I started doing Pilates in 2005. I had a great teacher who really challenged me. As I moved around the world, Pilates was something I could practice at home, all I needed was a Yoga mat and I was good to go. Learning Pilates though has so much to do with the teacher. You get a bad teacher, you can have a completely different experience that’ll make you hate it. Since coming back to London, I have struggled to find a Pilates class I like. I was recently invited down to try out a couple of one-on-one classes at The Third Space which were definitely two of the best classes I’ve been to.

Since I got into distance running, I’m as guilty as the next person of not stretching enough. All of a sudden, I felt like if my lungs weren’t bursting or I wasn’t ready to collapse at the end of a workout, it didn’t really count. The best Pilates sessions I did when I first started out always left me with a good sweat but I have struggled to find that again.

Let me tell you, I had a one-on-one session with Noel at The Third Space and I was feeling stuff I’d never felt within the first five minutes of the warm up. It’s amazing what can happen when you actually slow down and focus on what’s going on with your body. Noel really made me understand what was happening in each exercise and why. If I wasn’t feeling what I should be feeling, she’d correct me and go over why I was feeling a difference.

We did some work on the mat and some on a reformer. I’ve been to a couple of reformer classes before and didn’t really take to them at all, but now that the use and benefit of them was being explained to me, I enjoyed it much more. I think I’ll always prefer mat Pilates if I’m honest, but with the right instruction, I can definitely see the benefit of occasional sessions on a reformer.

I also tried a Gyrotonic session which I really enjoyed. The equipment looks a little like it was used in medieval torture, but thankfully I had a great instructor talking me through it. Gyrotonic takes elements of swimming, dance, martial arts and yoga and is great for toning and strengthening the body.

The studio at The Third Space is a lovely place to train and the instructors are patient, knowledgeable and extremely good at what they do.

The sessions I had definitely made me realise I need to refocus on Pilates again and that one-to-one instruction may be the way to go.

For more information on The Third Space and the classes they offer, check out their website.