Hi

I love this month as, for me, it tells me that Spring is on its way.

I know we may get some freak weather; like snow, hail, and gale force winds — but we also know that we are heading in the right direction... ;-)

As Spring implies all things new and wonderful, I thought I would tell you about some wonderful things I will be bringing to you over the next couple of months.

1    Firstly, we have a wonderful opportunity for you to book a postural assessment with Gail Hastilow who is a Sports and Remedial Massage Therapist with Poise Sport and Remedial Massage. This is specifically aimed at those of you who suffer with ongoing pain and discomfort. Gail will be offering this great opportunity on 25th March at our studio in Loughborough and we give more details below. Gail is brilliant and has helped me tremendously over the last 12 months.

2    The Second of our great opportunities is to spend an evening in the company of Mairi Taylor of FAB Fitness, and who is an Independent Natural Juice Therapist. We are holding a 'Juice' evening on Wednesday 1st April where Mairi will give you all the information you need to introduce juicing into your life to increase your vitality and improve your health. If you are fed up with catching endless colds, feeling tired, and generally lacking in energy — then Mairi will show you how to increase your vitamins and nutrients in a natural way to get you to optimum health.

3    Thirdly, and this is mostly aimed at women who are peri/post or menopausal, or chaps if you want to be of maximum support to your partners during this time, I will be introducing you to the Hot Flush Fairy where I will be talking all about this time in our lives where we need a little bit of extra nutritional help. This will look at diet and exercise in order to maintain a happy, positive lifestyle during what can be quite a challenging time.  More information will follow about this event.

So here we have three opportunities for you to get the most out of your lives. Best of all, they are FREE for  clients who currently attend our classes or our studio sessions, as we want to show our appreciation and gratitude to you for choosing our Pilates programmes. If you read the Newsletter, but are not current clients, there will be a small charge to help administer these fabulous events, but you are certainly welcome to come along, space permitting.

So please, please, please — take advantage of these three great FREE opportunities over the next few months, starting with Gail in March, Mairi in April and me in June! More information will be sent out as we move towards the actual events, but you can already book your place with Gail (see below for details) and there will be limited spaces so don't miss out — do it now!!!

Yes you have guessed it  — we are looking at the collective group of muscles in your bottoms this week... The Gluteals, which collectively are formed by three muscle groups:

The Gluteus Maximus and Medius are responsible for hip extension and abduction, while the Gluteus Minimus performs the opposite action in that it flexes and medially rotates the hip.

All are key to supporting our back and allowing free movement at the hip — however, they can become lazy if we spend a large amount of time sitting at a desk, driving, or generally inactive. You can see them in this moving image. If your email program doesn't display a moving image (Microsoft Outlook doesn't apparently), then just click the image and it will open on our website.

Here is link 2.

The first exercise is getting you to switch your glutes on and off while maintaining your core recruitment. Then once you have mastered that, you can do the more active exercise for them, as shown in the second link.

Have fun...

I hope you can see from our weekly Newsletters that — through Pilates — I am bringing to you opportunities to really get the most out of your life.

It isn't just about the physical but it is also about the mindset and emotional self. It is vital that we value ourselves enough to invest in our health and wellbeing, and our classes and our special events are all designed with that in mind. They are about taking time for yourself, and doing what is necessary to keep your mind and body functioning for optimum health. So make a decision, take some action, and book some time out for yourself this week.

How you do one thing is how you do everything.  

Decide

Action

Time

Have a great week, stay fit, happy and healthy and keep moving freely!

JTP Team