Looking forward to seeing everyone who has signed up to my free class on Saturday — Pilates and Me where I will be taking you through some of my favourite exercises and how they have helped me.
Plus some of you have also kindly agreed to stay on and be taught by one of my learner teachers. This is really brilliant of you and I am very grateful for your help. It is an opportunity to have a little insight into what they have to do as part of their training. We will also be looking for some volunteers in a few weeks time for the final teaching assessment so I am hoping you will be generous with your time on that occasion as well.
Half-term Still?
We have had a couple of weeks where the only classes that are being taught are those that need to catch up due to being cancelled earlier in the year. This enables us to head into the Summer with all classes in all venues up-to-date.
As a team I know that all the teachers are busy planning their next block of classes ready to bring you some new sequences and moves to keep your mind and body feeling good. Looking forward to Monday 10th June when our full timetable will be back up and running.
Summer Timetable
Remember that our Summer Timetable of matwork classes is already available — the link to this at the bottom of the Newsletter each week, the bottom of our emails, and at the bottom of our website — for you to check that you can attend the four allocated classes included in your payment. If you can attend your allocated classes on the Summer Timetable, you need do nothing else except turn up to class on the day. If you can't attend, just book yourself a Catchup class in the normal way —
again, the link to the Catchup form to do this is at the bottom of the Newsletter, the bottom of our emails, and at the bottom of our website.
Also, if you would like to attend more than your allocated four Summer Timetable classes, you can book extra classes at £9 each using via the Catchup form.
Have a great week folks — keep moving, looking and feeling good.
Jane, Keith and the team xx
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This is a new sequence of exercises I have put together to specifically aim at giving your lower back some love. After having spent the weekend in the garden my back certainly felt quite stiff from being in one position for an extended amount of time, and my body can feel that muscles have been used in a way they haven’t been used for a while, so this routine felt like magic to me this morning.
As with all Exercise Of The Weeks, work at the appropriate level for your body, and even if you start at a slightly more challenging level you can always regress to the kinder position if that is what your body is telling you … but do keep moving as that is where the benefits will come from.
If you have anything specifically diagnosed for your lower back, such as disc herniation, then please work at the less challenging levels and stop if you feel pain.
Feel the difference, move differently, and look more balanced.
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See the video here |
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Moving your body helps you live longer — Does it? How does it?
We hear constantly from our media how our society is becoming more sedentary and overweight and the health problems this is causing. Programmes present to us methods of testing how young or old our bodies really are dependent on a variety of physical and mental tests, and often the results are not what we want to see.
So what is the answer? Can movement really help us to stay younger, live longer and lead a healthier lifestyle?
Let's look at some of the benefits of getting our bodies moving:
- Reduces tension, stress and anxiety and enhances mental well-being
- Tones and strengthens muscles
- Improves muscular endurance and flexibility
- Boosts the immune system
- Increases bone strength and prevents osteoporosis
- Improves cardiovascular fitness and helps reduce the risk of coronary disease and strokes
- Improves sleep patterns
- Eases pain and stiffness of arthritis
- Boosts levels of HDL (healthy cholesterol) in the blood and reduces high blood pressure
- Reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes
- Improves energy levels and self-esteem
- Relieves and reduces the risk of back pain.
We spend such a large amount of time sitting, whether it be in our cars, at our desks, and with our computers … we don’t even have to leave home to do our weekly shop, and this definitely plays a part in posture-related aches and pains. It is the repetitive nature of these positions which creates the problem. The saying of if you don’t use it you lose it is so very true when we look at what happens to our muscles and bones when we don’t move our bodies regularly.
We need movement to work on our posture, to keep us upright, so we need to tone and strengthen the muscles that support us in this position. Think about how as toddlers we start to use our support muscles to pull us up onto our feet and to keep us balanced and able to move. Then we head to school at the age of 4/5 and start to sit down more and more and this continues then through life. We need to keep using those supportive muscles, keep us upright and keep our youthful posture. Plus
movement will build stamina and improve endurance and flexibility, the more we do the more we will be able to do, plus we will be able to do it for longer. Think about how long we can spend in the garden, and has this time reduced over the years, because we fatigue or we start to get aches and pains. Then the answer is to move our bodies, build the stamina in those muscles so that you can stick with the gardening for longer than 20 minutes, like we have always been able to do.
My reason for sending out a free video every week is so that I can help you to keep your body moving consistently, whether you are able to attend class or not. Keep your body moving, keep living your life in the way you want to live it:
And exercise thy lasting youth defends.
English poet, John Gay (1685-1732)
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Click or Tap Below to View Interactive Calendar
Online
A smattering of classes are running this week, to make up for venue closures, staff illnesses etc.
All classes — matwork and Refortmer — return to full timetable next week beginning 10 June.
Book a Catchup/Missing Class
If you know you will have to miss a class in your course for any reason, want to let us know or would like to book a
space in another class instead, just follow the link to register it. Our Glamourous Assistant Karen runs the Catchups system, and this link is the quickest, most direct means (it's even faster than emailing her!) of letting Karen and your class Coach know.
Simply tell us the class you will miss and — most important if you want to book a Catchup — please give us as many alternatives as possible. If you only
give us one alternative, we cannot guarantee you will get a Catchup.
Please let us know if you will miss your class but don't want a Catchup — the whole Catchups system relies on knowing when spaces will occur.
Finally, please don't just tell your class class Coach you will be missing a class, as your Coach is not aware of Catchups spaces and has no means of
registering your space. Karen needs to know, and the link here (it's also at the bottom of our website too) is the best and fastest way to let Karen know.
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