Gentle and Strong with Marketa • Pilates • Yoga • Coaching

Gentle and Strong with Marketa • Pilates • Yoga • Coaching I teach Pilates and yoga in West Dorset, blending mindful, intelligent movement to support strength, balance, coordination, and ease.

My work is grounded in kindness and in helping you feel at home in your body.

Stuffing my face with one of my absolute Czech/Slovak favourites… a giant strudel from the very bakery my stepdad used t...
21/08/2025

Stuffing my face with one of my absolute Czech/Slovak favourites… a giant strudel from the very bakery my stepdad used to run. Guess the filling? 😍 Yes… I ate the whole thing, haha!

But Czech/Slovak culture isn’t only about pastries—it’s also about our spa towns, with their stunning art nouveau buildings, colonnades, and bubbling fountains of healing waters. People still come to sip the hot, mineral-rich springs and stays in these places are embedded in the national health systems. The waters often smell eggy, sulphurous, and a bit wild—but they’re so good for you! These spa rituals have been part of our way of life for centuries, weaving together beauty, healing, and community.

So here I am—one minute drinking a steaming cup of sulphur water, the next devouring strudel. And honestly, both feel like nourishment and fun. For me, health is always about balance: movement and mindful choices, but also joy, culture, and the sweetness of life.

Today, that balance looked like flaky pastry + eggy spa water under the colonnades. Oh yes ! 😁🌸

We’ve landed in Prague! 🇨🇿 First stop: the garage raid for our traditional favourite foods 🤭 Andy’s gone straight for a ...
19/08/2025

We’ve landed in Prague! 🇨🇿 First stop: the garage raid for our traditional favourite foods 🤭 Andy’s gone straight for a řízek (schnitzel) baguette, while I’m sticking with my childhood favourite—oplatky (wafer bars) 😍 heavenly flavours and textures, pure nostalgia! Squats later, maybe… haha 🥰

I recently wrote to Natural England to say how much we have all loved the sunflower space for our evening yoga and I rec...
17/08/2025

I recently wrote to Natural England to say how much we have all loved the sunflower space for our evening yoga and I received the loveliest reply back 🌻💛

They said:
“Thank you so much for your email and for getting in touch. We really appreciate your feedback and to hear that you are enjoying and using the reserve. It was purchased in 2023 with the local community in mind, so we are very pleased to hear that it is being used for that benefit. Your yoga class looks great!”

It means so much to have access to land like this — to walk, breathe, and simply be in nature. I feel deeply grateful that these places are cared for and opened up for the community, so we can all reconnect with the rhythms of the natural world. 🌿

🌻Thank you so much for coming to the sunflowers 🌻What a lovely gentle and breezy evening, the sun breaking through, and ...
13/08/2025

🌻Thank you so much for coming to the sunflowers 🌻

What a lovely gentle and breezy evening, the sun breaking through, and golden petals all around. We balanced on uneven ground, strengthened by the challenge, and breathed more deeply in the open air. Movement outside clears the mind, opens the heart, softens tension, and reminds us we’re part of something bigger.

We closed with a prayer for loving kindness — a wish for all beings to be safe, well, and at ease — carried on the wind to wherever it was needed most. ✨

🌻Yoga in the Sunflowers 🌻Today! Meet 5:30pm at the hall (or make your own way for 6pm).Lots of balance with that gorgeou...
13/08/2025

🌻Yoga in the Sunflowers 🌻

Today! Meet 5:30pm at the hall (or make your own way for 6pm).
Lots of balance with that gorgeous sunflower view – you might want to wear minimal shoes.
It’s a bit wild underfoot, so be ready for that!
Bring what you need: mat, water, smile.
Can’t wait!🌻🌻🌻

🌸 The Joy of the Garden & the Prayer of Nature 🌻This summer, my garden has been a constant source of joy. The dahlias ha...
11/08/2025

🌸 The Joy of the Garden & the Prayer of Nature 🌻

This summer, my garden has been a constant source of joy. The dahlias have been outrageously beautiful — big, velvety blooms in gentle pinks and creamy whites — and the asters have filled the late summer light with their delicate pink and purple stars.

