Tag: pilates

Pilates with Priya DVD Menu

Pilates DVD is almost complete.

Priya Tew

Some of you know that I’ve been working on my first Pilates DVD, pretty exciting. It’s all come about because some of YOU asked for it, I love that, so you asked for it….and now I’ve done it!

I’ve so far only got the pre-approval version in my happy hands and now I have to work out how to duplicate and make DVD sleeves etc… however I’m hoping that we shall be offering a weblink to those of you who are 1) Eager Beavers and want it NOW or 2) techno savvy and want to watch it on your tablet/phone rather than use a DVD player.

So here’s  a sneak preview of the menu (excuse the bad photo, taking a photo of your computer screen leads to this):

Pilates with Priya DVD Menu
Pilates with Priya DVD Menu

 

The video was shot in my studio, see some photos here. Then we did a voice-over afterwards so you get a cool, calm, collected version of Priya with no muddled lefts/rights/arms/legs and other words that my regulars will know all about….I’m far from perfect, yet I know it.

Here’s a pic of us doing the voice-over:

Pilates with Priya voiceover 1
Pilates with Priya voiceover 1
Pilates with Priya voiceover 2
Pilates with Priya voiceover 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

So copies will be on sale soon…. get ready people.

Pilates to RELAX.

Priya Tew

One of the reasons I love Pilates (and there are so many reasons I love it) is that it CAN be relaxing. Note the CAN. Generally my classes include a lot of hard work, concentration and often a bit of laughter thrown in as well. Or today’s classes….oven cleaning tips! Most random but actually I learnt quite a lot 😉

Evening classes in particular can be well loved for the ability Pilates has to destress, relax, work the body and sort out those aches and pains as well. I must admit tonight I did almost sink into a little nap during our relaxation and stretch section.

So if you need help relaxing, but still want to work out….please come along. However be warned, if I catch you dozing there may be a penalty of press ups 😉

 

 

Enter the New Website of Glory!

Priya Tew

I’ve been a little quiet for a few weeks, a few of you have probably been relished the peace and quiet! I thought I’d just let you know what I’ve been up to….

First exciting project has been THIS WEBSITE, you’re on it now, take a look round and see what you think. It’s been given a make over by Michael of Rocket Man Media. I’d love your feedback, there’s now a class timetable, an instructors page and some lovely photos!

Secondly again with the help of Michael I’ve been working on the first Pilates with Priya DVD. Some of you have been waiting a long time for this (sorry!) and I appreciate your patience. It should be ready very soon and I’ll let you know when the official DVD signing is (joke!).

Thirdly some of you know I’m not just a Pilates instructor but I’m also a dietitian and run DietitianUK, a nutrition business. I recently won an award from Theo Paphitis (from Dragons Den) and it’s certainly been keeping me busy. If you want any nutrition tips, recipes and advice you know where to come! There are often ideas on my blog 🙂

So hopefully now it’s time to get into the swing of classes, relax, put my feet up afterwards and have a cuppa (whilst chasing a one year around of course!). See you at class soon!

New Ventures

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This week it’s been all go in the studio. The redecoration of one wall has been completed (rest of the walls will be done in stages as my handyman has to work around classes!). It’s looking fresh and I’m itching to get something arty on it. Ideas welcome.

The filming of our first Pilates video has been completed too. It’s currently being edited and then I need to do a voice over on it, but so far the edited bits I’ve seen look good. This video is for all of you who come to classes and want to do some Pilates in the week and also for anyone who is interested in trying Pilates out at home. It’s not aimed at taking the Pilates world by storm but is more about catering for those who aren’t that into big fitness fads and just want a friendly voice to talk them through their exercise at home. Here’s a few photo’s of the film star in action….

CAT
CAT
Roll Back
Single Leg Stretch

Excitingly this week a new instructor has also started working with me – Faye is taking the Wed 7pm class. She is also an advanced Level 3 instructor with a caring, lovely nature who will talk you through Pilates and ensure you do it correctly. In fact I’d definitely say she is nicer than me! I’ve been quite mean in my classes this week with planks to side plank rotations and some nasty variations on press ups 😉

New ventures being planned include a makeover on my website and the studio is going to have some proper storage built in, so long wobbly bookcases!!

I’m excited….can you tell?

Amazing improvements in people with Pilates.

