On the 17th of May we are delighted that Pilates in Motion will be joining us in Ealing Studio 1.
It is a story come full circle, as Anousha and Mike previously taught out of triyoga’s original home at Primrose Hill.
Anoushka and Mike of Pilates in Motion live and work together, and their stories of Pilates discovery are similar. Both originally took it up in the wake of injury, and the profound impact it had on their lives in terms of rehabilitation inspired them to dive deeper. What they learnt convinced them that although Pilates is sometimes seen as a mechanistic approach to the body, not only is an effective preventative of further injury, it holds tremendous power to heal at deeper levels.
Pilates provides a framework to take responsibility for your own wellbeing
Anoushka’s initial forays into Pilates as post-injury rehab worked wonders for her physical fitness, but she realised that in its form lay something much deeper – Pilates provided her with a framework to take responsibility for her own wellbeing. What began as a tool to heal on the physical level soon became something more profound.
“Pilates has been a journey through and out of pain,” she says. Similarly, Mike began Pilates to address the wear and tear on his body that came from a demanding job and a love of running, but he also realised that it offered him much more: a whole new way of relating to himself. Pilates training healed his back injury, but just as importantly, it allowed Mike to understand that his very identity was structured around his experience of ongoing pain – and that he could let go of that.
All this might sound familiar to yoga practitioners, who learn that the yoga tradition views the body and mind as one entity, and that changing one therefore affects the other. Joseph Pilates himself was something of a radical who believed that his system – originally called “Contrology” – was not just a method of exercising, but of achieving lasting, vibrant health on all levels. He’s even quoted as saying that “it’s the mind itself that shapes the body.” Sound familiar?
Anoushka and Mike hold fast to Joseph Pilates’ original ideas – even if their working methods do not. Determined to serve their students first and foremost, they teach many approaches to the discipline and incorporate other movement methodologies, too. Their state-of-the-art studio includes kettle bells, barbells, pull-up bars and gymnastic rings alongside Pilates apparatus, and the couple will teach any exercise that they believe will help an individual pursue his or her health goals.
Ultimately, Pilates in Motion teach Pilates as embodiment: a way of relating to oneself that prioritises but is not limited to the body.
Improving a student’s relationship to the body through building autonomy, self-efficacy and responsibility naturally spreads out into other areas of their lives, something Mike and Anoushka have seen time and time again.
We don’t “do teaching” at people
This deeper approach to their discipline extends into how Anoushka and Mike view their roles as teachers, too. “We don’t “do teaching” at people,” Mike explains, and the couple agree that their aim is to draw out what is already within a student, in such a way as to make this an exciting journey of self-discovery for each individual. Efficient, powerful, easeful movement is within everyone’s grasp, for instance, and Mike describes his job as coaching movement efficiency. Anoushka’s focus is on enabling her students to sense and feel, to locate themselves within their body, and that necessarily requires students to learn the skill of listening to the body.
Accordingly, Anoushka considers that she guides, facilitates or sign-posts her students as much as she teaches. She and Mike support and encourage their students’ physical progression through the movements, and both agree that they are ultimately guiding people towards self-appreciation and acceptance as much as they are towards mastery of the external form of Pilates. From this perspective, they agree, one cannot really be “good” at Pilates – it is an ongoing journey, never an end in itself.
Deeply engaged with the needs of their students, Mike and Anoushka’s goal – to enhance their students’ health through the practices they teach, the relationships that in turn facilitates, and the community they are building – make them true pioneers of Pilates, whilst also holding true to Joseph Pilates’ vision. Pilates in Motion bring something unique to triyoga at the same time as epitomising the thread that connects our yoga, Pilates and treatments communities across our centres (and now online).
We’re delighted to work with them to help realise our goal of offering powerful, effective, sustainable modalities that address the challenges of these times whilst uplifting and connecting us all. Welcome Anouska, Mike and the whole team at PIlates in Motion. See their full schedule at triyoga Ealing here, including private, group and reformer classes .