Northampton pilates instructors team up to support each other as they continue online classes

A group of pilates instructors who have had to adapt to teaching online during the lockdown have teamed up to support each other.

Katy Bath, Jessica Lee, Carrie Hill, Emily Cox, Carly Turner, Becky Harris, Sue Howkins, Christina Winfield, Henna Piches, Ann Howgego, Jessica Wright and Sarah-Jane Johnston are all pilates instructors in the Northampton and Kettering areas.

Despite usually being each other’s business competitors, the women are all working together to promote one another’s online classes, which has received a great response from their clients.

Katy Bath, owner of Sculpt Pilates, said: “We all know each other from working in gyms before this.

“Just before lockdown we started to all set ourselves up to teach online.

“It has been going really well. It’s such a good thing for health and wellbeing.

“We are all in regular contact with each other and we support each other.

“Technically we are all in competition but we’re all helping to promote each other’s classes. It’s a really nice group to be a part of.”

Although the women do all teach similar classes they do vary slightly, as they include pilates, barre and other low impact workouts, which they say have really helped people during lockdown.

Katy added: “Clients get social connection and that class feeling still.

“It’s great for people with back pain and bad posture and it’s good for mental health too.

“I’ve been doing my classes on Zoom for around 30 minutes and people are loving that as it’s not too long.

“A lot of my clients are actually saying they prefer it online and would like it to continue.

“I think there will be an element of retaining the online classes when we can get back to gyms as it makes it more accessible for people.”

To find out more about the group, visit Katy’s Sculpt Pilates Facebook page.

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