Protein sources sit on a wooden board with eggs, salmon and lean meat. Protein helps your body repair tissue after training. Your needs change with age and how hard you work. Strength sessions drive the highest demand. Cardio still needs support because it breaks tissue down, only less aggressively. Spread protein across your meals, aim for steady portions and pick sources that fit your diet. Plant options work well when you mix them. Older adults often need a little more to

Warm root soup supports your energy and recovery through cold winter training. Winter pulls your energy in tight. Your body works harder to stay warm, so you need food that supports recovery and steady strength. A simple festive soup helps you stay hydrated, nourished, and ready for your Pilates work, without weighing you down. Here is a practical winter soup you can make in under an hour. It supports digestion, joint health, and muscle recovery. It also works well before or

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

A champagne glass sits among festive decorations with warm, blurred Christmas lights behind. The holiday season brings parties, dinners and a steady flow of drinks. Your choices matter. They affect your energy, sleep and how you feel the next morning. Here is a simple guide to help you pick the healthiest options without killing the celebration. Champagne and Brut Prosecco Dry sparkling wines sit at the top of the healthier list. A standard glass of dry Champagne contains abo

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

Soft morning light falls on a quiet woman reflecting alone in her living room. Here is the thing most of us avoid admitting. We rush around as if being busy is some kind of badge. More classes, more projects, more travel, more everything.Then we wonder why we’re worn out and secretly craving five minutes of silence. So for today, let’s keep it simple and talk like real people, not teachers, not business owners, not planners of fourteen things at once. You know those people wh

Dark brown mystery jar with a question mark label and a spoon inside. Every few days, a new post appears claiming that one spoonful of something will lower cholesterol, clean arteries, regulate blood sugar, and suppress hunger. The ingredient is never clear. That is the warning sign. Vague claims sell clicks, not health. Real food works. Magic shortcuts do not. Here is the truth behind the usual “spoonful” suggestions: A spoon of chia or flax gives fibre. It supports digestio

Long walking stride by the lake showing greater hip extension that lengthens the psoas. How extending your walk and running will change your psoas use When you walk a bit longer or start adding short runs into your week, your psoas wakes up fast. It is one of those muscles that pretends to be quiet in class, then makes a scene the moment you take it outside. The change in demand is simple. Longer strides ask it to lengthen. Running asks it to lift. If your posture drifts, you

A person pauses with a warm mug, checking in with their thoughts in quiet stillness. Life feels full when you work alone. The list grows, the messages pile up, and the pressure to keep up with social media adds another layer of noise. This is why today needs a pause. Sit with a hot drink. Put everything down. Give yourself a few minutes without tasks or screens. Notice how you are feeling. You do not need to fix anything. You only observe what is going on in your body and you

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

A humanoid robot assists a focused Pilates client guiding movement on a Reformer machine. As headlines shout about robots taking jobs and AI replacing humans, it is worth taking a breath and looking at where Pilates teachers stand in all of this. The good news is that we are safe. Our work depends on what AI still cannot understand, human connection. When I was in China last week, I saw incredible advances in AI. Robots were taking orders in restaurants, scanning faces for pa

Subtle facial imbalance highlighting the role of proper tongue placement and oral posture awareness. The internet loves a miracle. In recent years, few have been hyped as much as mewing —the idea that simply adjusting how your tongue rests in your mouth can transform your face, fix your bite, improve posture, and even reduce sleep apnea. It sounds almost too good to be true, and that’s because it mostly is. But the story behind it is interesting, and there’s some science wort

Building everyday strength starts with simple actions like lifting shopping safely and efficiently. Functional strength is not about lifting the heaviest weight in the gym. It is about moving with control and confidence in daily life. The goal is to train your body for the tasks you do every day, such as bending, reaching, carrying, pushing and pulling. Most people think of strength as muscle size or gym performance, but functional strength goes deeper. It combines mobility,

Focused eccentric control as the springs support balanced, continuous movement through the Pilates method. Springs are the heart of the Pilates apparatus. They create a resistance that feels alive, unlike fixed weights. On the Reformer, the Cadillac, or any spring-based equipment, the goal is not to overpower the spring but to move with it. Romana once told me, “Fifty per cent of the work should be you and fifty per cent should be the springs.” That balance defines the method

A client arrives early to a Pilates class, greeted warmly, reflecting true community spirit. As we step into a new month and the approach to the holiday season, it’s a natural time to pause and reflect. This is the last stretch before the pace quickens, before diaries fill, before life speeds up. It’s the perfect time to ask what kind of energy we want to carry into the rest of the year. Earlier this week, I read a post from a teacher asking for advice because her clients wer

focused woman training with weights, showing vitality, balance, and graceful confidence in movement. Over the years teaching, many clients have said to me, “I don’t want to get bulky.”  I’ve heard it so often that I can almost predict when it’s coming. It usually appears the moment I hand someone heavier springs or suggest adding small weights. Somewhere along the line, people were told that strength training automatically equals size. It doesn’t. Building bulk takes a lot o