The Movement Studio On-LineWe are currently offering 45 minute on-line sessions in spinal mobilisation, re-habilitation, pain relief and general strengthen and stretching. These sessions can be specific to your needs – our skills cover a wide variety of needs and requirements. Feel free to contact us to see how we can help you or you book a session now by clicking the link below.
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Follow up assessment: 45 mins £40
Pregnancy Massage
Pregnancy is a wonderful time for a woman; however with the many changes the body experiences including hormonal influence and postural changes, this can put significant strain on joints, ligaments and organs which in effect can lead to pain and discomfort.
Pregnancy massage can be very beneficial to mother and growing baby supporting her emotionally, physiologically and physically during 2nd and 3rd trimesters.
There is a vast array of evidence to support the benefits of pregnancy massage, including alleviating aches and pains, stimulating circulation, reducing swelling, including symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome, helping to aid sluggish bowel movement and reducing symptoms of stress levels.
Receiving regular massage throughout your pregnancy will your increase your body awareness and help you develop the ability to relax throughout your 1st stage of labour.
Treatment: 1 hour £47
Acupuncture
‘Acupuncture has been used in China and other eastern cultures to restore, promote and maintain good health and energy levels for about 2,500 years’.(British Acupuncture Council).
Acupuncture is used by inserting small, fine needles into the body’s energy channels known as Qi to restore healing and balance.
Acupuncture is a very safe treatment to have during pregnancy and is an effective option at a time when women are unable to take many over the counter or prescribed medications. It is essential that you choose an acupuncturist who is trained in women’s health related conditions.
Conditions treated with acupuncture during pregnancy may include:
Initial consultation & and subsequent treatment: 45 mins £40
Course of 4 treatments £148
Course of 6 treatments £210
1:1 Pilates
Pilates is widely used in the management of many women’s health conditions whether within the antenatal or postnatal period. With a special interest in pelvic floor and abdominal rehabilitation following the birth of your baby, Gillian will help construct a bespoke treatment plan, including specific goal setting tailored to your individual needs and construct of a progressive programme to help lead to a stronger, healthier, happier you.
Initial consultation: 1 hour £45
Subsequent treatment: 45 mins £40
Block of 6 treatments: £210
Finlay has been a professional golfer since 1994 and is a member of the PGA. He suffered shoulder and spine injuries which hampered his ability to play and like a number of his colleagues at The Movement Studio, he has used the personal experience of physical injury to forge a second career as a wellness practitioner.
Through the practice of Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® Finlay brought himself back to full health and enhanced skill and he uses this hard-won experience every day to help fellow sportsman, performers and ordinary members of the public to find lasting pain relief, increased strength and flexibility – and for those that need it, enhanced results in their chosen fields of endeavour.
Finlay has been wholly absorbed by the science of biomechanics for more than 30 years. He caught the golfing bug as a teenager and resolved himself to become a professional golfer. For him, this was a journey of studying a vast array of approaches to improving human performance and to question its very essence.
After leaving University, where he’d immersed himself in the emerging Sports Sciences, he threw himself into a technique led crusade to better performance – it was an experience of diminishing returns. Finlay began to lose trust in himself and the intuitive skills and self-awareness that had made him such a fine young prospect in the first place.
2 events fundamentally changed him and help rediscover his calling. The first was a shoulder and spine injury and the other meeting a kindred spirit and pioneering coach.
His injuries and subsequent lack of good rehabilitation drastically altered how he played. It became clear to him that in order to achieve full fitness and skill level a much more focused approach was necessary. It was at this point that he discovered Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis.
Coaching, Finlay says; “helped me trust my own instincts and abilities again and more crucially though, he also impressed upon me the example of a true teacher as someone who will guide and lead a student to make their own discoveries. And that is something I carry with me to this day in terms of my own approach to improving physical ability.”
