I first encountered Pilates during a babysitting shift as a young teenager. The family’s two kids had gone to bed and I was rifling through their DVDs to fill the last couple hours of the night. Right between Ghost and Clueless was a somewhat retro-looking Mari Windsor workout DVD that promised lean legs and a sculpted tum. I popped in Clueless but made a mental note to check out Pilates videos during my next trip to the video store.

In those days, Pilates was thought by many to be the preserve of middle-aged housewives. But in the noughties, the rest of the world woke up to the benefits of strengthening and lengthening muscles via small, controlled bodyweight movements. For my 13th birthday I received an MTV Pilates mash-up, featuring 20-somethings with taut bodies and cheesy all-American grins. I could choose to isolate my arms, abs, bum or legs – or to build my own workout using any of the above sequences. And I could select a soundtrack of pop, rock or R&B songs. Had Pilates got cool? It was well on its way…

Fast forward 15 years and classic floor Pilates has evolved to include many more branches of Pilates-inspired workouts using a greater variety of apparatus than a medieval torture chamber. But victims of the specialist Pilates studios in London enter by their own volition, and walk away with the glowing faces of someone who’s just completed one of the world’s most effective workouts.

Here are the must-try disciplines to tick off in your search for the school of Pilates best suited to you…

Classic Mat Pilates

This is Pilates as it was conceived by Joseph Pilates. Using nothing more than your bodyweight for resistance and your core for support, you take on a sequence of moves designed to target both major and minor muscles in your body. The foundation for all other Pilates disciplines, this is the best place to master your ‘neutral spine’ and ‘corset abs’.

Where to try it? @TriYogaUK – Not just a yoga destination, TriYoga’s team are experts in functional movement and its four citywide locations are a great place to learn Pilates, whether you’re just starting out or progressing your Teaser.

Reformer Pilates

Invented to advance the art and skill of Pilates, the reformer bed adds another dimension to your workout. Complete with a sliding platform, cables to pull or push your bodyweight in a variety of different ways, and weight selections to increase or decrease the resistance, Reformer Pilates is a full-scale gym in a single unit.

Where to try it? @Heartcorelife – With seven locations in London, Heartcore reigns strong in its dominance over the Reformer Pilates market. Expect best-in-class beds and beautiful venues.

Chair Pilates

The Pilates chair is another development since the reformer bed. You complete the workouts whilst upright and engage every muscle using bars and steps designed to increase or decrease the weight of your body for resistance. My favourite move on the chair is the pike, using mostly your core and a bit of your arms for stability to shoot your bum up to the ceiling. In my head I’m a gymnast. Even if the mirror doesn’t necessarily agree…

Where to try it? @TransitionZone – Run by the always glamorous Claire Finlay, this trendy Fulham studio combines the best fitness innovations with tried and tested exercise principles. You can even pair Chair Pilates with cardio on the Powerplate for a super-efficient session you can squeeze into the work day. And the on-site Recovery Cafe provides a comfortable place to hang out post-workout and treat yourself to homemade healthy treats.

Tower Pilates

If a Transformer and reformer bed had a baby, the result would be the Pilates Tower. As well as the varied weight selections and pulleys to engage even the muscles you didn’t know you had, the tower has extra structural components you can unlock to add new angles to your workout. Some experience in Pilates is recommended, as there’s less support for advanced moves compared with the reformer bed.

Where to try it? @BePilates – Easily London’s most pristine Pilates location, this Marylebone studio is so well-equipped it’s evolved into a training centre for Pilates teachers-to-be.

METcore Pilates

Little more than a foam roller with cables at one end, the minimalist METcore reformer is far more challenging than it appears. Your balance will be tested as you perform the exercises barefoot and move through multiple planes while staying in complete control of your body plus lightly weighted cables. Core stabilisation is key. And a welcome side effect is the myofascial massage you get from the foam roller as your rest your feet or back against the METcore base.

