Helen and Jenny are just back from their second round of continual professional development for their Biomechanics training. And they're bubbling to put it into practice.

Now, I have been a Biomechanics Coach for several years, able to help with many of my clients' flexibility, mobility and underlying pain issues. And realising the benefits I have been able to bring to clients by myself, I wanted to expand the service to our clients through more of our Instructors.

Helen and Jenny both jumped at the chance, seeing some of the amazing results that I've had with clients who do Biomechanics with me. Some of these clients had seen every health professional before they came to me for Biomechanics — GPs, specialists, physios, osteopaths and chiropractors — who are all able to treat the specific instances of flexibility, mobility and underlying pain, but are unable to rectify the cause. For some of those clients, seeing the results from a few sessions of Biomechanics with me has been truly rewarding for me, and a wonderful relief for the clients. It is fantastic that Helen and Jenny can now share those rewards as part of the JTP team.

It's not just flexibility, mobility and underlying pain either that Biomechanics can help with as I have worked with and used Biomechanics with several athletes and professional sportsmen to treat specific skills-related issues to tweak their performances to new and higher levels. And no, it's not that Biomechanics is a magic, one-for-all, panacea for everyone's issues (there's a lot more work involved than you might think).

But it can darn well feel like magic when a Biomechanics programme does the trick, and I see footballers with long-term groin injuries able to take their place back in the 1st Team squad, runners cutting vital hundredths of a second off their times, cyclists able once more to go away for long cycling holidays they thought they'd never do again, artists who were unable to paint due to the repetitive strain of years of standing at easels in a particular way picking up their brushes again, and tired and frustrated people with head and shoulder issues getting their first good night's sleep in months. I have had the immense pleasure of seeing all of these effects — and more — on some of my clients, as a Biomechanics Coach over the last three years.

So what on earth is Biomechanics? Let me explain...

Biomechanics operates in three distinct phases:

That said, it's easy to see that a Biomechanics programme and Pilates complement each other perfectly — which is why I absolutely love what it can do for my Pilates clients. By giving clients the skills to carry out and work through those three phases themselves, step-by-step, the Biomechanics Coach empowers clients to take control over their issue, to manage and deal with the cause of the problem (whether it be inflexibility, immobility, or underlying pain), correct it, then manage their bodies to prevent the problem returning. Although obviously the truth is a little more complex — with Biomechanics the answer, in the end, is in your own hands and the Biomechanics Coach merely gives you the correct tools to do the job.

For more information about Biomechanics, and what we do, make sure you take a look at my Biomechanics in Loughborough website here.

It all starts with a Biomechanics screen of the body — a scientific measurement of intrinsic movement — to identify the problem.

Now that Helen and Jenny also have the skills and training to do the same as me, we form an absolutely formidable team, able to bring considerable value-added benefits to our Pilates classes by including little tweaks, releases and exercises into the Jane Thomas Pilates programme for matwork classes, Reformer classes, and — most specifically — to those one-to-one clients at the Studio who Biomechanics can really help.

If anyone is interested in seeing if and how a Biomechanics programme with us can help you, please get in touch. We have a limited number of free Biomechanics Rapid-Screens to give to clients who we think may benefit from a Biomechanics programme. This will take the form of a short consultation at the Studio with one of us, where you'll have a short Biomechanics screen of the area of the problem to identify exactly what is happening, and from there we'll be able to offer advice about a Biomechanics programme if the science tells us we can help you.

Jane, Keith and the team
xxxxx

Only a limited number of Summer Timetable matwork and no Reformer classes this week, so make sure you come to your class if you are booked. And don't turn up to a class that isn't actually on... ;-) Remember that it's Bank Holiday so there are NO classes on Monday 29 August...

For those on our two Absolute Beginners Courses over the summer, this weeks classes on Wednesday are the last classes of the course. We do hope you have enjoyed your Courses and will be staying with us. Your class will be converting to a Progressive Beginners Course, and will be a little longer at 1 hour.

There are two free taster classes (Wednesday 10.30am and Thursday 7pm) this week in Rosebery Street Medical Centre, which if we have enough interest will convert to ongoing Absolute Beginners Courses starting the following week. Last chance — if you know anyone who would benefit from Pilates and would like a free taster session in either of the sessions this week, please tell them to get in touch immediately. Spaces are limited.

If you know you will have to miss a class in your course for any reason, and would like to book a space in another class instead, just follow the link to book it.

Simply tell us the class you will miss and —most important — please give us as many alternatives as possible. If you only give us one alternative, we cannot guarantee you will get a Catchup.