Injury effectively called time on his personal golfing ambitions but, he says; “It was then I realised that my vocation was really, not to pursue my own dreams of glory but rather to help other people. It dawned on me that as good as I was at golf I had had other, more personally rewarding, things to offer – skills and experience that could make a profound impact on the lives of other people.”
Having finally found his true calling, a decade on, Finlay Menzies is widely renowned as a leading practitioner in the disciplines of Gyrokinesis and Gyrotonic, with a specific expertise in dealing with sporting and general injuries, long-standing pain issues and conditions such as sciatica, frozen shoulder, scoliosis and arthritis. He worked with Scottish Ballet for 11 years – rehabilitating dancers or working on optimising performance movements. With his vast practical experience of fine motor control, honed on the golf course and as a professional golf instructor, Finlay brings the drive to help others and a wealth of technical know-how to his role as a founder and highly respected member of The Movement Studio team.
Prior to forming The Movement Studio, Kate Menzies was best-known as a professional ballet dancer with Scottish ballet. Today she is highly regarded for her abilities to rehabilitate injuries both within as well as outside of the dance world. Kate works with a huge demographic of ages, injuries and abilities and has had huge success in rehabilitating many injuries from back pain and sciatica to broken bones and neural conditions. Alongside her clients at The Movement Studio she is also Scottish Ballet’s Gyrotonic and Ballet Rehab practitioner.
Kate began her training at the Dance School of Scotland before being accepted at the Royal Ballet school in London. She danced with Birmingham Royal ballet and the Royal Ballet before joining Scottish ballet in 1995 where she remained for ten years before retiring aged 29, to start her own business.
Kate had always had a keen interest in sport and exercise but during her career she developed a back injury. During her various phases of rehabilitation, she searched for something which could maintain her fitness without further compromising her back injury.
Kate was led to Gyrotonic and was amazed by its precision and effects as an exercise regime. Gyrotonic not only allowed her to keep up the required standard of extreme fitness a dancer requires but also manage and recover from her injury in a controlled and safe way.
On her return to rehearsals Kate felt stronger, sharper and able to hone her technique in a new and more effective way. Kate realised the benefits of Gyrotonic were not only essential for dancers but that Gyrotonic could provide a huge benefit to people with or without injuries and from all walks of life.
After retiring from her dancing career she soon became Scottish ballets resident Gyrotonic trainer and also began the business, originally called “Equilibrium Exercise”. Kate is a trained and certified Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis practitioner. She has also completed training in the Jumping Stretching Board, Gyrotoner, Leg Extension Unit and GYROTONIC for Golf. With a lifelong passion in the art and science of the moving body she continues to expand her knowledge within her chosen field with study in disciplines as diverse as Biomechanics and Movement Therapy.
Kate particularly enjoys working with people with injuries and has had huge success in this area. She uses her background of movement to enable others to move and get the most out of their own bodies after injury. After three children Kate has had first-hand experience at how GYROTONIC helps pre, during and post pregnancy and runs sessions specifically designed for both mothers and mothers to be.
Kate also uses her dance experience to help professional and non-professional dancers of all ages. She has developed a unique skill set to rehab dancers and also to improve their technique and understanding of their own bodies and movements.
Come and join Kate on Fridays at 10.45am for this 40 minute class. This class will help you to feel lengthened and connected to your body. Kate will take you through a series of exercises on the floor and standing to strengthen your core, stretch and lengthen your muscles and help you connect to the correct muscles and muscle patterns.
This is a great class as a warm up to a class or to help improve your posture, strength and awareness
Join Kate on Fridays between 11.30am – 12.15pm for ballet barre. This is a basic barre focussing on correct technique and is suitable for complete beginners as well as those trying to improve their technique and knowledge.
The class lasts for 45 minutes and all you need is some space and something to hold onto (kitchen worksurface / chair) The cost is £6 . Feel free to contact Kate if you have any questions prior to or after the class.
This is the perfect time to refine your technique and increase your capability to perform the way you want to.
From Professionals to students of all ages and levels, Kate can help you with areas that you may struggle with.
You can go back to your ballet class after lockdown with a renewed technique and confidence.