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Here’s some feedback from one of my Pilates ladies…. Pilates has been pretty amazing for her, not only has her pain reduced and her mobility improved but she has lost toned up and her pelvic floor muscles have strengthened.

“With regards my back, I have been suffering with problems since July 2003.  I initially hurt it bending over to lift up a laptop at work, and on other occasions, just simply getting up from a sofa, sneezing, getting washing out of the washing machine or just turning have been enough to start an episode.  In the past, I have also suffered with a trapped nerve, leading to sciatica down my left leg and have often found myself laid up for a week, unable to go to work as the pain was so intense. The chiropractor diagnosed it as sacroiliac joint injury and I have attended whenever problems have flared up ever since 2003.

The most recent episode was last February, when I hurt my back loading A3 photocopier paper into the lowest drawer on the machine.  I was unable to move without assistance, was taken home and had to have 3 days off work on painkillers.  After this, I was seeing the chiropractor every week fortnightly, the chiropractor felt that there was a need for further action.  She suggested I start Pilates classes and that if this didn’t help after a few weeks, she would book me in for an x-ray to see if there was any obvious damage to my lower spine. At this point, although I was not experiencing acute pain, I had low-level pain on a daily basis, coupled with regular painful muscle spasms in my back which seemed to occur for no reason and was unable to perform routine tasks, such as dressing, unaided.

I then started Pilates with Priya.  Within two weeks, I was noticing an effect and was able to bend / lift my legs more easily.  I am now able to dress myself and can (with care) do tasks such as loading and unloading the washing machine / dishwasher.  I am no longer seeing the Chiropractor at all. I have also noticed a big improvement in my pelvic floor muscles and no longer have ’embarrassments’ when I cough or sneeze!  My husband has commented on the reduction in size of my stomach and I have begun to notice a line of muscle running down my abdomen that I have never seen before!”

Pilates helps Back Pain

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As my Pilates classes have grown and my networking has increases I’ve had more and more people being referred by Chiropractors or Physio’s. A lot of these people are coming because of back pain. What’s so exciting is to then hear and see the improvements in people after just a few sessions.  So what is it about Pilates that works so well for back pain relief?

Pilates addresses the underlying structural imbalances in the body that lead to back pain. Issues like lack of core support, pelvic instability, muscular imbalances, poor posture, and lack of body awareness all affect back health.

Pilates Helps Correct Posture

In Pilates, we pay a lot of attention to how our body parts are lined up in relation to each other, which is our alignment.  When alignment is off, uneven stresses on the skeleton, especially the spine, are the result. Pilates exercises, done with attention to alignment, allow movement to flow through the body in a natural way.

For example, one of the most common postural imbalances that people have is the tendency to either tuck or tilt the pelvis. Both positions create weaknesses on one side of the body and overly tight areas on the other. The spine can’t form its natural curve and you get aches and pains all up the spine and neck.  Doing Pilates helps you focus on holding a “neutral spine” which means the proper placement of the spine and pelvis. Strengthening your core creates the inner strength to support the natural curves of the spine.

Pilates Develops Core Strength

Having core strength means that all of the muscles of the trunk of your body are strong, flexible, and working together to support and stabilize the spine. This goes deeper than the big surface muscles, it’s not about building  “6 pack” I’m afraid! The core muscles include the muscles that are below the surface musculature.  Some of these less obvious but very important core muscles are the muscles of the pelvic floor;  and the psoas, which play a huge role in keeping us upright and in hip bending; which are small muscles that weave along the spine; and the transverse and oblique abdominal muscles.  All of these muscles play crucial roles in the support and stability of the spine.

Pilates Promotes Flexibility

A healthy spine can curve forward and backward, twist, and move side to side, and do so in a way that reveals all the subtle articulations that our many vertebrae allow us to have. Pilates exercises are easy to modify so that we can develop spinal flexibility at our own pace. This is one of the things about Pilates that makes it easy for people with back pain to work with. In my classes there are different options for exercises so you work at your level.
Pilates Increases Body Awareness
Back pain is a messenger letting us know that we have to pay more attention to our bodies. The Pilates method is full attention exercise. You can’t do Pilates without becoming extremely aware of your alignment and how your body works. This is extremely important for people with back pain because Pilates not only improve physical functioning, but makes you more aware of what you are doing in day to day life. So as you are walking, bending and sitting you start to think about your alignment and core.
Do you have back pain? Try out Pilates! It really does work.

