Your Time Pilates

For years I had a story running in my head that retreats were for other instructors.

You know the ones. Big Instagram following, professional photos, "last 2 spots for Bali!!" posts. I'd see them, think "well that's not me", and close the app.

Sound familiar? Because if you clicked A on my poll last week (retreats sound stressful), I'd put money on some version of that story running in your head too.

So let me tell you about my last retreat, three weeks ago.
It was on Wimbledon Common. A woodland, ten minutes from my house. Six women, six mats, one afternoon. £75 each.

My costs? Massage oil, reflexology tools and a bag of crisps. About £20 all in, because the bottle of champagne was already in the cupboard at home.

No villa. No chef. No Tuscany. £450 in, £20 out, and six women who left glowing and immediately asked when the next one is.

Here's what I've learned running these: your qualification taught you to teach, but nobody ever taught you to run an event. That's the actual gap. Not confidence, not followers, not a fancy venue. The venue maths, the timings, the pricing, what to do about food, insurance, wet weather. Event stuff. Completely learnable, almost never taught.

So I've put everything I know about it into a workshop: How to Host a Stress-Free and Profitable Postnatal Pilates Retreat.
👉 OOOH give me all the deets:
https://yourtimepilates.thrivecart.com/retreat-training-5day/

The whole system - choosing a venue that doesn't eat your profit, pricing it properly, structuring the day, filling the spaces. The exact process behind that afternoon on the Common.
It's on-demand, so you can start it tonight if you want. Watch it this week, plan your first retreat for autumn.

The workshop is available for £39 until midnight Friday 17th July - that's 5 days' access starting whenever you buy, so there's no penalty for thinking it over. Lifetime (£89) is on the same checkout if you want it for keeps and watch over the summer holiday instead.

👉 GET THE WORKSHOP - £39
https://yourtimepilates.thrivecart.com/retreat-training-5day/

After Friday, the workshop is only available at £89 for lifetime access.
Alice x

Quick question for you this week, and there's a freebie in it for answering.

Whenever I mention hosting Pilates retreats, instructors tend to file it in one of two places. "One day, maybe" or "F**k no, sounds like a nightmare."

Which is funny, because a retreat doesn't need to be a week in Bali with 30 clients and a chef. Mine are an afternoon, either out in a forest or local venue, and 8-10 mats.

A few hours of teaching, clients who leave buzzing, and more money from one Sunday afternoon than a week of group classes.

So I want to know where your head's at. Comment with the letter of the one that's closest:

A - I'd love to, but it all seems so stressful

B - Never really thought about it... but go on, I'm intrigued

C - I already run retreats

D - No thanks, retreats ain't my jam

If you commented either A, B or C and I'll send you my Retreat Cheat Sheet for free, (it's usually £7).

It's the one-page version of how I plan mine. Venue, numbers, what to charge, and the timings that stop the whole thing eating your life.

And if you're in camp A... keep an eye on your inbox next week. I've got something that deals with the stressful part properly.

Alice x

I am terrible at online workshops.
I've usually got a wash on, one ear on whatever's happening downstairs, and I'm only half there. I never catch the replay. Anyone else?
Something about being in a room just makes me learn differently. And there's a bit I really miss about in-person too: being around other instructors. Teaching can be lonely, can't it? You're mostly on your own, getting on with it. A day in a room with people who work with the same clients and care about the same things is its own kind of brilliant.
So on 11 July, Lara Painting and I are doing something about it.
Our first ever in-person training day for pre and postnatal modifications. In London. Together. Six hours, hands on, small group, real questions answered in real time. No chat box. No washing machine.
Everyone takes home a printed pocket book too: 34 modified exercises, straight in your kit bag.
📅 11 July | 🕒 10am-4pm | 📌 St Michael's Church, Wandsworth Common, London | 💰 £225
Come and work with me. Link below. 👇
https://yourtimepilates.thrivecart.com/ppnworkshop/

Come and work with me in London. 👋
On 11 July, Lara Painting and I are running our first ever in-person training day for pre and postnatal modifications.
Six hours, hands on, in a small group. The two of us coaching you in real time, answering your actual questions, in an actual room.
Every attendee leaves with a printed pocket book too: 34 Pilates exercises, each one modified with teaching instructions, adaptations and reminders for pre and postnatal clients. Practical enough for your kit bag, useful enough to actually use in class.
📅 Saturday 11 July
🕒 10am-4pm
📌 St Michael's Church, Wandsworth Common, London
💰 £225, printed pocket book included
Spaces are limited and the group is deliberately small.
Save your space 👉 https://yourtimepilates.thrivecart.com/ppnworkshop/

I got the call you DON’T want this morning.

My husband was hit by a car while on his bike. He's okay, broken hand, sore everywhere, but thankfully okay. We spent the day in A&E and are both now rearranging things we thought were fixed – including me having to accept I’ll be doing the bins for the next six weeks!

And while I was sitting there keeping an eye on my emails between scans, I had a quiet thought about how lucky I am that I can be there with him today. No asking anyone's permission, no scrambling to find cover. Just here, where I need to be.

👉 Sometimes you get to decide what changes in your life. Sometimes the universe decides for you, and you adapt.

Today the universe made the call. And I could answer it because of the way I've built my business.

Consciously and deliberately so it would fit around my family.

