Pilates Manchester never fails its athletes as it always comes from a place of honesty and integrity. We specialise in working in principles, so gentler forms of movement. We are not selling body building, strength and conditioning packages, physio or sprint/speed running, nor have we ever pretended to do so. Most athletes contact the studio because they are looking for something different. They are already overtrained and exhausted from their training and do not need more cortisol.

I have worked in professional football and Rugby alongside strength and conditioning coaches, physios and speed coaches for over 30 years. I have been brought into football and rugby clubs both to do group programming but also one to work as part of a team. You can view my experience on linked in here

If you are a true athlete training for peak performance, power, and long-term durability, you are completely wasting your time if you only focus on one area of movement, health and vitality. The body is a holon (whole being). We are spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and psychic bodies. All clients regardless whether they are a athlete or not, should address sleep, nutrition, hydration, thoughts, breathing and movement. When one piece of the puzzle is missing there is always a deficit and compensation pattern somewhere on the body.

If you look around the modern fitness landscape, you will see high-profile football stars and elite athletes piling into Pilates reformer studios, lying on sliding carriages, and stretching against spring resistance. It is marketed as the ultimate holistic routine with flash boujis interiors, mood lighting, grip socks that don’t separate the toes and mattha lattes. The emphasis is for core stability, injury prevention and  community.

But does it really deliver the results?

Many football physios I have worked with say; ‘Yes’. They love the compliment it gives to the athletes, but it must not replace the existing work that involves speed, power ad explosive type training. Remember there is no such thing as a bad exercise, but there is such thing as a badly prescribed exercise. To generalise this blog on every pilates teacher, studio and method worldwide would be unfair.

While these  new reformer pilates studios are responding to our high demands of consumerism, escapism and lack of connection to the self like many other products and services. It is my personal opinion and experience from running workshops and doing teacher training, that, doing a generic fitness and workout style reformer class WILL not address individual physiological loads including faulty movement patterns, incorrect breathing and infant development issues. This goes the same for any group class including spinning, hyrox, body pump etc

Does it mean it is wrong and that I should bastardize reformer pilates or those teachers and studio owners that have invested lots of money in it?

NO! Everyone is on a journey and we are trying to get through life with all its problems the best we can.

Remember Pilates is not about the machines, but someone who had no knowledge of experience would think that from social media. Any apparatus used works in conjunction with you. I would liken it to ballroom dancing. You can read my article on machine training here:

There is no positive without negative. I have seen reformer pilates studios build amazing communities and get people and minorities moving. We live in a society that is chronically inflamed, overweight and under nourished. These reformer pilates studios can be an starting point, to bring awareness to the body, who we are, and how we want to feel. Many clients also move onto other forms of movement once they star pilates and start o feel better about themselves. While the pilates participant may find the reformer pilates good fun. It is a completely different type of strength (from weight training/ strength and conditioning) and the two should not be confused.

Now the fitness industry has jumped onto one piece of pilates apparatus that being the reformer and turned into a big money making marketing machine. Pilates is an amazing system consisting of both tilting (surface moving) and righting reflexes (surface still). The full system if taught properly should use all mat-work and apparatus in all planes of motion and movement patterns.  Remember the machines are not doing the work, you are taking yourself into a series of shapes, moves and sequences and working with resistant pulleys, springs and gravity (not weight training/ strength and conditioning or boxing). Although Joe Pilates was an experienced boxer.

When professional athletes and footballers come to me. I address them as a movement therapist, not a pilates teacher.  There will be many other therapies that I bring into their program once assessed.

Now I am not an Olympic lifter nor am I a body builder. I compliment athletes club programs with technique, alignment, infant development, primal movement patterns, release and restorative work including breathwork, Thai yoga and myofascial techniques.

All the athletes love the calmness and permission to let go that both myself and the studio environment provides. They also grow their critical thinking and exploration of the subconscious, that I strongly encourage. I also encourage my athletes as we explore together past modalities from ancient wisdom that have been forgotten and lost.

So if you are a true athlete training for peak performance, power, and long-term durability, you are completely wasting your time if you do not work on your foundation principles and four doctors. The four doctors are Dr.Diet, Dr.Quiet, Dr. Movement and Dr.Happy.  The foundation principles are as above mentioned sleep, breathing, thoughts, movement, nutrition and hydration.

A professional athlete including footballers need to load the skeletal system in order for it to change. Specific programs need to be given to increase power, speed and resilience.  If you have optimal posture and a better nervous system, you are going to be more adaptable in your sport. This means that the use of strength and conditioning plus other elements which cross over into football must be used for change. A experienced movement therapist can work on assisting the athlete by descending and ascending and functional primal move.

Is Pilates needed for athletes?

Yes and No, but does that person connect with the method, the same as Yoga , Tai Chi or anything else, if the right piece of apparatus and move is given as part of their rehabilitation or working in program. No pilates exercise should be done in isolation, it should be a sequence and flow of move to move like a meditation with effort, strength, balance and ease. The method also brings awareness to the self and mindfulness. Like any trade, your results are a reflection in the habits that you do and the people you train with. Pilates is an amazing art form, a method like callisthenics and martial arts.

As a Level 3 CHEK Practitioner and movement therapist with 30 years of  training celebrities, and elite competitors, I am breaking down the hard biomechanical facts that the high-priced trend brochures completely ignore.

I offer 30 minute intro assessments to see if we are a right fit for all athletes and footballers.

Interested?

Get in touch today!