Pilates is for Physio’s too ;)

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Recently I’ve had 2 physiotherapists join one of my Pilates classes. Oddly they both work together, in fact sit opposite each other and have both found and joined the same class without chatting to each other about it.

I myst admit I did feel rather apprehensive when I found out I had a physiotherapist in my class, surely they already know what to do, how to do it and are more qualified than me? If I get anything wrong they are going know and pick up on it? Cue a moment of low confidence in me and my Pilates ability.

What I have found instead, is that these 2 ladies are lovely. Yes they do know more than me, but that doesn’t mean they don’t also need to practise what they preach and doing that with someone else to prompt you and challenge you can be the best way. Both ladies needed to strengthen their core and chose Pilates as they know the benefits of it from their profession. They have actually been an encouragement to me commenting on how good my teaching skills are, a real compliment. Plus I get to pick their brains and ask them Pilates and alignment questions 😉

So if Physiotherapists feel they need to attend Pilates surely that shows just how much we all need to be doing it? Come along and try out a class, taster sessions are £5.50.

Point, Plie and Pirouette

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Last night saw the launch of a new class for Pilates with Priya, something a little different but so, so great… Adult ballet 🙂 A great compliment to Pilates.

Now before you squirm there were no tutus, no sequins and ballet shoes optional. I’m not qualified to teach ballet, but luckily Chrissy is and she certainly put us through our paces! Focused around a barre this is a class that is focused on strength, toning and core stability. Inner thighs, outer thighs, quads and gluts are worked hard, the element of balance means your core gets activated and the positions used increase flexibility. Sounds hard, well yes it was, but in such a good way, plus it was a lot of fun. Cue much laughter and a room full of smiling ladies. No photos to show you I’m afraid, think I’ll have to wait a few weeks before a photo is allowed. None of us are going to cut it as prima ballerina’s but we are going to have fun working out and toning up. Plus in my opinion it’s a great chance to break out the legwarmers 🙂

Here’s a few comments from last night’s class:

“LOVED ballet, my thighs! I could barely drive home. They felt wibbly. “

“I hope my muscles forgive me. Ballet hilarious. Hard work but fun.“

 

Stretching is great :)

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This week has been my first full week back doing full-on cardio classes at the gym. As many of you will know I don’t just teach Pilates… currently I teach 8 Pilates classes and then I have a back to back Step Aerobics followed by Spin session on a Tuesday and a Step followed by a Body Conditioning class on a Thursday. I love teaching these classes but they can be quite tiring so I’m trying to look after myself in between classes with good nutrition, plenty of hydration and hopefully some sleep! Having a baby means I have to dash back from classes as quickly as possible, jump in the shower and quickly feed her so she can get to sleep. What I noticed today was due to the rush home I hadn’t stretched fully and suddenly had tight, tight hamstrings…. ouch.

Tight hamstrings can affect your posture, your movement, stop you using your abdominals correctly and lead to tight back muscles. If you usually have tight hamstrings it lead to a tucked under pelvis as part of the hamstrings function is to keep the pelvis aligned. When muscles are tight, they are weak. This means they can’t hold the pelvis in position properly 🙁 So you end up with a tilted pelvis, you can’t use your core muscles properly and your body compensates, meaning it all comes out of line and you get backache.

Hoe do you know if your hamstrings are tight? Good question. According to these guys http://www.sportsinjuryclinic.net/cybertherapist/back/hamstrings/tighthams/hastringstretches.php you should be able to lie down, with one leg extended on the mat and the other leg in the air, foot towards ceiling, this leg should go to 80-90 degrees comfortably. Give it a go. Is your leg staying down on the mat? Check your spine, are you still in neutral? If the answer is No, you need to take the raised leg further away from the body and do some hamstring stretches.

So tonight at the end of Pilates we stretched out using resistance bands. It felt good. After everyone had gone I went back in the studio and had a good long stretch using a band….oh my, that was needed 🙂

If like me you rush around and sometimes, (well actually in my case often) forget to devote proper time to stretching try and build some in this weekend. Be it in front of the TV, whilst out in the garden or whilst waiting for your roast dinner to cook…your body will thank you for it!

Let me know how it goes…comment below or send me a tweet (@dietitianuk).