3-2-1 Reformer Blast-Off!

Come and try our brand new style of Reformer class - just 30 minutes long it’s packed with high-energy moves with a fat burning twist!

 Are you ready to take your fitness to the next level? It's time to ditch the boring workouts and supercharge your exercise regime with a model that blends the best of both worlds: Reformer + HIIT Interval Training!

This isn’t strictly a Pilates class in the pure sense. We're combining the core-strengthening, flexibility-building benefits of Reformer Pilates with the high-energy, fat-burning power of HIIT (High-Intensity Interval Training). Think of it as the ultimate workout fusion that gets you stronger, leaner, and more energised!

Why Should You Sign Up?

Reformer Pilates has been around for a while, but we’re about to flip the script and give it a high-octane twist. You’ll still enjoy the deep muscle engagement and balanced control that Pilates develops, but with HIIT intervals added in, you’ll be pushing your limits in the best way possible.

Here’s the science: High intensity exercises get your heart pumping into a higher training zone, where your heart rate spikes and stays elevated, ramping up the intensity for short, explosive bursts. These intervals maximise calorie burn during the workout, but here’s the kicker: you’ll continue burning fat long after you leave the studio! Thanks to EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption), your body continues to burn calories for up to 24 hours after the class. That’s right, even when you're recovering later, you’ll be burning calories.

What Can You Expect in Class?

This isn’t a slow-paced session but it does contain short breaks between bursts. You’ll be shown the next exercise during the brief break so you can see it in action before you do it yourself. There are only 6 exercises max in each session and we’ll aim to complete two sets of the 6 in the half hour.

•          Dynamic Reformer Pilates-based Moves: Expect to use the Reformer machine to sculpt and strengthen your muscles, working everything from your abdominal core to your glutes, arms & legs. You’ll feel challenged as you engage stabilising muscles and push your bigger muscle groups to improve strength and flexibility using the resistance springs.

•          Intensive Intervals: You’ll push yourself to the max with high-intensity intervals. These bursts of explosive movement are designed to increase your heart rate and work your entire body. We remodel the traditional HIIT moves like rope throws, jumping jacks, burpees, and more, to make use of the amazing versatility of the Reformer. Get ready to sweat!

•          Heart-Pumping Intensity: As you push into those higher heart rate zones, you’ll activate more muscle fibres, target fat stores, and boost cardiovascular endurance. You’ll need to do this while mainatining good alignment, controlling your core and developing your balance. With regular sessions a total body transformation is en route to you.

Benefits You’ll Love

•          Fat-Burning Power: With intensive intervals pushing you into those heart-pounding zones, your body stays in fat-burning mode long after the class ends. Thanks to EPOC, your metabolism stays elevated, helping you burn more calories during recovery.

•          Lean, Toned Muscles: The Reformer sculpts lean muscle mass while toning those hard-to-reach areas. Say hello to tight abs, sculpted legs, and defined arms.

•          Increased Endurance: With High Intensity training, you’ll improve your stamina and endurance, both on and off the Reformer. Get ready to crush your next workout!

•          Boosted Mood & Energy: High  Energy combined with the control of Pilates helps release zillions of endorphins, so you’ll float out of class feeling super-energised, invincible and ready for anything!

Who Is This Class For?

Whether you've done some basic mat Pilates, you enjoy swimming or running, or you’re a complete beginner who just walks regularly but wants to get fit fast - this class is for you. It’s designed to make you hot and sweaty and push you to get improvements. To take part you need to have a basic level of underlying fitness and certainly no back or joint conditions or suffer with high blood pressure. If in doubt seek adbvice from your GP first. And don’t worry if you can’t do as much as some others - you’ll be challenged at your own pace and supported every step of the way.

So, are you ready to transform your body, boost your metabolism, and feel like a total powerhouse? Book today (you need to Create an Account) and experience the ultimate fusion of Reformer + HIIT — your new favourite workout is waiting!

A useful message to young men!

Offered the chance to attend a pilates class the average British male is likely to look blank, frown and retreat asap to his gaming console, ‘No thanks – not really my thing!’ Most youngish men think they prefer the glum cool of a utilitarian gym, if any exercise at all. The idea of watching the precision of each movement let alone being mindful of their breath, is enough for them to glaze over, zombie-like.

