Pilates in Weybridge at St. George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club

What is Pilates?

Pilates is a form of exercise that focuses on building core strength, improving balance, resilience to injury and overall fitness.

With its focus on breath control, Pilates is also superb at helping you breathe more evenly and calmly, helping you relax and destress – so important in worrying times like these!

Best Pilates in Weybridge

Here at St. Georges Hill we have some of the best and most experienced Pilates instructors, waiting to teach you all about this hugely popular fitness regime.

What is Pilates?

Pilates was created by Joseph Pilates, a German emigrant to America, who originally dubbed it “Contrology”. He developed his system during the First World War and some of his exercises were used to help rehabilitate injured war veterans. He created exercises that utilised hospital apparatus such as towels, ropes and pulleys.

Pilates equipment, whilst somewhat more sophisticated and purpose-built today, still reflects this emphasis on resistance and support.

Is Pilates good for you?

Pilates is a good way to build strength in your body, reduce stress, improve balance and stability.

Can anyone join in?

Pilates is very popular with dancers, athletes, and others whose hobbies or income relies on physical strength and fitness.

But you certainly don’t need to be an athlete to get fit with Pilates. At St. George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club we welcome all members to our classes.

You don’t need any previous experience and we can teach everybody from absolute beginner to expert, provided you are over 14. All our Pilates classes are taught by fully certified instructors who know how to guide our members from beginner to advanced levels at just the right pace.

Due to its roots in rehabilitation, Pilates is excellent for people recovering from sports injuries. It’s not a high impact form of exercise. Movements are carried out smoothly with an emphasis on control and precision rather than speed.

Six guiding principles of Pilates

The six principles of Pilates are:

• Breath. Exercises based around the inhalation and exhalation of breath are at the core of Pilates. As with meditation the slow and focussed control of the breath helps your body to achieve more than you might think you are capable as well as calming and focussing the attention on the exercise.
• Concentration. Pilates is designed to challenge and stretch your physical capability (whatever your capability might be). As such, Pilates movements require concentration and focus! This makes it the perfect way to escape from the day-to-day stresses of life and focus your attention on something else for a while.
• Control. Pilates is about taking control of your body, learning to understand its movements and capabilities.
• Precision. Pilates requires great attention to precise movements of your body.
• Core. Most Pilates movements focus on the centre of your body, including the abdominal area, back, shoulders, hips. It’s these areas (often neglected) that makes Pilates great for your core strength.
• Flow. In Pilates there’s an emphasis on graceful and smooth movements. We call this “flow”.

Every exercise in Pilates must adhere to those six principles. Pilates movements are based around these 6 guiding principles.

Is any special equipment needed?

As with all health and fitness systems, there’s a lot of Pilates equipment out there such as Reformers and Cadillacs and plenty of equipment manufacturers waiting to take your money.

But at St. George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club Pilates classes all you need to bring is your own yoga mat! All other equipment will be provided by the Club (please see note on current Coronavirus precautions below).

About Pilates at St. George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club

We currently stage 4 Pilates classes every week. Our classes can be staged inside or in our dedicated outdoor fitness area if the weather is fine.

Beginners are always very welcome. You just need to be over 14 years old (and accompanied by an adult if you’re under 16). We welcome men and women equally.

Our mixed Pilates sessions are a top to toe workout which strengthen and stretch your entire body. In a typical session we’ll work through the classical mat exercises concentrating on the six essential principles.

Each exercise is provided at three levels of difficulty – so beginners and advanced students will be catered for. Our instructors will tailor the classes according to who is present on the day.

Each class lasts 50 minutes. You will feel great after a Pilates session!

Our instructors

All of our instructors are fully certified in Pilates and all have years of experience.

Pilates and Coronavirus

At the moment some special precautions are in place to help mitigate any risk of Coronavirus spread.

There’s a 2m social distancing rule and there’s no contact between the students or the instructors. The studio, outdoor fitness space and equipment are fully cleaned before and after each class. At the moment we ask all students to bring their own mat.

Where to find Pilates classes in Weybridge

St. George’s is a famous and friendly health and fitness club in St. George’s Hill, Weybridge. Pilates is offered as part of our Full and Health & Fitness membership packages. To enquire about membership please contact us on 01932 843541 or email our membership team at membership@stghltc.co.uk