About Gaile

I certainly didn’t set out to become a movement teacher. As a teenager, I struggled with back pain. My mum was quite forward-thinking and sent me to an osteopath, which was unusual at the time. Then, after I had my son in my twenties, the back pain returned. I would have spasms that could take me out for days at a time, and eventually someone suggested that I try Pilates.

That first class changed the direction of my life. Not because I was instantly brilliant at it — quite the opposite. I suddenly became aware of just how poorly I moved and how little I understood about my own body, and that fascinated me. Until then, I had worked in retail and later as a childminder while bringing up my son. Becoming a movement teacher was never part of some grand career plan. But the more I learned, the more I wanted to know.

I trained initially in a more modern style of Pilates and later discovered classical Pilates, which I completely fell in love with. The training was strict, detailed and very traditional, and for a long time that became the foundation of the way I taught. But over the years, I began to notice things I couldn’t explain. There were parts of the body that didn’t seem to be addressed. Movement patterns I could see in front of me but didn’t fully understand. People could become very good at doing the exercises, yet some of their everyday movement problems remained. That sent me searching.

I went on to study different approaches to movement and biomechanics, and gradually my teaching became less about following a particular method and much more about understanding the person standing in front of me. Why is one hip moving differently from the other? Why is a knee taking more load than it should? Why has one part of the body stopped contributing while another has taken over? That curiosity still drives my work today.

Walking has become a particularly important part of how I study movement because it shows us so much about the whole body. Feet, knees, hips, pelvis, spine, shoulders and arms all have a role to play. When one part stops doing its share, something else usually finds a way to compensate. That whole-body thinking is now at the heart of everything I teach. And I’m still just as interested in movement in my own life. I’m 60, I spend most of my life barefoot, and one of my favourite things is walking out on the South Downs with the dog. I also want to be able to play with my grandson, get down on the floor, get back up again and keep saying yes to the things I enjoy.

That, really, is what good movement means to me. Not performing perfect exercises. Not forcing your body into somebody else’s idea of how it should look. But understanding how your own body moves — and giving it more choices.

My training

My original Pilates training was with the Pilates Institute, before I went on to study classical Pilates with Power Pilates in New York. This involved completing their full 600-hour apprenticeship, qualifying me to teach across the complete classical Pilates system. I later trained extensively in the MELT Method, qualifying through to Level 4. As my interest moved increasingly towards biomechanics and whole-body movement, I certified with Katy Bowman’s Nutritious Movement as a Restorative Exercise Specialist (RES).

I have also studied Anatomy in Motion with Gary Ward and continue to take further modules with Gary as my understanding of movement develops. More recently, I have attended workshops with David Gray Rehab and continue to study his work through his online education platform. I don’t see my training as something that was completed years ago. Human movement is an enormous subject, and continuing to learn, question and refine what I teach is a big part of how I work.