No, when it comes to fitness, the modern man will usually opt to stay lifting - conspicuously eyeing himself in a distant mirror while comparing the girth of his neck to the other men all doing the same thing. Their minds wrongly of the opinion that, ‘Pilates is for women and/or old people over 50.’ In his home it’s definitely his mum or possibly his girlfriend who’s in charge of any lycra leggings.

Our modern perception of Pilates is as a middle-class, faddish, female eccentricity, hatched by a man to make women more look better. But this modern image of Pilates is totally backwards. The truth is quite the opposite as the real origin of Pilates is almost cartoonishly butch!

 In order to reclaim some ground, let’s first make sure to get our terminology right. The contemporary term ‘Pilates’ is just an eponym after its founder Joseph Pilates (1883-1967). The original name he gave to the activity was in fact, ‘Contrology,’ emphasising the need to be very much in control of the movement from beginning to end and the breath. Joseph himself, as a young man, was a keen boxer, gymnast and circus performer; an athletic individual with a world class Greek gymnast for a father, and a German naturopath for a mother.

 He incorporated elements from both his parents’ disciplines into a whole-body system for the well-being of the mind and soul. Joseph Pilates came up with his system of Contrology while interned in Lancaster Prison (and later on The Isle of Man) during the First World War thanks to his German heritage. He created it as a health regimen to prevent his circus troop colleagues suffering physical and mental decline. And from the beginning, playing the ultimate MacGyver, he used bed springs and pulleys to create resistance machines using prison beds ( the first Reformers), along with floor exercises which could be practised in their cells.

Was it designed with a feminine slant - absolutely not! Pilates worked with and was heavily influenced by Eugen Sandow (1867-1925) - the first aesthetic strong man and father of modern bodybuilding. They were both reverent of the physical ideals pursued by the Ancient Greeks and Roman in sculptures and art.[1]

Pilates and Sandow each borrowed from antiquity, judging the modern world with its convenience as damaging to the male physique. They used the aesthetic types of Classical sculptures which worshipped the divinity of the body, and sought to emulate it anatomically via their systems of physical exercise.[2] 

‘Our interpretation of physical fitness is the attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactorily performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure.’ [3]

Pilates and Sandow were products of the ‘Physical Culturist’ movement; a diverse group of 19th century European athletic subcultures which centred around three disciplines: Bodybuilding, Gymnastics and the Somatic.[4] Physical culture developed into a commercial enterprise when it migrated from northern Europe into the United States during the 1920’s.[5] The original European practitioners also produced an artistic movement, with poets, sculptors, writers and artists who expressed their national cultures into an array of esoteric art forms focused on the perfection of the body and mind.[6] This broad array of cultures helps to explain why pilates is so multifaceted and varied, contributing to overall strength, hypertrophic training and mental discipline.

Pilates is an excellent idea for young men wanting to compliment their existing training programs, whether they are dedicated to cardiovascular intensive sports, or dedicated to weight lifting for muscle mass. Pilates allows for greater flexibility, longevity, and stability to add to those gains made with your push-pull split. In the words of Joseph Pilates, ‘Act like an animal!’[7]

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[1] E. Sandow. (1894) Sandow on Physical Training: A Study in the Perfect Type of the Human Form.
(Available at: https://physicalculturestudy.com/2021/08/27/sandow-as-a-strongman-in-holland-1894-2/)

[2] K. Cleveland. (2017) Eugene Sandow's “Grecian Ideal" and the Birth of Modern Body-Building. [Available at: https://www.apsu.edu/philomathes/ClevelandPhilomathes2.12018Online.pdf]

[3] Apollo Sports Society. (2024) Eugene Sandow: The Legendary Father of Bodybuilding.[Available at: https://www.apolloimperium.com/article/eugen-sandow-father-of-bodybuilding]

[4] J. Pilates. (1945) Return To Life: Through Contrology. [Available at: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015038069475&seq=7]

[5] Polestar Pilates (2022) Rare Interview With Joseph Pilates: Part 2. [Available at: https://www.polestarpilates.edu.au/rare-interview-with-joseph-pilates-1934-part-2/)

[6] Movement Health. (2018) Joseph Pilates and the Physical Culture Movement. [Available at: https://www.movementhealth.com.au/news/joseph-pilates-and-the-physical-culture-movement/]

[7] R. Wernick. (1962) Keep in Shape: Act Like an Animal! [Available at:https://www.pilates.org.au/joseph-pilates-act-like-an-animal/]

Where did April go?

