Clare Hornby Pilates

20/07/2025

Where there’s class planning there is always a cat.

17/06/2025

Balance pads today! Standing, sidelying, hand and knees - using them to challenge our stability. We’ve also got some roll downs for abs……. see you there x

06/05/2025

Lovely sunny day for Pilates in Berkeley even if it is a bit cold and the Bank Holiday makes me think it’s Monday 😵‍💫!

Therabands today, purple for legs and blue for arms (could also be purple for arms if you’ve had your Weetabix this morning 💪😀).

09/04/2025

I think this is so true and something that I never appreciated when I first started teaching. So many people in my classes meet for coffee, catch up about their lives (often during the warm up 🤣), check in with each other when life is hard, give each other lifts to class when their cars have broken down. Classes are as a much about making a social connection as they are actually doing Pilates ☺️.

Group fitness classes aren’t just about exercise, Mikala Jamison wrote in 2024. https://theatln.tc/z5fhRvrd

When Jamison was teaching indoor cycling, she was the nicest version of herself: “warm, welcoming, and encouraging to the point of profound corniness, despite my usual caustic tendencies,” she writes. People that met in her class started dating; strangers went out for coffee. “These experiences have convinced me that group fitness classes are the best place to make friends as an adult,” she continues, “an idea supported by research that suggests that the glow of exercise’s feel-good chemicals has interpersonal benefits.”

Once, friendships were born in what the sociologist Ray Oldenburg called “third places”: physical spaces that aren’t a home or a workplace, don’t charge (much) for entry, and exist in large part to foster conversation. Group classes don’t quite fit in that definition—they can cost money, and their primary activities are “sweating, grunting, and skipping a few reps when the instructor isn’t looking,” Jamison writes. “But they fulfill many conditions that social-psychology research has repeatedly shown to help forge meaningful connections between strangers: proximity (being in the same place), ritual (at the same time, over and over), accumulation (for many hours), and shared experiences or interests (because you do and like the same things)”—a less awkward way to find people with similar interests than at work or at a party.

Even if you don’t find your next best friend at Zumba class, getting into a fitness habit might help you step out of your comfort zone and make more friends in other spaces.

“A room full of grown adults flailing, shouting, and running miles without ever going anywhere is a fundamentally ridiculous prospect,” Jamison continues. “Ridiculous things, however, play a crucial role in connecting with others: They make us laugh.”

Read more: https://theatln.tc/z5fhRvrd

🎨: Debora Szpilman

06/04/2025

The metalwork has come out! Unfortunately this means I need to cancel classes on Tuesday 8th April as it won’t be ready to teach on. Have a lovely Easter and I’ll see you all after - keep an eye on your inbox for the renewal email 🐣🍭🍫☀️ x

03/04/2025

This shared post below really resonates with me.

The majority of Pilates videos online feature a certain body type in not many clothes performing very advanced combination flows.

It’s very easy to then think that Pilates isn’t for you. It won’t suit your body, you aren’t skinny enough, it looks too difficult, there’s no way in hell you are wearing a crop top and bum crack leggings.

These videos do not represent reality. Pilates, (and exercise in general) is for everybody. If you have a body you can do it. Everything is adjustable. Start slow and scale up. Create positive experiences with exercise and movement, something you enjoy and the fear will lessen.

You do not have to be thin to do Pilates. You are so much more than a number on a scale 😘.

⚖️ This is not your worth.

For too long, women have been taught that our well-being, our value, and even our health are defined by one thing: the number on the scale.

In my clinical practice—and in my own life—I’ve seen just how much pain this causes.
I’ve cared for patients who have dieted themselves into smaller bodies while losing bone, muscle, and joy in the process.
I’ve watched women chase a goal weight, believing it would bring them health, only to end up weaker, sicker, more inflamed, and more confused than ever.

And I’ve felt it too—the pressure to shrink, to take up less space, to be “strong but skinny.”
To be “healthy,” but only if it fits inside a smaller frame.

💥 But here’s the truth: we’ve been brainwashed.
Under the guise of health, we’ve been sold a flawed idea—
That smaller is always better.
That thin is always strong.
That scale = success.

It’s a lie.

The scale can’t measure:
💪 Your strength
🧠 Your purpose
💗 Your resilience
🔥 Your fire
👣 Your impact

We must stop confusing shrinking with thriving.
Strong is not always skinny.
And healthy doesn’t have a fixed size.

I’m here to celebrate muscle, power, recovery, courage, and the bodies that carry us through it all.

Let’s reclaim health on our terms.
Let’s stop chasing the number—and start chasing the life.

01/04/2025

Beautiful sunny morning in Berkeley☀️
Back to basics class today, no equipment, plenty of opportunities to scale up or down depending on how your body is feeling 🙂

15/03/2025

Tuesday 9am class demonstrating Knee Pull in Prone Prep. Ball between knees to activate inner thighs, cues for long neck and neutral spine. Progressed into Long Stretch (aka the Plank) for more whole body exercise 🥵💪🌶️ xx

25/02/2025

All set up for this morning’s teaching in SUNNY Berkeley!

Resistance bands for upper body and lower ab strength plus some feel good hip mobility work. See you there!

14/02/2025

At the end of a great term of Pilates in Berkeley 😀👍😍

I have a few spaces left in my Tuesday morning 10:15 class if you would like to join? This class is suitable for beginners and also if you are recovering from or carrying an existing injury. Please contact me to book ###x