I hope you have had a good week and are enjoying getting out and about while the sun is shining. It’s Wimbledon season for those tennis lovers out there — I like to dip in and out of it, specially if we have a few Brits playing and it always gets more exciting in the second week as we head to the semis and the final weekend. I know a few of you have actually gone to see live matches, I think this and the Chelsea Flower show are on my bucket list of things to do… Have you got anything on your bucket list that you want to do? 

Summer Classes

It’s the start of our Summer Program of face-to-face classes, and we’ve had a few queries so I thought I’d just give the heads-up about how it works. It's really simple, and the same as it always is every year. 

Basically, all face-to-face classes have four classes over the Summer. These four classes vary from venue to venue (depending on your class Coach’s holidays, venue closures etc) so not all venues will have classes on together during any particular week throughout the Summer.

This doesn’t mean that you are losing out, or paying for face-to-face classes that you are not having… Face-to-face classes in all venues always have 34 classes a year — 30 during term-time (12 in the Autumn term, and 9 in each of the Spring and Summer terms), and the 4 over the Summer. 

Remember that if your class is running on a date when you are on holiday, you don't have to miss it and lose out. Simply register this on the Online Catchups System in the usual way, and book into another venue’s class when you are available. It’s really simple and a great way to make sure you don’t miss your regular Pilates.

And please don’t forget that you have full access to all my online Pilates classes on the jtp.zone — Live and Recorded — so you can do a Pilates class any time you want. And of course, full access means there is no limit to the number of online classes — you can do a class every day of the Summer Break if you want! Or two a day! A great way to make the most of your Pilates access with us.

If you are relatively new to Pilates with us I thought I would share a side work sequence with you. This is perfect for beginners or if you have been taking a break from regular sessions and feel like you want to remind yourself of the foundations. 

Work appropriately for your body and keep away from pain. If you have any questions about this, or any of my Exercises of the Week, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Over the last week I have been thinking and writing a lot about how Pilates can help with so many areas of our health and wellbeing.  

In the Life Pie, Health and Wellness is a specific area that can almost get forgotten about. It’s generally not until something goes wrong that we start to give it more attention. We might start to realise there are things we can’t do that we used to be able to do, or we start to ache in a different area of the body that we haven’t felt before after participating in an activity. Balance may start to feel more wobbly, we hear a strange groaning sound coming out of our mouths when we stand up after sitting on a soft, comfortable sofa!  Then we start to feel frustrated and a bit fed up that we can’t do certain things that used to feel easy. That's when we start to think about our health and wellbeing and realising that if we value it then we need to invest time in it. 
 

It’s a fact that movement changes as we move through our 40s, 50s, 60s and beyond, and this can lead to muscles weakening. Other muscles then compensate which leads to imbalance, poor alignment, increased potential for wear and tear and then possibly aches and pains.
 

After teaching Pilates for the last 23 years I know what a difference regular Pilates practise can make. During every session we work on realignment, improving balance, increasing core strength and mobility. Plus the exercises improve flexibility and all of this improves posture. 

It’s amazing the difference it can make to how we feel once we start to spend time concentrating on our physical wellbeing. We feel better about our bodies, our movement feels more free, aches and pains start to reduce, become less noticeable, and we feel more energised, so mentally our thoughts and how we feel are better. 
 

A commitment to your health and wellbeing is a commitment to life, a more balanced life, a happier and healthy life. Value this part of your Life Pie, commit to keep moving, make this commitment to yourself. 

Have a great week folks.

With love,

Jane xx