When ill health meant Lottie Pepper was unable to go to the gym she turned to another way of working out – reformer pilates.<\/p>\n
But she soon discovered the exercise, which is taking the fitness world by storm and is performed on a specialised sliding piece of equipment, was not to be taken lying down.<\/p>\n
Lottie Pepper has opened a pilates studio in Rochester<\/p>\n
Mum Lottie, 29, said: \u201cI was naive. I just thought it would be like pilates, a lot of stretching.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I soon realised there was much more to it and fell in love with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was more than two years ago and now the PE teacher has opened up her own \u201cboutique\u201d studio behind Rochester Health Club in Maidstone Road.<\/p>\n
Within four days, about 40 people of all ages and abilities had signed up for courses at the newly-kitted out Reform-Reset gym above the Autospray car wash.<\/p>\n
The full-body workout performed on \u201cthe reformer\u201d uses springs, pulleys and a sliding frame to provide resistance and support.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Unlike the traditional mat pilates, which in the UK emerged hot on the heels of the 1970s\u2019 craze for yoga, reformer allows for a wider range of exercises.<\/p>\n
It can be modified to suit various fitness levels, making it suitable for beginners, experienced practitioners and those returning from an injury.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s made headlines nationally with Harry Styles, Lady Gaga and Margot Robbie all saying they are fans.<\/p>\n
Lottie said: \u201cReformer pilates has broken the mould.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be as challenging as you want and doesn’t even have to be weight-bearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new reformer pilates studio in Rochester<\/p>\n
Lottie has six \u201creformers\u201d in her studio where she runs classes and one-to-one sessions.<\/p>\n
Fifty + Fit is for over 50s and is low impact and joint-friendly, working gently to improve core, stability, posture and mobility.<\/p>\n
Male and Mobility is for men only and is aimed at a full-body workout.<\/p>\n
Lottie said: \u201dTraditionally, there have always been more women doing pilates and I realise that can be quite off-putting if you are a man and haven\u2019t tried it before, to walk into a room full of women who have been doing it for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mum has even persuaded husband Sam, also a PE teacher, to take it up.<\/p>\n
The new Reform-Reset fitness studio in Rochesteer<\/p>\n
With the machines costing \u00a33,000 each, Lottie decided now was the time to \u201ctake the leap\u201d and set up the studio.<\/p>\n
She said having taken a keen interest in sport and wellbeing from an early age, she has seen fitness fads come and go.<\/p>\n
But she added: \u201cI\u2019m sure reformer pilates is here to stay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When ill health meant Lottie Pepper was unable to go to the gym she turned to another way…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114424,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[84,6647,102,192,188,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-114423","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-fitness","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-human-interest","12":"tag-medway","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}