Book a class or one-to-one appointment with Kate.
Contact Kate via email info@themovementstudio.co.uk, call on 07816 842 074 or use the contact form below if you require help or advice.
Hello. Here is a video to get your back moving and keeping it healthy. It’s quite simple stuff but that doesn’t mean it’s any less effective. Physical health in general is more about balance than brilliance in any one physical department – do these exercises with equality, balance and smoothness in mind.
Fin hosts a 45 minute online class on Saturday mornings at 10.30. This class is fun and interesting and easy to do. It is primarily a class that gets you feeling like “you” – from your spine out. It creates good flexibility in the spine, balance and ease of movement.
Anyone who has children knows just how demanding they are. Obviously, pregnancy and childbirth place enormous demands and institute huge changes in the physiology. However, as we meet there constant demands we are required to sleep at funny angles, pick them up constantly, in and out of cars, lift bags of shopping – often all at the same time and one handed! This is not to mention the physical stresses of worry and lack of sleep. It is without doubt that our bodies suffer over the first few years. Both Kate and Finlay know this from personal experience. The benefits of Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis for our posture and well being are profound and can reverse the ravages of looking after childen.
Both Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis are ideal exercise during pregnancy. Pregnancy puts tremendous strain on the body. Ligaments become lax and the skeleton loses support. The systems work the small muscles that support the skeleton so you have the tone and co-ordination to compensate. They help relieve lower back pain and constipation, whilst energising the body to combat fatigue. The improvements to blood circulation and deep muscular activity help prevent swollen legs and varicose veins and will increase blood circulation and oxygen to the womb. The systems will also build strength and stamina for the birthing process.
During pregnancy our bodies take on a mind of their own, and change in ways we never thought they could or would.
Exercise through pregnancy has been shown to be extreemely beneficial. Following a careful pattern of strengthening exercises, gentle stretches and relaxation Gyrotonic can help to relieve many of the side affects our bodies have through pregnancy. Keeping us fit and healthy.
As the baby grows the affects of lifting and comforting, doing things with one hand all take their toll. It is vital to regain control of our body, as it is amazing how fast you will discover little niggles turning into pain.
Posture is key as is regaining pelvis and spine back into alignment.
Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis intricate and explicit attention to detail allows the body to regain strength, allignment, flexibility and posture as well as bringing an increased sense of well being and energy.
The most common therapeutic use of Gyrotonic® is in non-specific back pain. (Something very specific is wrong but it is incredibly hard to diagnose and treat). It is has been said that the spine is like a string of beads doing the job of a telephone pole. Alignment is vital to its proper functioning. Tension or lack of mobility at one point affects the whole chain. Often the place where people feel pain is not where the problem originated.
The way in which Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® principles are applied at the Movement Studio encourages an exploration of the spine. This exploration unravels the problem and fixes it at the same time. You will get to the root cause of your issue.
Gyrotonic® stretches and strengthens. Tension will be released in the areas of pain and most importantly, appropriate strength in the corresponding and supporting abdominal musculature will be addressed.
Other causes of chronic pain – diseases like fibromyalgia or multiple sclerosis – are more difficult to treat, because so little is known about them, but many clients credit Gyrotonic® with helping to alleviate symptoms. The undulating movement and connected breathing, provide a gentle massage to connective tissues, organs and nerves, and helps pump lymph and cerebro-spinal fluid. These fluids are only circulated when we move. Better circulation of these fluids means your immune system is healthier, your body does a better job of removing wastes and toxins, and your nerve cells are healthier.
The same is true of arthritis. The best thing you can do to improve the health of your joints is move, but the pain of moving with arthritis can be very acute. There is no blood supply to the joint surfaces, and they get their nutrition from the fluid inside the joint, which circulates when you move. This process is impaired in an arthritic person. Gyrotonic® takes pressure off the joints, making movements less painful and also helps lubricate fluid into the joints. This means your joints have more cushioning and better access to nutrients after every session.
