We sit down with new local author Claire Sparrow, Owner of Chapel Allerton Pilates Studio, to discuss her new book, Hope for Your Pelvic Floor.
Speaking to us fresh off of an appearance on Steph’s Packed Lunch, Chapel A Pilates guru Claire Sparrow was eager to tell all about her new book and how Chapel Allerton Pilates Studio came about: “So I’ve pretty much done Pilates my entire life. When I was a young dancer, we did body conditioning. It wasn’t even called Pilates at that point. Then when I was at university studying dance, we had a dedicated Pilates studio. Then I got injured and Pilates was all I could do. When I went back to dancing I was better and stronger because of the Pilates. I committed at that point that I would go forward and learn to teach the method.”
Claire is a second-generation Pilates teacher, which means that she learned from someone taught by the inventor of Pilates, Joseph Pilates: “I’ve been very lucky that I have travelled the world to learn from the best. London was the only place you could train in the UK originally. Then I went to Toronto, and more recently I became a second-generation Pilates teacher, which means that I was taught and mentored in Florida over about 18 months, with Lolita San Miguel, one of only two people that Joseph Pilates, the creator of the method, certified to teach.”
While it’s known that Pilates has extensive benefits for your health, Claire has also found that it helped her recover from giving birth: “Pilates was there for me after I had given birth, particularly after I had my first son, who is now 18. Afterwards, I realised the impact of being pregnant and having had a birth injury. Pilates really helped me to heal from that experience. Because it benefitted me so much, it was really important to me to create that opportunity for others.”
Even with a packed schedule, Claire knew she wanted to share her knowledge with others and is now releasing a book, Hope for Your Pelvic Floor, which will be coming out on 13th October: “What drove me to write the book was that I’ve been teaching the specialist method that I’ve created called the whole-body pelvic health method for a number of years. I created it out of my own needs because I discovered that I had pelvic organ prolapse. It’s very common for women, about 50% of women have symptoms of it. One day, I was with one of my one-to-one clients and she told me that I was the voice of hope for women, and that I need to write a book.”
Claire’s book, will be launching on 13th October with an event at Chapel Allerton Pilates Studio. Then on 30th November there will be a Q&A event taking place at The Little Bookshop, where you can see Claire read a section of the book live and sign copies.
Chapelallertonpilates.co.uk