Sorry, Not Sorry: No Big Fun Hot Spicy Burner Glutes Workouts Here
Two weeks ago in the Sunday Times there was an article by “Pilates devotee” Polly Vernon essentially exploring the increased popularity, and thus dilution of, this thing we call Pilates, and if Pilates was therefore another simply lovely thing ruined by a TikTok generation always looking to monetize and dumb down the next new ‘boom’. Apparently aimed at the ‘millennial fitness market’ these ‘SkulptKore’ classes and “big,fun, hot-girl workouts” are, she quite rightly points out in a pretty well researched piece, taught by under qualified instructors and are distant cousins of the original, often now called ‘classic’ Pilates.
This was no surprise to me. There is a continual discussion, sadly often quite heated and personal on social media between who really is teaching proper ‘classic’ Pilates and those of us, yup hands help up firmly here, who are, gasp, considered the deviants. And we aren’t even spicy ones…
As ever, such an article gets Liz and I thinking and reflecting and then often reassured by where we are with our Vita Pilates way. Well, actually, usually it’s sensible and wise Liz peeling mildly neurotic Samm off the ceiling with my manic ‘I must do another course…do we need to be more spicy??’ response. Ah, Wise Liz, who reminds me of how far we have come since our ‘gold standard’ comprehensive teacher training and all the surprises along the way; learning about fantastic, clever fascia slings and discovering our Franklin and ‘golden’ balls have probably been our biggest joy at blending new learning with the authentic core (yes, pun always intended!) Pilates principles. And that we aren’t a big flashy studio in a big flashy city, and our evolution has been a response to our broad client base, and our own constant curiosity about marvellous, amazing human bodies.
So, sorry, we won’t be getting all burning hot or spicing up anytime soon, or ever. And we are not all about the ‘perfect’ body or Pilates as a performance art. We’ve personally no interest in machines and springs and don’t favour adhering strictly to just the classic mat repertoire that is over a 100 years old when there is so much fantastic new solid research about marvellous amazing humans bodies and how they can move. Instead, we stick to the principles of Joseph Pilates’ work. As Vernon points out in her article, Pilates’ original ‘Controlology’ system was an absolute mash up of yoga, martial arts, gymnastics and watching animals at the zoo, with influences from boxing and ballet thrown into the ever evolving mix.
What we love is his simple mat, and small classes so we get to know you all well, some equipment to make each week a bit different, a solid balance of the familiar to gage progress and some new moves for challenge, modifications where needed and some fun without the ‘hot girl workout bit’, thank goodness. We take our planning incredibly seriously, and are now very discerning about the courses we take (I’ve got MUCH better at that!) We love our jobs and never anticipated the enormous sense of community it would come with. And we weren’t ever never going to pull off a quiet and crooning Pilates class with plinky music, it’s not our style. The only spice you might be getting this September is hearing about everyone’s summer holidays…
