Welcome to the January edition of Pilates Central News.

In this edition:

• Faithful to Pilates
• Pilates Hammer
• Ring of fire
• Pilates baa work

Faithful to Pilates

Claudia Winkleman might be hugely popular for hosting Traitors and Strictly Come Dancing, but is she a Pilates faithful or traitor? The Sun has the answer in a piece headlined, “How Claudia Winkleman looks so good at 52 despite hating exercise.” The feature continues, “you’d be forgiven for thinking she sticks to a super strict workout regime to keep her lean and toned figure.” But, reveals the Sun, Winkleman’s not a fan of high intensity exercise, instead she favours Pilates.

The feature reveals that on Gabby Logan’s podcast The Mid•Point, Winkleman spoke about her local Reformer Pilates class. She told Gabby: “I like it. I get on a machine. It’s round the corner from me, so I can go there and everybody is lovely, it’s super quiet. I’ve got a bad back and I need some form of strength… They talk to me about parts of my body and say things like ‘the problem is you’ve never used your lats’, and I’m like ‘what’s that?’ My shoulders are up by my neck… my stance has always been like a turtle. In never standing up straight in 52 years of life, I go to Pilates and they try to open me up.”

Gabby Logan also joined in the Pilates praise, enthusing that, “it’s amazing for your body, tone and core you come away feeling open and slightly spiritual.” She reveals that husband Kenny Logan, a former rugby player had found it, “a revelation.”

“I don’t like physical exertion of any kind but I do Pilates because it feels quite still and I like to feel strong,” concludes Winkleman. Clearly Pilates is an exercise that has fringe benefits for Claudia. We just hope her classes don’t end with a round table and one fewer participant each time.

Pilates Hammer

Congratulations to Graham Potter on becoming the new manager of West Ham United. The Hammers players might be improving their movement soon too, as Graham’s wife Rachel is a Pilates teacher who runs her own successful studio in Brighton.

Graham met Rachel when he was a player at York City and she was a personal trainer. Rachel reveals: “After teaching years of high-impact classes, I began experiencing problems with my back. It was then I was advised by a physiotherapist to look into Pilates classes.” She became a convert and went on to run her own Pilates business in York, but agreed to give it up when in 2011 Graham was offered a job managing Swedish club Ostersund, 240 miles from the Arctic Circle.

Despite her initial doubts about the -20C temperatures, Rachel told the BBC she started learning Swedish, making friends, and set up her own Pilates studio. Her website states: “My clients included an elite football team, cross country skiers, and along with a trip to Canada, I worked with the Canadian Biathlon team.” After making the top division under Graham, the Ostersund fans were so impressed by her work with the Ostersund players that they held up a banner in English reading, “Thank You Rachel.”

Rachel re-established her Pilates business at a studio in Brighton when Graham became the manager of Brighton and then Chelsea. Husband Graham is an innovative manager and aided by Rachel it would be no surprise if he has his players tackling a spot of Pilates to help stretch opposition defences.

Ring of fire

In Marie Claire’s latest feature on Pilateswriter Anna Bartter adds a Pilates ring to her mat-based exercises. She describes the ring as a “super-versatile piece of kit, perfect to incorporate into classical Pilates moves such as the hundred back extension, chest expansion, leg circles and more.” She is hoping that using a ring for two weeks will add intensity to her moves, offer feedback on her practice and establish better posture and challenge her co-ordination and balance.

Initially Reformer user Anna finds it a humbling experience: “I naively assumed that I’d segue seamlessly from move to move, completing the reps like a pro… Whereas usually, I’d happily work on sets of ten reps fairly comfortably, with the ring involved – I was struggling to hit three reps. Who knew something so small could be so effective? But after I went for the less-is-more approach, reps-wise, for the remainder of the week – and found that once I’d left my ego at the door, I started to feel like I could actually do this.”

In week two she’s suffering from a running injury but finds that after using the ring to assist stretching rather than working out, “I’m pleasantly surprised when my hips feel somewhat looser that evening.”

Will she continue to use a ring? Bartter concludes: “It’s a hard yes from me – in fact, I’ve gone out and bought one – a testament to how effective I believe it is. Whether you’re a runner, a yogi or simply wanting some post-injury recovery, the magic circle really is magic.” 

Pilates baa work

“Why all farmers should think about taking up Pilates,” is the intriguing headline in the Irish Independent. Farmers aren’t normally associated with Pilates, but in the piece drystock farmer Angus Woods from County Wicklow describes how during lambing season in 2020 he leaned into a pen to pick up a feed bucket and felt his back go: “Pushed into hospital in a wheel chair and with a disc pressing on the nerve in my back I was given the choice to have surgery or face having a dropped foot and back pain for life.”

Woods was worried that his farming career was over. He had three months of rehab and then short slow walks, but he still had two years of aches and pains. It was then that Angus’s wife Aileen booked him into a local Reformer Pilates class, which he says began life as a lean-to on a hay shed.

“It was fairly humbling,” says Woods. “We think as farmers we are strong but the slow controlled movements in Pilates require a different type of strength. I was amazed by how much improvement there was within four of five classes.”

Woods adds: “Despite spending small fortunes on all kinds of machinery for our farms the majority of us invest little time or money on maintaining our bodies.” He is now back farming and making time for one 45 minute Pilates class a week: “It has gone from something I was doing because I had to, to something I really enjoy… Strengthening the core muscles has provided the inner support that my back needed and I only wish I had known about the classes years ago.”

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The Pilates Central Team