An original & award winning fusion of Yoga & Pilates that has been changing lives for over 30 years. Working from the inside out to connect mind, body & spirit.
ORIGINS OF YOGALATES™
Yogalates™ can best be described as a melting pot of the beliefs and practices of Yoga and Pilates embodied by both the east and west, effectively merging the ancient practice of Yoga from the east with posture enhancing dynamics of Pilates from the west.
Louise Solomon first developed Yogalates organically for her own body. Her experience of injury in the Yoga room as a fledgling student led her to the Pilates room that led her back to the Yoga room. With a fundamental knowledge of core and function that had her yearning for more her body and mind had experienced a body awakening that was unprecedented at that time. Louise then trained in Ashtanga Yoga full time for one year and naturally applied her Pilates training the birth of Yogalates had begun.
Working from the inside out, Yogalates™ improves body awareness and alignment to help develop proper movement patterns that we use in our daily lives, and focuses on a practice designed for “Western” bodies. Designed to awaken and strengthen the subtle and structural core muscles through Pilates based exercises while incorporating the asana (postures), philosophy and wisdom of Yoga.
The importance of breath is the ultimate focus in each and every class; the ease of breath, ease of pose and ease of mind enhances a mindful practice. Each session is started with body breath awareness “Savasana” as you discover what Louise terms as your functional resting breath “ a resting core”. The class is then layered to deepen core awareness recruitment and strength as the complexity of poses are built and explored through the many levers and loads applied.
The use of resistance bands are functionally used in an array of exercises that stretch every section of the feet, ankles, legs and hips with rotations and resistance (which replicate some of the exercises on the Pilates machines).
These help open the hip joints as well as warm the thigh muscles. The use of the bands also creates a suction effect deep inside the joint that enhances the secretion of synovial fluid and is a great preparation for the complex standing poses of Asana.
Through guided cues that aid the recruitment of core strength in static holds, slow flow movements, inspirational vini sequencing, foundational standing and balancing postures, you learn to balance from your core with ease and efficiency of breath as you fine-tune the core of body.
