Getting to grips with Beautcamp Pilates

Last year, after a particularly greedy Christmas, I decided it was time to get fit. I joined a gym for a trial month, but as I pounded the treadmill in the sweaty, harshly lit atmosphere, I felt more lab rat than gym bunny and decided it simply wasn't for me.

LOS ANGELES CRAZE

A friend suggested yoga instead, so I trotted off to a centre in Kensal Rise for what I thought was a beginners' class. I paid my tenner and went into a room full of unfriendly, toned looking women. Beginners, eh? I had barely put down my mat when the Scottish teacher, complete with dreadlocks down to his skinny behind, started shouting in Hindi. The class began bending this way and that as I tried to follow. "You've got to keep up!" shouted the teacher at me, his Celtic burr ringing out cruelly, "This isn't bums and tums! It's not pilates!"

I scarpered smartish, licking my wounds with a packet of biscuits and a series of The Wire. But, hey, it's been ten months now, and I'm ready to try exercise again. This time, I've plumped for Beautcamp (Boot Camp, gedditt?) Pilates, a craze that's swept in from Los Angeles, combining traditional Pilates with circuit and weight training. Apparently the results are miraculous.

PERFECT PHYSIQUE

I'm booked in for a class (first class is free) at a centre just off Porchester Road in west London and arrive as the last class is finishing. About eight women cluster round the water machine sweating profusely. "That was a tough one" they nod to each other knowingly. Up to ten people can join a class, but today there are only six of us. Each of us is assigned a Systeme Dynamique, the Pilates reformer enhanced by international fitness guru, Sebastien LaGree to help create the perfect physique. The class is made up of a series of stretches and repetitive exercises that focus on each muscle group in the body. We start off using a ring, which we use to stretch the back of our legs, before putting it between our knees. "Pulse! Pulse! Pulse!" shouts Amy, our instructor, ad infinitum (or so it seems) over the blaring pop music. My inner thighs are aching. We go on to do lunges, crunches, weights, press ups and ‘planks', changing wires on the Systeme Dynamique to adjust the tension with each move.

My whole body is shaking with the strain, I'm sweating and I discover that I have absolutely no upper body strength. But, before I have time to even think of giving up, the 55 minute class is over. I feel a wave of natural endorphins rushing around my soon-to-be body beautiful. There's no doubt in my mind that, this time, I'll be going back.

BOOK A FREE CLASS

Book your first free class at www.beautcamppilates.co.uk choosing West London or City & East London venues. Thereafter, classes cost £14 when booking one and £12 when booking 20 at once (off peak, before 5.30pm) OR £24 for one class and £15.50 when booking 20 at once (peak, after 5.30pm).

Emily Jenkinson

7 January 10