Reversing the damage of lockdown #1: Reformer Pilates
Hours spent on Zoom, hunched over a laptop or sitting in a sub-standard chair have played havoc with our musculoskeletal systems over the last 12 months and the nation’s physiotherapists have never been busier trying to repair that damage.
But there are also a variety of ways in which we can help ourselves. I was deeply sceptical of Pilates until a couple of years ago – I thought it was a bit of an easy option, not something that men really did and not especially relevant to what I thought I needed.
However, we bought a Reformer machine for home a couple of years ago and, since lockdown began, I have been training with Laura Montis-Brown via Zoom pretty much every week.
It is definitely the most effective and beneficial form of exercise that I have been able to do over this period.
In the video below, she demonstrates five key exercises to give you a feel for what a Reformer workout involves, and then also shows how you perform them at home without any equipment other than a mat and a stretchy band.
Not only does it strengthen the whole of your core and switch on your glutes (which can get very lazy when seated all day), it makes you much more aware of these muscles in your everyday life, enabling you to activate them more instinctively and reduce the strain on stress points like the lower back. A number of the movements also help to lengthen tight hip flexors, hamstrings and shoulders that have been hunched up all day.
And it is definitely not easy either – Laura is a smiling sadist at heart and I am usually pretty shattered after an hour with her!
There are a number of well-known Pilates studios in London (including Heartcore and Ten Pilates) and elsewhere, with most now opening up for group classes in this next phase of unlocking. If you are new to it, I would strongly recommend one-to-one training with an instructor, initially at least, as you really need to be helped into the correct positions to get the full benefit and it is hard to get this right in a group class.
Laura is on Instagram at @lmontisbrown