A 3-hour experiential journey through your breathing, body, and mind.

On Sunday, November 16, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Raf De Groote will be back at Pilates Works for a master class on breathing.

Even for those who participated in the previous workshop with Raf, there will be lots of new things to discover!

Raf is a musician and flutist who completed several years of training to become a Body Mapping teacher for Musicians and is a Franklin Method Movement Educator level 3.

What can you expect/what will you learn?

• You will learn to understand and optimize your personal breathing pattern.
• You will gain insight into the relationship between breathing, the brain, and the heart.
• You will learn how the body is designed to breathe and how you can embody this.
• We use insights and exercises from Polyvagal Theory, heart coherence, the Franklin Method, and own methodology.

This master class is scientifically based, safe, and accessible to anyone interested in breathwork.

Where? At the Pilates Works studio, Leguit 15, 2000 Antwerp.

Price? €65

(No refund for cancellation from 1/11 onwards, before 1/11 25% administrative fee will be charged.)

You can book via Momoyoga. 

For more info on Raf, visit his website.

We haven't been idle during the corona lockdown and have quietly moved the studio to a new location, situated only a short distance from our previous one. The new address is Leguit 15.

Right now we're preparing the new studio to reopen on June 15 in the safest possible manner. In a first phase we're starting up with the private and duet classes. Tower and mat classes will be resumed at a later date.

The online mat classes via Zoom will continue until at least the end of June. We're evaluating making a permanent fixture of our range of classes.

We're really looking forward to seeing you at the new studio!

All our group classes (MAT, YIN YOGA) are suspended until until Friday April 3. Private, duet and TOWER classes continue as normal in agreement with the client.

Pilates Works Skype sessions

During the next three weeks Ann will be teaching a mat class online via Zoom on Tuesdays at 18:30, Wednesdays at 18:30, Thursdays at 10:00, Fridays at 12:15 and Saturdays at 11:00. You can enroll for these sessions by mailing your Skype handle and the dates you want to join. We check each Zoom session off your regular mat class card. Let's keep moving!

May 2 2015 was International Pilates Day so on this festive day Pilates Works organised an open air class at the foot of the nearby MAS museum. About 26 Pilates enthusiasts showed up for a one hour mat class.

A splendid time was had by all participants and we're sure to have a repeat event in the future.

Ann gave a long interview on the Dutch Pilates news site Pilatesglossy.nl.

She talks about her introduction to the Pilates technique, founding the Pilates Works studio and starting her own Pilates teacher training programme.

Even though Joseph Pilates himself, as most of his early clientele, was a man (well, duh!) nowadays we can truly speak of a Pilates gender gap. Most studios seem to be run by women for a mostly female clientele and it doesn't really help that the only high profile Pilates magazine on the stands, Pilates Style, bears more than a passing resemblance to Cosmopolitan magazine.

Men, however, do get Pilates. Pilates as an exercise programme can be tailored to men's specific needs and is also a great addition for men already doing other sports, be it tennis, running, weight lifting or golf.

We've read through 2 recent publications aiming to bring Pilates to the male population, here's what we found:

The complete book of Pilates for men is a well-organized book: every exercise is explained in great detail, with clear illustrations of every part of each move. There's also a lot of attention to the mind aspect of every exercise and ways of adapting the exercises to your specific needs (an injury, for example). The book includes exercise plans for beginner, intermediate and advanced mat and reformer on the mat routines. Completing the book is a chapter on how to adapt the exercises for a weak or injured neck, shoulder or back. While no book can replace training with a certified instructor The comple book of Pilates for men is a good starting point for newcomers and can double up as a reference book for more experienced Pilates men. Highly recommended.

The complete book of Pilates for men, Daniel Lyon
ISBN-13: 978-0060820770

Pilates for men takes a slightly less purist approach and mixes up Pilates with more classic gym exercises, including weights. One example exercise combines, for example, the scissors (a part of the classic Pilates Stomach Series) with a bench press using dumbells. Purists will balk at this aproach but we can see how men would enjoy this kind of combination. The book includes several exercise routines, has clear explanations of each exercise using photographs but glosses over (or completely ignores) other vital aspects of Pilates such as body-mind connection and proper breathing. In short, while not a bad book, Pilates for men is more of an exercise book than a true Pilates reference.

Pilates for Men, E. McNergney & Andrew Flach
ISBN-13: 978-1578261871