Small studio·50 minutes·6 people
Prenatal & Postnatal
Six people, one instructor who knows the difference between twelve weeks and thirty-four. Booked after a conversation, not before.
This class isn’t
for you if…
This class is not for you if you have not spoken to us yet. That is the one thing on this website we will not let you skip — every place in this class is booked after a private hour with Nadia, not before, because "pregnant" and "postnatal" cover fifty different situations and a web page cannot tell them apart. It is also not for you if you are looking for a way to get your pre-pregnancy body back; that is not what this class is for and not a sentence you will hear in it.
If that describes you, don’t book Prenatal & Postnatal —let the router find the right one, orask us. Nobody here is on commission.
Who it is for
You are pregnant, or you are in the first year or two after giving birth, and you want to keep moving with somebody who will adjust what you are doing as that changes. Nadia has taught this class for nine years and has trained specifically for it. Everybody in the room is somewhere on the same road, which most people find is the actual point.
What fifty minutes of it feels like
Slower than Foundations and considerably more talkative. The class stops when somebody needs it to stop. There is a lot of work on breathing and on the deep abdominal wall, some strap work for shoulders and upper back because everybody is carrying something heavy at chest height, and hip work that people usually describe afterwards as the best fifteen minutes of their week.
Why you have to talk to us first
Because the honest answer to “is reformer safe for me right now” depends on things we cannot ask in a form. Which trimester. Whether this is your first. Whether you had a caesarean and how long ago. Whether you have been signed off, and by whom. Whether anything is leaking, separating or hurting — all three of which are common, none of which are things to be embarrassed about, and all of which change what we would put you on a reformer to do.
So the route in is one hour with Nadia, one-to-one, £68. She will tell you whether this class is right for you now, whether it is too early, or whether the sensible next step is a women’s health physiotherapist rather than us. That last answer happens perhaps one time in six and we would rather give it than take your money.
During pregnancy
We teach through all three trimesters and routinely have people in the room at thirty-eight weeks. What changes is position — after the first trimester we stop working flat on the back for any length of time, and by the third we have usually rebuilt half the class around side-lying and sitting. You will not be doing a watered-down version of Reformer Flow. It is a different class with different aims: keeping hips and upper back comfortable, keeping the deep abdominal wall awake, and keeping you strong enough for the part that comes after.
After the birth
Come when you are ready and not before six weeks, or ten after a caesarean, and even then only after your postnatal check. The first few sessions are almost entirely breathing and pelvic floor, which feels like doing nothing and is not. Babies are welcome in the small studio if they are not yet crawling — there is a mat, and somebody will always pick them up.
What this class is not
It is not a way to get your body back, and nobody here will use that phrase. It is not a substitute for a women’s health physiotherapist if you need one. And it is not a class you should book online at 11pm because the timetable said there was a space — hence the conversation first.
If that is not it
Foundations
The first six weeks. You learn the machine before you learn the workout.
Reformer Flow
The everyday class. Continuous, cued rather than demonstrated, and it assumes you know the machine.
Tower & Chair
Six people, springs instead of momentum. The quietest hard thing on the timetable.