01/11/2025
NOVEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER – FITNESS PILATES
Dear Fitness Pilates Member
Hope you had a great October and enjoyed the Halloween celebrations if you attended any. Here we are in November, the month before Christmas. So much to do, so much to arrange before the big event. But no matter how busy you are, it is still important to make time for YOU.
Planning for the Christmas holidays – My last working day will be 12th December.
All classes will resume back to normal on the 5th January 2026.
Price Increase – update
There will be a small price increase to Stisted and Coggeshall classes from £8 to £9. This now brings all of my community classes up to the same price.
Class Timetable
Monday – Stisted Village Hall 0930-1015 & ZOOM – 1100-1145
Tuesday – Braintree Swim Centre 0930-1015
Wednesday – Wethersfield Village Hall 1100-1145
Thursday – Coggeshall Village Hall 1100-1145 & Stisted Village Hall 1500-1545 Chair Pilates (1st Thursday of the month)
Friday – 1st Friday of the month – Fitness Pilates/Mindfulness – Carers Connect – St Peters Village Hall 1115-1200
Don’t forget…. if you can’t make the ZOOM times then I can send you a recording for just £7. Let me know and I can forward you a link from my YouTube Studio.
St Peters Village Hall Pilates/Mindfulness 1st Friday of the month. If you or anyone you know cares for someone then you are more than welcome to attend. Classes are FREE. (donations welcome) Light refreshments will be provided before the class. This is a good time to offer one another support and friendship from other carers. If you would like any further information then please do get in touch.
Christmas is coming up so FAST! - CHRISTMAS PRESENT IDEAS!
I don’t know about you, but every year I struggle to find Christmas presents to suit my family and friends. If you also have a similar problem then I have the perfect solution.
Is there someone you would like to buy for who has talked about Pilates but has never actually got around to attending a class? Then I have your ideal Christmas gift sorted. How about a gift voucher of classes? You could buy 1, 2, 3 or however many you require. Let me know and I will issue you with a personalised voucher.
I also have a few black Fitness Pilates T-shirts left in stock, S M and L so if you would like one then please let me know. They are £17 each.
In the October newsletter we discussed arthritis as it was the World Arthritis Day on the 12th October. Here is a little addition but focusing more on, Osteoarthritis.
🦴 What is Osteoarthritis? (OA)
Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting millions of people worldwide. It is a degenerative joint disease where the protective cartilage that cushions the ends of the bones wears down over time.
It most commonly affects the:
• Knees
• Hips
• Hands
• Spine
As cartilage wears away, bones rub together, leading to pain, stiffness, reduced mobility, and sometimes joint swelling or creaking sounds.
It is not inflammatory in origin (unlike rheumatoid arthritis), but inflammation may occur secondarily due to joint damage.
✅ Do's and Don’ts for Osteoarthritis Management
✅ DO:
• Keep moving with low-impact exercise
• Strengthen muscles around the joint to reduce pressure
• Include balance, mobility and flexibility work
• Manage body weight to reduce joint load
• Use heat or cold to soothe symptoms
• Focus on joint alignment and posture
• Encourage pacing and rest periods when needed
• Include functional movement (e.g. sit-to-stand, stairs)
❌ DON’T:
• Push through joint pain
• Perform high-impact or ballistic exercises (e.g. jumping, running on hard surfaces)
• Overstretch joints with hypermobility
• Lock joints during movement (e.g. hyperextending knees)
• Ignore swelling or acute pain
• Force deep flexion or rotation in affected joints (e.g. knees, hips)
🧘♀️ Fitness Pilates: What to Include & Avoid
🟢 Recommended Pilates Exercises (Adaptable by Joint)
• Seated or supine pelvic tilts and core activation
• Modified bridges (feet closer, smaller range for knees/hips)
• Leg slides, heel taps, and toe taps for gentle hip/knee mobility
• Side-lying leg lifts to strengthen glutes and hips
• Spine mobility: Cat-cow, thoracic rotation (gentle range)
• Postural work: shoulder blade retraction, scapular stability
• Wall roll downs (with support if needed)
• Chair-based exercises if floor work is difficult
• Breath work and relaxation to support nervous system regulation
🔴 Avoid or Modify:
• Deep lunges or squats if knees are affected
• Double leg lifts or leg circles in full range
• Kneeling positions if the knees are painful (use padding or avoid)
• Weight-bearing on wrists/hands if OA affects fingers (modify 4-point positions)
• Excessive spinal extension in those with spinal OA
• Rolling like a ball or dynamic spinal flexion/extension (if causing pain)
• • Incorporate functional daily movement patterns into class
Just like your devices, your brain needs time to power back up
Can you imagine letting your phone battery drain to zero before an important day? Never. Why should your mind be any different?