Where to try it? @FormStudiosLdn – Launched this year by an original Heartcore instructor, form combines the minimalist METcore machine with HIIT intervals on the TRX and Ski Erg. The result is a full-body, all-purpose workout that ticks all your boxes for strength, toning and cardio conditioning.

Cardio Pilates

If, like me, you don’t feel that you’ve worked out unless you’ve worked up a sweat, Cardio Pilates is the thing for you. As well as all the best tum toning moves from mat or Reformer Pilates, these sessions introduce heart-pumping cardio intervals on the floor or using other equipment like weights, kettlebells and TRX to maximise fat burn and multiply the benefits of your workout.

Where to try it? @PilatesPT – Founder of the well-known conditioning-meets-HIIT Model Method training technique, Hollie Grant’s private Pilates studio in Fulham is without doubt the most premier place to experience Cardio Pilates with a pro.

Bootcamp Pilates

When I think about bootcamp I think about camouflage and mud. Or of the peanut butter milkshakes at Barry’s Bootcamp in Euston. But Bootcamp Pilates is somewhat different. There are no cruel drill sergeants – only well-trained Reformer Pilates instructors who fit a ‘jumping board’ onto your bed so you can push off it during explosive exercises like horizontal jumping squats. It’s similar to Cardio Pilates, but you don’t even have to get off the bed. Mind you, getting out of bed is a prerequisite.

Where to try it: @MoveYourFrame – The ‘it’ studio of the East End, FRAME Shoreditch and FRAME Queenspark have dedicated space for Reformer Pilates and Reformer Bootcamp classes. I love that they keep numbers to a handful so the teaching remains highly personalised.

Piloxing

Another fusion Pilates workout you may have heard of in recent months is ‘Piloxing’. As you’ve probably guessed, it combines the principles of Pilates with those of boxing. Which makes perfect sense, because when have you ever seen a boxer with anything less than a six-pack? Piloxing is still limited to a few of gyms in London and I have yet to try it for myself, but it’s top of my to-do list!

Where to try it? @PushStudios – A Southeast London multi-discipline gym that has received plenty of press since introducing Piloxing to its timetable. (Here one Daily Mail journalist gives her first-hand report.)

Ready to take your Pilates to the next level? Have I missed your favourite studio off the list? Leave a comment below to share your own experience! 

Cast your mind back to your teenage years when your after-school sport of choice determined the label with which others identified you. Badminton: geek. Pennyfarthing: class clown. Hockey: jock. Dance: untouchably popular. Netball: all-rounder. Archery: a little left wing. Chess boxing: seriously, who does that?

Well, now London’s scene of emerging boutique fitness studios lends itself to similar labelling. There’s a workout for everyone, but this time no one’s judging. The labels are interchangeable and there’s something fun about adopting a new fitness persona du jour. Here I round up three of my favourite guises and the new-this-year places where you can try them for size.

The Badass

1Rebel: This super edgy East London studio operates a strict “retox to detox” ethos and caters to your inner punk who wants to sin hard by night and sweat yourself virtuous by day. The Reshape class is a hardcore combo of circuit training and treadmill intervals designed to expel some toxins before your liver self-destructs. Meanwhile, the Ride class takes the party to the spin bike. There are even live performances for those who love to rock out while they ride.

Challenger: But watch – there’s a rival rebel on the scene. Barry’s Bootcamp will soon be opening its doors in a nearby location off Old Street and promises to bring its already cult followers in tow. OK, so Barry’s diehards’ idea of retoxing may be a shake containing dairy milk instead of almond milk, but it’s promise to be “the hardest workout in the world” is enough to tempt anyone drawn to adversity.