Some of these plants are ones my grandma loved. She would have smiled to see the café-au-lait dahlias or the soft mauves of the asters she used to grow. Flowers have a way of holding memory and love — they remind us of hands that planted before us, of seasons gone, and of beauty that quietly repeats itself, year after year.

This Wednesday, we’ll gather for Sunflower Yoga, inspired by that open-hearted turning towards the light that sunflowers do so naturally. We’ll breathe, stretch, and root ourselves in stillness, like flowers holding steady in the wind.

As we practice, let’s offer a prayer for the world — that more light may find its way into the dark places, that kindness may grow where there is conflict, and that we, like the flowers, can be bearers of beauty, hope, and renewal.

May we notice the small miracles in nature… and let them change us. 🌼

🌻 Yoga in the Sunflowers – Wed 13th August, 6–7pm 🌻Above Maiden Newton · Hog Cliff Nature Reserve Join me for a magical ...
08/08/2025

🌻 Yoga in the Sunflowers – Wed 13th August, 6–7pm 🌻
Above Maiden Newton · Hog Cliff Nature Reserve

Join me for a magical evening yoga session surrounded by blooming sunflowers in a peaceful meadow just above Maiden Newton. This beautiful field has been planted and cared for by Natural England as part of their Hog Cliff Nature Reserve – and it’s currently in full golden bloom. 🌾💛

🧘‍♀️ Details:
🗓 Wednesday 13th August
🕕 6:00–7:00pm
📍 Field above Maiden Newton (at Hog Cliff)
💰 Donations to me on the day – £10 suggested
✨ Some proceeds will be passed on to Natural England in thanks for this beautiful space.

🚶‍♀️ It’s an approximately 30-minute long, scenic walk up from Maiden Newton Village Hall, so please plan your time accordingly and wear good footwear.

🌿 The ground is lumpy and wild – bring a mat, a blanket, and anything else you need to be warm, supported and comfy as we move, sit and rest.

This will be a lovely, grounding practice, suitable for all levels, immersed in the late summer beauty of Dorset.

Let me know if you’re coming – I’d love to share this with you. 🌻✨
Marketa 🌸💪

🌟 Meet Your Quiet, Loyal Core Friend 🌟Ever heard of the multifidus?Most people haven’t. It’s the quiet friend in your de...
05/08/2025

🌟 Meet Your Quiet, Loyal Core Friend 🌟

Ever heard of the multifidus?
Most people haven’t. It’s the quiet friend in your deep core — steady, reliable, and always working behind the scenes to keep your spine stable.

It runs along your spine like a supportive zipper, helping you stay balanced, upright, and coordinated, whether you’re walking, twisting, or doing something dramatic like… say… holding a giant boulder in airplane pose in the Dales 😄🪨

This deep spinal stabiliser:
🌸 Supports your vertebrae one by one
🌸 Activates during slow, controlled movement
🌸 Helps prevent back pain and injury
🌸 Works with your breath and posture without needing to be “squeezed”

You train it through subtle work:
✨ Bird dog
✨ Prone arm/leg lifts
✨ Gentle extension and balance
✨ Breath-led spinal control

When it’s weak or underactive?
😳 You might feel wobbly or unstable
🫢 Other muscles (like glutes or obliques) overwork
🤔 Your posture collapses — or your back complains

It’s not flashy, but it’s essential.
I’m exploring it more deeply in the foundation video of my upcoming Pilates series — because every good movement starts from the spine outward.💪🌸

🌞 August already — how’s your body feeling in all this full-on summer energy?🌞Long walks? Garden knees? Late nights? Roa...
04/08/2025

🌞 August already — how’s your body feeling in all this full-on summer energy?🌞

Long walks? Garden knees? Late nights? Road trips? That post-swim spine?

