About
The teacher, the method and the ideas behind every session.
Hi, I’m Jo
I’m a certified Reformer Pilates instructor with over 12 years’ experience, teaching from my own studio in Ascot.
Sessions are private or shared with just one other person, so I can watch every movement, set the springs specifically for your body and tailor each session to what you want to achieve.
Whether that’s building a stronger back, improving your posture, getting back to exercise after an injury or simply moving with greater strength, confidence and ease, each session is designed around you.
Six principles
Every session, mat or reformer, is guided by the same six ideas.
Concentration
Bring your full attention to each movement, creating a strong mind-body connection and making every exercise purposeful.
Control
Perform each movement with deliberate muscular control, maintaining stability, alignment and awareness throughout.
Centring
Movement is organised from the centre of the body, the powerhouse, creating stability, support and strength from the inside out.
Precision
Quality over quantity. Each movement is performed with careful alignment, control and accuracy, rather than simply completing the exercise.
Breathing
Conscious, coordinated breathing supports movement, encourages efficient oxygen exchange, helps engage the body and gives each exercise rhythm.
Flow
Movements are performed smoothly and continuously, connecting one exercise to the next with rhythm, control and grace.
Joseph Pilates
Joseph Hubertus Pilates (1883–1967) was a German physical trainer who created the method that carries his name. A sickly child with asthma and rickets, he spent his life making himself stronger, studying yoga, martial arts and Greek and Roman training.
Interned during the First World War, he kept refining his exercises with fellow internees, and is said to have rigged springs to hospital beds so bedridden patients could work against resistance. That idea became the Reformer.
In 1926 he emigrated to the United States and opened a studio in New York with his wife, Clara. Dancers, athletes and actors came to strengthen, recover from injury and move with more grace.
He called his method Contrology: the complete coordination of body, mind and spirit. Quality over quantity, controlled breathing and a connected mind and body are still at the heart of every session today.
Ready to start?
Tell me a little about what you’d like to work on and I’ll suggest the best place to begin.