The Science Nerd

Orangetheory: If you like to measure your workout with statistics and have a firm grasp of the processes at play to generate ATP for energy, produce sweat and stoke your metabolic furnace, Orangetheory is the perfect place to indulge your inner geek. While you migrate between the treadmill, the water rower and the weights floor, a personal heart rate monitor sends data to visible screens around the room. Your goal is to remain in the ‘orange zone’ for as long as possible, which equates to at least 85% of your maximum heart rate. Do that and you can mathematically predict how many calories you’ll burn post-workout thanks to the scientifically recognised afterburn effect. It’s an ego trip for any lab rat. And while it’s been in Islington under the David Lloyd umbrella for almost a year, it’s now also a hop and skip away for anyone living near Aldgate (lucky me!).

Challenger: To channel your inner Darwin, you may also be inclined to check out Virgin Active’s new class ‘The Grid’. It’s a 30 minute workout that takes you back in time before evolution and human advancement planted us on our backsides for 8 or more hours a day. Combining primal movements practised by early man – all variety of pulling, pushing, bending and twisting – it will have you going ape to burn up to 900 calories a class. You won’t even have to think particularly hard, because the workout is mapped out on a pre-delineated floor that takes you step by step toward fitness success. They don’t call it the scientific method for nothing.

The Prom Queen

Form Studios: If you’re always the first to hear all the best gossip, then you’ve probably already trained at Form Studios in Notting Hill. Following a soft launch just last week, word is already spreading about the new London workout that’s both exclusive and trend-setting. Founder Elissa Elhadj, celebrity trainer and former Heartcore instructor, travelled across the US to discover and claim for her own the revolutionary METcore. A minimalist offshoot from the reformer Pilates bed, the METcore acts to offset your balance and engage multiple muscle groups as you work with built-in resistance cables. She also throws in some fat-burning HIIT using a SkiErg – an upstanding cardio machine half way between a rower and battleropes. The class is very cool, extremely effective and accommodates a maximum of 8 people. Get in early to be on the right side of the whispers.

Challenger: Although barrecore is already one of London’s (and Manchester’s) most respected fitness institutions, it is upping its game with double newness. Its new studio in Kensington has been open just two weeks, and already it’s home to an exclusive new class that won’t be rolled out to other barrecore studios until next month: barreASANA. Fusing the best of Vinyasa yoga with classic barre moves, barreASANA offers a spine-opening sequence perfect for an in-the-know prima ballerina who wants to limber up both her body and her reputation. Stiletto toes, girls!

Let me know which new studios you’ve been frequenting and feel free to comment on your favourite ‘face of fitness’. And remember that this post is written in the spirit of fun and nostalgia – Fit Brit Collective is a stereotype-free community open to everyone! Thanks for reading. 

Like many of winter’s victims, I started the New Year with a terrible bout of flu. It knocked me for nine and certainly ruled out an early start on any fitness-related resolutions. But as all ailments and pains do, the symptoms passed after a few days and I’m already steadily regaining my pre-Christmas strength. Although I hated not being able to exercise at the time, my body is healthier for the much-needed rest and I’m able to work much harder now than I might be if I’d put extra stress on my system and prolonged the illness.

It’s important to remember that your body is a simple system of input and output. We only produce so much energy to distribute for different functions. There are the basic everyday processes like circulating blood and oxygen around the body, regenerating cells, sending primary nervous signals from the brain and eliminating toxins. If, on top of this, your immune system is fighting off an infection or your body is attempting to heal from an injury, much of its energy will be redirected for those purposes. As a result, there is less capacity left over to fuel high-intensity demands like exercise. Your body will rise to the demand, but only at the sacrifice of other restorative functions essential for your wellbeing. By forcing yourself to do a round of burpees, you may be putting your body at cross purposes with itself and actively preventing recovery.

Any number of things can disrupt your training – illness, injury, period pain, feelings of extreme stress or depression, and of course those logistical things like simply having too much to do. In the face of all today’s pressures (including the expectations we have of ourselves), I wanted to compile a definitive guide for when to push through the pain and when to pull back. I hope this helps you put your training in perspective and appreciate your body for all the wonderful things it can do.

These are the rules I’ve found most effective for me. If you have rules of your own or different experiences to add, I’d love to hear about them. Please get in touch or leave a comment below to share your views.