Teacher speaking calmly while clients listen, demonstrating how fewer cues support clearer movement. Teaching often fails through generosity. Too much information. Too many corrections. Too many clever thoughts spoken out loud. You think you help. You drown the client instead. Your Pilates client lies on the mat. You speak about ribs, pelvis, breath, shoulders, jaw, neck, feet, intention, imagery, history, and three principles before the movement even starts. Their body freez

Clear cueing and calm hands, language guiding movement rather than forcing shape. I catch myself doing this. All the time. Halfway through a class, something comes out of my mouth and I think, why did I say that? One of those words is “so”. It slips out. Especially in group classes. Especially when you are tired. It sounds friendly. It sounds normal. It feels like nothing. But it is not nothing? I started noticing what happened in the room when I used it. Some people softened

Mermaid on the mat showing controlled lateral flexion without shoulder strain or excessive arm load. Pilates Mermaid often gets treated like a pretty pause between harder work. That misses the point. This movement asks for control, organisation, and honesty. The mat does not help you. It exposes you. When you look at traditional Pilates mat work, the repertoire is tight. Thirty four movements. Thirty two if you include Criss Cross and Can Can. That is not a lot. Teachers know

Early awareness stops habits taking over and keeps the client focused on technique. You spend enough years teaching movement and you start seeing problems before they happen. Not because you are magical, but because you have made every mistake yourself. This is where interception comes in. You catch the pattern early, before it drags the movement off course. Interception starts with how you handle your own body. You carry your habits into the studio. You rush when you are tir

Kneeling long box hip extension showing control, balance, neutral spine, and strong glute work. Today looks at a controlled strength movement on the Reformer. You kneel on the long box, place one foot into a strap, take a four point position, and set a light spring. A blue spring keeps the load sensible. Your goal is to avoid fighting the machine. The movement is simple on paper. You extend the working leg straight back and lift it to hip height. You hold a neutral spine. You

Calm seated twist highlighting focused breath work and easy embodied awareness on the mat. Embodiment is something teachers talk about often, yet it fades once you start teaching full schedules and taking on clients. When you are learning as a teacher you get plenty of natural practice. You move, you repeat, and you spend time in your own body. The shift happens later. Once clients fill your week your attention shifts to them and your own practice slips into the background. E

Colourful display of words that reflect diverse Pilates approaches and teaching identities. There is a lot of noise about classical and contemporary Pilates. The labels follow us around. People toss them into conversations as if they decide the value of the work. The pressure to pick a side feels constant. The name is not the technique. The technique lives in how you teach, how you think, and how you adapt. Your history shapes it. Your training shapes it. Your clients shape i

Balance between tradition and evolution in Pilates and yoga teaching. Yesterday I read a post on a classical Pilates social media thread that stopped me for a moment. The writer claimed that in the method you needed 25 personal training sessions before you were allowed into the open studio to practise. According to them, if you had not done those 25 sessions, you were not considered classical. This was new information for me. New, but not surprising. Even inside the classica

Malcolm shows a strong lumbar flexion curve, holding steady control through the centre. Pilates Movement Monday looks at the Short Box Series, a clear way to strengthen your abdominals and sharpen your control through the centre. The work looks simple, but the challenge sits underneath. You train the deep muscles that support your spine while the larger global muscles learn to move in harmony without gripping or taking over. Breath links the whole thing together. Set the Refo

Athens at dusk reflecting the mix of nostalgia, change, and purpose in teaching. Back in Greece for the first weekend of the Apparatus course, and Athens pulled something out of me I wasn’t expecting. It felt familiar, but it also reminded me how much life has shifted. We had a good time here, but it was a contained life. Quiet. Focused. Different from Scotland, where things feel wider and more connected. You only notice the contrast when you return. Travel itself is its own

Hand squeezing a soft ball to build grip strength during controlled Pilates work. Grip strength gives clear information about overall strength and long term health. Several large studies show this. A 2015 Lancet study tracked more than 140000 adults and found lower grip strength linked with higher risk of death from any cause. A 2018 BMJ review showed the same pattern in middle aged and older adults. The UK Biobank followed more than 500000 adults and reported that lower grip

Eyes closed to sharpen awareness, training movement through sound, breath, and pressure. Echolocation is a way of sensing space through sound. An animal sends out a sound, waits for the echo, then uses the returning sound to judge distance, size, and movement. Bats use it at night. Dolphins use it in water. It is a precise navigation tool. You will not make clicking sounds on the Reformer, but you can use the principle. When you close your eyes, your hearing sharpens. Your bo

A cracked laptop screen pierced by an arrow shows how harsh online comments strike. Social media hits hard. It lifts you, teaches you, and then someone you have never met fires off insults without signing their name. That is the part that gets to you. An opinion is fine. Hiding behind “anonymous” while throwing that opinion at people is weak. We have been planning this classical Pilates debate for a long time. Gill Cummings Bell and I wanted a real conversation. A space where

Pilates Movement Monday: Bicycle on the Shoulders The traditional Bicycle on the shoulders looks elegant until you try to keep everything lifted, steady, and calm. It challenges your strength through the centre and your control through the hips, and it becomes a lot more manageable when the breath leads the movement. You begin on your back and lift into a supported shoulder stand. Your hands support the pelvis so you stay high through the centre without dumping weight into th

Pilates Reformer used outside its intended purpose, highlighting safety and insurance concerns. The equipment you teach on has a purpose. The Reformer was built for Pilates. Every spring, strap, bar, carriage and pad serves a clear mechanical role. When you respect that design, you honour the method and you protect your clients. When you step outside it, you step outside your insurance. Many teachers do not realise this. They see movement ideas online, they want to add variet

Close up dragon eye symbolising sharp teaching focus and precise Pilates alignment awareness. Eye contact is one of the most effective tools a Pilates teacher has, yet it is rarely taught, practised, or even acknowledged. You can say ten cues in a row and still lose half the room, but one look at the right moment pulls a client back into their alignment, their breath, and their focus. It works because eye contact communicates presence. It tells the client that you see them, y

Man performing Pilates rowing on a Reformer, focusing on controlled flexion and arm reach. Rowing on the Reformer builds strength, control, and organised movement. It teaches you to lift through the spine, use the shoulders with precision, and match the arms, trunk, and breath in a steady rhythm. The sequence challenges timing, control, and awareness. Why it matters • It improves shoulder function. • It strengthens the upper back and arms. • It trains controlled spinal flexio

A detailed fascia network showing the connective tissue’s layered fibres and living structure. At a recent event, a professional made a comment that stuck with me: “How can they really test fascia when people are still alive?”  It was one of those remarks that stays in your head. So I decided to look and see what’s actually possible. Before getting into the science, let’s take a step back and explain what fascia is for anyone unsure. Fascia is a continuous web of connective t

A thoughtful teacher reflecting on how experience shapes learning and the humility of mastery. After years of teaching, it’s easy to slip into certainty. You’ve seen hundreds of clients, corrected thousands of spines, and heard the same questions a hundred times. Yet somewhere in the comfort of experience hides a trap. It’s called the Dunning–Kruger effect. The Dunning–Kruger effect describes how people with little knowledge often overestimate their ability, while those with

Controlled lateral flexion strengthens obliques and promotes spinal mobility and balance. The Side Bend on the Ladder Barrel is one of those movements that looks graceful and effortless but demands deep strength and precision from every muscle along the side of the body. It’s an ideal exercise for improving lateral stability, strengthening the obliques, and enhancing spinal mobility. You begin with the hip positioned over the apex of the barrel, feet securely anchored against