Goodness me. What an unbelievable start I’ve had to my lovley Reformer Room in Lewes. I seemed to open the door and ….whomph! It hasn’t stopped. I am so pleased.

I’ve realised that although I love Pilates and am passionate about wanting to take it to the world, it’s actually all the people that make me enjoy Pilates so much. Every person, class and experience is just so different. From my Thursday evening triple from 5.15pm - 9pm - with all nine participants becoming noticeably stronger and more supple by the week, to my wonderful indviduals who come and see me either for matwork or reformer or sometimes both in one session.

I’ve discovered my springs are super strong!

The new reformers are so squeaky (well more occasional twang) new they pull a massive punch for anyone looking to really find some serious resistance. Many clients who’ve used other studios further afield have commented on the difference. Where a red and blue spring is the norm for many when working their midback/arms, in The Reformer Room, if you’re up to a red spring your’re officially pretty strong! And we don’t have any blues anyway.

Pilates relief!

Coming back from a whirlwind 13 days tour to visit my eldest and youngest sons - one in Canada near Vancouver and the other in New York City, I realised that three flights and changes of timezone had really taken its toll on me!

Our last flight from JFK to Gatwick with Norse Airlines was overnight - and saw me cramped into a seat right next to and behind a large family with three very young, excited children. I could see the weariness in the parents’ eyes as soon as I stepped into the row. From there it just went downhill! Zero sleep, zero comfort meant although getting off at Gatwick, London was a huge relief, all my muscles - already super tight from 3 days skiing in blizzards then bouncy powder - were squeezed inwards, resisting coming out!

And then yesterday I did a Reformer class with Body Control. It was fantastic to feel the absolute bliss or gently rolling my knees west and my eyeline east, of curling my tailbone softly upwards and allowng my spine to roll back and forth, opening up my hips to the sweet relief of every connective tissue in me! Through alignment, control, flow and breath my limbs and torso tingled back into where it should be and I came away feeling utterly relaxed.

The age of fitness technology

It’s true - there’s no getting away from it! Tech is everywhere and if you’re not into it, it beats you. In my experienced years as a Pilates Instructor in Sussex I’ve decided that yes, I can and will embrace the big IT even in my world of movement and mindfulness, so I’ve finally commandeered my youngest son into assisting (showing) me how to chop up video in order to make some helpfully available on this site. Bear with me a tad longer though - Rome wasn’t built in a day.

So the Pilates video library is one thing I know I really want to do. But what about the stream of soul-bearing on Instagram too? Hmm, less truly my thing, not least because I’ll probably forget, but also, all that pressure to be ‘seen’ creates such expectations - not to mention insecurities. Is it really necessary - or even vaguely interesting to anyone? I guess I’d need to become a bit more interesting…..hmm, that may be a slight hurdle right there.

For now I’m going large with my Live & ONLINE via Zoom on Monday mornings at 9.30am and Saturday mornings at 10.30am and with the new video work to come. Insta can wait in the wings a little longer while I can develop my visual allure once I’ve found it!

Signed up for Pilates Reformer

It’s been a while since I really, and I mean REALLY embraced something completely new to me in Pilates, but today I did! I’ve signed up to learn how to use and teach that incredible piece of Pilates Studio Equipment called the Reformer. This looks like a kind of rack, yet in fact, it enables clients to get much more out of each exercise using various resistence weights and a huge range of different exercises.

I’m so excited about the course at the end of October. For a start it’s run by Body Control Pilates, a world-renowned name, at their home studio in Kensington, London. And it’s long enough to go into great depth and exploration in practice over 6 full days.

So, watch this space to find out how my Pilates Studio Equipment journey goes, and who know, you may want to come and visit me and try it out yourself one day soon!