per class, using matwork.

Andrew Pilcher 2009 (BSc Physiotherapy MCSP)

PILATES CLASSES WITH ANDREW PILCHER

Tuesday       12.30pm to 1.30pm 50 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7AY
Tuesday       6pm to 7pm 107 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 5JF
Wednesday  12.30pm to 1.30pm 107 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 5JF
Wednesday  6pm to 7pm 107 Fenchurch Street, London EC3M 5JF
Thursday      7.30am to 8.30am 50 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7AY
Thursday      12.30pm to 1.30pm 50 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7AY

Small friendly mat-work classes.

For further enquires and bookings please contact central reservations: 020 7488 4924