It was the World Mental Health Day on October 10, and I wrote some ideas on my Facebook group page how to take care of your mental health by resting and recharging your mind regularly.
Here are three brain-boosters to try (aside from meditating):
💙 Drink a glass of water and eat a snack (seriously, it helps)
💙 Take a break outside, get some fresh air and sunshine
💙 Move your body, even if that means a stretch break at your desk
How to Stay Happy
A recent study on happiness has shown that in general quadriplegics are happier than lottery winners, how can this be? What does that tell us about the relationship between the external world and inner state. – notably content and happiness. Only 5% of your happiness comes from what you are doing right now i.e. Pilates to your overall total happiness
Extreme variations in external circumstances do not correlate to happiness i.e. losing your limbs compared to having access to limitless funds you would be happy?
Principles – internal and external - you cannot make yourself happy through external needs. Once you earn up to £75,000 any excess over that has no meaningful impact on your overall happiness.
Volunteering – 2 hours per week
Writing down 3 things a day that you are grateful for, being of service to other people and living a life where you are connected to a community, all increase your sense of purpose and meaning – pursuing meaning and purpose of which happiness is a by-product
Trying to be useful
Follow meaning and purpose instead of personal pleasure – change is inevitable
Focus instead on how can I be useful to other people, what am I grateful for, how I am being of service, what is the meaning and purpose of my life right now, rather than how am I going to be happy.
This study demonstrates that you can be in extreme discomfort or disability you can still be happy compared to someone who has had a massive lottery windfall
You can’t make yourself happy through getting stuff you can only make yourself happy through purpose.
I have attached a Chair Based Pilates workout this month. This is something I deliver on a regular basis to the carers that I teach at Bradwell/St Peters and on Zoom regularly during each month. It’s a great little workout. All the standing exercises can be done, with modification, in the chair. Great for people who have difficulty standing for long periods of time.
If you have any questions regarding the content of the newsletter or anything else, then please do get in touch.
Before I sign off, remember that ‘greatness starts with being grateful. You can’t feel joy without being thankful. Being thankful is a vital component of happiness’.
The more you count your blessings, the more blessing you’ll have to count
Wishing you a great month!
Love Marisa x
Fitness Pilates Health Coach
Mob 07811441810
marisaswain@btinternet.com
https://marisaswain-fitnesspilates.co.uk
www.facebook/PTSfitnesspilatesclassesBraintree
https://www.facebook.com/groups/533434484245389/
You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube
JOY
Joy does not arrive with a fanfare, on a red carpet strewn with the flowers of a perfect life.
Joy sneaks in, as you pour a cup of coffee, watching the sun hit your favourite tree, just right.
And you usher joy away, because you are not ready for it. Your house is not as it must be, for such a distinguished guest, but joy cares nothing for your messy home or your bank balance or your waistline, you see.
Joy is supposed to slither through the cracks of your imperfect life, that’s how joy works
You cannot invite, her, you can only be ready when she appears. And hug her with meaning, because in this very moment,
joy chose you
Donna Ashworth
