I was back into my full timetable last week, and it felt good to be back teaching and seeing everyone.

All Face-to-Face Classes are running this week as normal, so check in and if you can’t attend your regular session remember you can Catchup at one of our other sessions, just register this with our online Catchup system (link below).

The Online Classes continue this week, and — as a bonus — head to the website for my March Madness challenge, which is perfect if you find yourself lacking in motivation to move at the moment. March Madness is a calendar of 30 workouts for 30 days in March. Each workout isn’t too long so you can easily fit them into your day at a time that suits you. Just head to the jtp.zone and right at the top of the Matwork Page you will find March Madness.

Remember, if you attend any of our classes, face-to-face or online you already have full, unrestricted access to the jtp.zone and this is a great way to get more Pilates into your life. If you have forgotten your username or password to access it, just reply to this Newsletter to ask for a reminder.

Here is The Roll Up — a Joseph Pilates original exercise, which can be challenging for all sorts of reasons. 

In the video I talk about the purpose of The Roll Up, which muscles it targets, and I show the original move, plus modifications, how to use a couple of props, and also how to ‘cheat’.  

The Roll Up focuses on mobility of the spine and challenging the abdominals. Work at an appropriate level for your body, and keep away from pain. 

When I teach Pilates I know that — to the frustration of the JTP family in class — I will lose count. 

Contrary to popular belief, it's not because I can’t count 😉 it's because it's not about how many repetitions we do, it's about how we do it. And I can be heard saying it’s better to do one really great repetition with breath, concentration and core stability, than doing many repetitions with poor technique. 

As we practise Pilates so we can do more repetitions with good technique, which is exactly what we do every day in life. Every day we will be practising at life, whether it be with a hobby or pastime, learning something new, or it could be routine events, work, relationships … life.

If we apply our Pilates practice to life, then we can say it's not what you do but it's how you do it, and we will practise to make it feel better. It won’t always feel better, but that is why we practise. A friend and I were chatting about conversations we have had and that feeling of putting our foot in it and saying the wrong thing … it can make us feel terrible, but thinking about it, we are practising — we won’t always get it right, but that is why we practise and this raises our awareness of what we have said or done and we do better next time.

In Pilates and in life we can learn and grow, and there are key elements that we need to practise. First, we need to accept that practise is important and recognise that it's not what we do, but how we do it that counts. So if we do something and it doesn’t feel right, then we can change how we do it, to make it feel better. 

We need to show commitment to our practice of what we do. The more we practise the better our technique and form. Committing to thinking differently about how we respond in certain situations, or how we might choose to behave. 

We can be curious with our practice, and not be fearful of changing how we approach something, rather than repeating what has happened before. 

But the key thing is Openness. If we are open to the thought that we are practising at life, we will forgive ourselves if we get it wrong — we will become more aware of how we want to live and who we are rather than what we do.