We truly honour and love Joseph Pilates’ original work. Our teaching is in principle based on the Classical Pilates repertoire when it comes to the exercises themselves and the exercise order. However, we may also apply modifications to the traditional exercises or throw in contemporary work to teach you the basic principles, guide you better towards ideal execution or to challenge your attained strength.
Private classes allow your instructor to tailor your workout to your specific needs, requirements and goals. These may be corrective or rehabilitation needs or aim to progress and challenge you with more advanced work. In these classes you will mostly use all available apparatus, but you will also be introduced to the mat exercises repertoire. Private classes are offered on solo and duo basis, primarily in English, or French if so requested.
Collective classes are designed for an open group setting and will not be specific to corrective or rehabilitation work. To attend group classes you must be healthy and free from any serious injury. We request and supervise that you attend the class fitting to your level to prevent injury. Respecting this policy you will also respect your fellow students as well as your instructor, who adapts her teaching to the average level of the class. Please always consult your instructor whether it is safe for you to progress to the next level.
It is important to understand that the levelling and progressions of Pilates classes follow more the complexity of exercises, body positions and that of the class flow rather than how big of resistance you will need to manage. More advanced levels build on the acquired knowledge and established movement patterns from previous levels; it is necessary to understand the connections to progress safely and effectively later.
At the moment we offer four levels for our classical group classes.
Level 1 / Foundation (F) – clients with no or very little experience, with bodily issues,
Level 2 / Beginner (B) – clients with strong understanding of vocabulary, fundamental connections, and how the different apparatus function
Level 3 / Intermediate (I) – this level demands full body awareness, total control and coordination of movement from the practitioner, knowing the exercise order and progression principles, personal modifications, etc.
Level 4 / Advanced (A) – this level is physically very demanding on the body
Occasionally, you may find mixed level classes in the schedule to help you with safe progression.
Open / All level classes (O) are suitable for everyone; we tailor the exercises, the modifications and the class flow to the level of the participants present.
Collective classes are taught in English or French as per schedule and availability of teachers in case of replacement.
Mat classes will guide you through Joseph Pilates’ floor series. Sometimes we will add small equipment, such as the power circle, weights, balls, sticks, elastics and rollers to deepen your understanding of the exercise objectives, or to further challenge you. To provide you with high quality teaching, these classes currently accommodate max. 10-13 people, depending on the class type.
Working against spring resistance on the apparatus Pilates himself designed is a unique experience, rendering you a full body conditioning workout. Currently you can try the Reformers, exercises of the Cadillac / Tower and the Chair. These classes are small, for max. 5 people. To achieve the greatest benefits of these apparatus, we recommend that you follow at least 2-3 collective mat classes or 1-2 private sessions before starting your collective apparatus workout.
During our classical Pilates classes we try to stay as close to Joseph Pilates` original work as possible: we teach you the exercises that he designed, in the order he designed it. The use of props and variations serve to deepen your knowledge of certain moves, to aid with exercise execution or to challenge your attained strength. You may rarely also meet non-traditional exercises in these classes, but only if they fit the purpose and the flow of the class.
In a contemporary class your teacher will teach you exercises with the basic Pilates principles in mind, but more often than not the majority of the exercises will differ from those of Pilates himself, or how he would teach them. Usually the order of a traditional class is not taken into account in these class set-ups either.