Skip to main content

Pilates with Oov for International Women's Day 2018




As you might already know, Leeds Girls Can had a very successful International Women’s Day on 8th March. Unfortunately, because of the snow some of our sessions were cancelled but Headingley Pilates were extremely kind and rescheduled for us. Myself and my friend Molly (shout out to Molly) went along to find out what on earth Oov Pilates is!

You can see us holding our Oovs in the group photo. When I first saw it I honestly thought it looked like some sort of foam Loch Ness monster. Seriously, how were we going to incorporate that into our Pilates?! Jenny our instructor was very informative and lovely, she quickly showed and explained to us what it was for. Taken from the Oov website, an Oov:
‘… works by activating the user’s core stabilising muscles while also gently extending the spine to stimulate healthy intervertebral disc lubrication. This active response in the user helps achieve ‘neutral spine’, a widely used concept in the treatment and assessment of spinal conditions.’

It was fun trying to get onto the Oov, I’ll tell you that, but the difference that it made to how your back feels was really incredible. It sort of supports you in a way that means you can stretch better and further. It also challenges you to keep your core steady in a different way which made the moves that little bit harder. We also used it for balance practise, standing on it on one foot whilst raising our other leg. I am surprised that I didn’t fall off but it really helped me work on my balance, something that has gone a little bit out of the window since I don’t practise Karate regularly anymore. By the end of the class I felt like I had used my muscles properly, engaging them as best as possible, nicely stretched and ready for the day ahead.

We had a fab session and I would strongly recommend that you give Oov Pilates a go!
Thank you to Headingley Pilates and Jenny for looking after us so well and for introducing us to the wonderful world of the Oov.

Em x

Headingley Pilates: Headingley Pilates Website

Facebook: Emily Ankers - Leeds Girls Can Ambassador
Instagram: @active.em.blog
Twitter: @active_em_blog


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

This Girl Can Blog!

This is just a quick one to say Hi! I’m still here. I haven’t posted anything for quite a while as university restarted and I have been up to my eyeballs in reading and start of the year fun and games. I have been to a few ‘Give it a Go’ sessions, these are sessions run by different societies here at the University of Leeds that allow you to go along and try something new. I will be writing about my experiences trying outdoor climbing and ballroom dancing in the near future, keep your eyes peeled. One of the reasons why I haven’t posted anything is because I have been sorting out something very exciting... I am now officially a Leeds ambassador for the This Girl Can campaign. You might have heard of This Girl Can? It's a campaign run by Sport England, designed to empower women and girls of all ages to get active in whatever way they want, with no fear of judgement and empower them to get out there and take part in sports activities with other women. My role is to be a writer and bl...
Post a Comment
Read more

Leeds Girls Can Clubbercise

Despite the snow we enjoyed a successful International Women’s Day in Leeds! Our main event was the Leeds Girls Can Clubbercise session which took place in the middle of the Trinity Centre (yes that’s right, surrounded by shoppers and commuters) in the evening. Leeds Girls Can ran two hours of Clubbercise for anybody who wanted to take part. It was fantastic to see women and men joining in with the International Women’s Day celebrations. We had all ages amongst our ranks, the youngest and arguably the cutest being Sienna, age 4. She was definitely the best out of us all, she didn’t want to stop. Hopefully she will remember the event as she gets older, going through life knowing that girls can do anything. That is why we exist, to show people that they can achieve anything, even when it's out of their comfort zone.  You may think that we looked like a bunch of crazy people dancing in the middle of a shopping centre but there was a very important purpose for it. We like to show that ...
Post a Comment
Read more

What went on in Wales

Ant on top of Mwnt headland Mwnt beach Trying not to be blinded by the sun, we have no nice photos of us at all Boat trip with "A Bay to Remember Boat Trips" Southern Coastal Path from Poppit Sands Southern Coastal Path beautiful views! As promised it is time to chat about mine and Ant’s trip to Wales! So, we drove down to YHA Poppit Sands (Youth Hostel) from Cheshire loaded up with a car full of walking gear and goodies from Aldi. One of the good things about hostelling is that you can cook your own food. When I go on holiday and have tea out and about, I often tend to eat everything, way more than I actually need to. Where a treat meal is good, three of them in a row probably isn’t. The main thing about staying in a hostel with a kitchen was that it saved us a lot of pennies and with recently moving into a new house, that was very helpful indeed. We could also create packed lunches and prepare snacks to take on our long walks of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. We could have...
Post a Comment
Read more