This time of year can feel expansive and energising… and also a bit scattered. Which is why Pilates can be the steady thread that keeps you feeling grounded, strong, and at home in your body — no matter what the week holds.

🌿 I’ve made a few small changes to the August class calendar, so if you’d like to join (or keep going), just message me and I’ll get you booked in.

Are you staying local? Having visitors? Slipping in some quiet time between the busyness?
Wherever you are in your August rhythm — you’re welcome on the mat. 💪🌸

💪Are you ready for some teasers and donkey kicks? 😄We’re back — and we’re starting today! Three more weeks of summer Pil...
14/07/2025

💪Are you ready for some teasers and donkey kicks? 😄

We’re back — and we’re starting today! Three more weeks of summer Pilates to enjoy: movement in the warmth, strength in the body, space in the breath. A chance to arrive fully in ourselves, to steady and strengthen as we lean into the last stretch of the season. Are you ready?

A few days ago, I had breakfast perched on the roof of my friend’s car, parked high on the moor in the quiet of early light. The Dales have been wide, grounding, and humming with wild life. Our mornings weren’t slow — long, early drives across the moor through that rare kind of spaciousness, watching hares and bunnies slip through the heather, curlews and lapwings rising and calling from the land.

Wild blueberries underfoot. Big rocks under hand and foot. Cold rivers plunges to shake off the heat. Days shaped by moving, resting, noticing.

Barefoot walking across these hills, alongside my friend who hasn’t worn shoes in years, brought its own kind of teaching. To move without layers between us and the earth changes more than our step. It changes attention. Posture. The way the body finds its place in the world. We forget how much misuse begins in disconnection — how we brace, grip, and hold ourselves out of alignment with what’s beneath us. Walking barefoot returns something. It reorders things quietly, from the ground up.

And yes… after breakfast, a little teaser stretch on the roof — obviously.

See you on the mat.💪🌸

🌿 No classes this week 🌿There are no yoga or Pilates classes this week, as I’ve taken a pause to walk in the Yorkshire ...
07/07/2025

🌿 No classes this week 🌿

There are no yoga or Pilates classes this week, as I’ve taken a pause to walk in the Yorkshire Dales.,

Today we’ve been in Gunnerside Gill, a quiet valley in Swaledale shaped by time and contrast. The hills are intensely green, soft with moss and fern, but threaded with the stone remains of old lead mining — chimneys, spoil heaps, and trackways half-returned to the earth. There’s a stillness here that feels full.

Walking here is a kind of practice. Noticing how the land holds the stories, how the body responds to the path, how breath moves differently in the expansiveness of nature. Such joy 🌞🩵

While classes are on pause - keep noticing — how you stand, how you walk, how you lean into your core. Let your practice be something lived, not just done.

Back to classes next week, and I look forward to seeing you then 🌸💪

Markéta x

🌸🌸🌸I’m aware that hardly any of my recent posts have actually been about Pilates… but here’s the thing: Pilates is life....
02/07/2025

🌸🌸🌸
I’m aware that hardly any of my recent posts have actually been about Pilates… but here’s the thing: Pilates is life.

It’s the reason I can lift things in the garden without hurting my back. It’s why I can enjoy long walks with my dog without flaring up old aches. It’s why I feel strong, well, and grounded in the everyday.

It hasn’t always been like this. I’ve had back pain. I’ve had moments when I didn’t feel confident moving or trusting my body. Pilates changed that—not just through exercises, but through how I relate to my body: with awareness, care, strength, and breath.

And now, the garden is full of mallow flowers—my signature gentle and strong flowers 💓😀🌸.
I planted them from seed, encouraged by a gardening friend who gave me the nudge to try. I wouldn’t have done it without her.

Sometimes we all need that bit of support—someone to say, “give it a go”—to try something new that might just change things.
Something that might grow into strength, softness, and joy.

Pilates. Seeds. Life.
It’s all connected—and sometimes it even blossoms in pink. 🌸🌸🌸

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Cattistock
Cattistock
DT20JH

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