A small number of consistent clients who pay on direct debits, who don't mind being moved when something like today happens. A diary with room in it. Work that bends when you need it to.

If yours doesn't yet, I'd love to help you work out what needs to change so your business fits your life, not the other way round. You making the moves, not leaving it up to that fickle witch the universe.

That's what my Bums on Mats sessions are for. Ninety minutes, just the two of us, on your business and your numbers. £197, and I'm only running them through June and July.

If you'd like to know more, comment or DM me the word 'BUMS' and I'll tell you how it works.

Alice x

P.S. I'm working on something fun. An in-person workshop in London, all about pre and postnatal exercise modifications. 11th July. More soon.

Is it too late to fix diastasis?

This came up in my instructors' coaching group recently:

"Can a diastasis close years after pregnancy through core and pelvic floor exercises? Or is there only a small window after giving birth where that can happen?"

Great question, right?

Here's the truth:
👉 It is never “too late” for a postnatal woman to see improvement.

What matters most isn’t the clock - it’s the strategy.

If you’re still carrying a gap years later, it usually means the system hasn’t been retrained properly:
- The TVA haven’t been integrated
- The pelvic floor and breath aren’t syncing with load
- The nervous system is hanging onto compensations that keep the gap from changing

When those pieces come together, I’ve seen women make progress 6 months, 6 years - even 16 years - after giving birth.

So if you’ve ever worried that the “window has closed” for your clients (or for yourself), let this be your reminder:

✨ Healing is possible at every stage.

Have you worked with a client years down the line who still saw improvements?

Drop into the comments or DM me, I read every one.
Alice x
___________

If you want to go deeper on diastasis:

→ The DRA- friendly lesson plan I use with clients in the first phase of closing a gap (£12) https://yourtimepilates.thrivecart.com/dra-lesson-plan/

→ The Powerhouse Membership my monthly room where diastasis programming questions like this one get answered in real time (£37/month, stay as long as you need, cancel anytime)
https://yourtimepilates.thrivecart.com/powerhouse/

→ The Postnatal Core Rehab Method goes through the full diastasis protocol module by module, from screening to return to load. Self-study is open, supported autumn cohort opens later this year. Reply PCRM to talk it through

I meant to get this out earlier in the week. Then something crazy happened.
I can't go into the full details until it's actually set to happen but it's going to be life changing!
It's a total roll of the dice. But we looked at it and thought, if you actually want something to change, you have to do something you've never done before.
Which is exactly what I want to talk to you about.
If you've been plugging away at your postnatal business, doing the same things month after month, and the clients still aren't coming in, doing more of the same won't change it.
Something different has to happen.
That's what my 'Bums on Mats' Strategy Session is for.
90 minutes, one to one. We work out what's actually getting in the way of you getting more postnatal clients, and you leave with a clear 30 day plan to fix it.
£197. June and July only. Sort it now and you can properly switch off over summer, knowing exactly what you're doing when the September enquiries start landing.
Want the full details? Comment or DM MATS and I'll send everything over.
Alice x

Only read this if you want more postnatal clients this September.



You've done lots of training. You know your postnatal stuff. You can feel that you're actually going to be good at this.
Then you look up and think: now how do I get the clients?
So you do the things that feel like progress. The flyer. The website tweak. The Instagram post you spent two hours on.
But the clients don't flood in like you expected.
And it starts to feel like a you problem.
It isn't.
Nobody taught you how to do this part.
The courses you spent thousands on taught you how to teach. The clinical postnatal knowledge is sorted.
The bit nobody taught you is how to find clients. How to talk about your work. How to charge properly. How to sell without feeling icky. How to get out of your own way long enough to actually do any of it.
Everyone's pretending they figured it out.
They didn't.
They're all stuck in some version of the same loop. The forums full of "how do I get clients?" posts are proof of this.
I know exactly what this feels like too.
After I qualified I spent ten months faffing around. Trying to decide if I needed a business strategy first, or a poster, or a logo, or a website, or a social media strategy. Learning Canva. Trying to work out how to make a reel. Slowly going insane and nowhere at the same time.
Until I got help from someone who actually understood what it took to get Pilates clients' bums on mats. I then took that knowledge and worked out how to specifically get postnatal mums on mats.
It took me ten months on my own. I don't want you to take ten months.
That's why I've built the 'Bums on Mats' Strategy Session.
A 90 minute one-to-one strategy session to work out what's actually getting in the way of you getting more postnatal clients, and a clear 30 day plan to do something about it.
£197. June and July only.
Every September, the enquiries pile in. Mums hit the end of the long summer holidays exhausted, fed up of putting everyone else first, and ready to do something for themselves. I get around 8 new client enquiries in the first two weeks of September every year. Without fail.
That's why I'm running these in June and July. So when September hits, you've got a plan in place. You know exactly how you're signing your next new clients.
Comment MATS below or DM me and I'll send you the details.
Alice x
P.S. if you forgot to reply to my earlier email about the 'Why your flyers, posts and posters aren't bringing in postnatal clients' guide and want a copy, just let me know. x

Ok, so you've designed a flyer.

You've told everyone you know that you've got a postnatal Pilates class.

You've posted on Instagram (even though it made you feel a bit sick!).

You've joined the local mum Facebook groups and tried to work out how to introduce yourself without sounding like a greasy salesman.

And.... the clients aren't flooding in like you'd hoped.

A few enquiries that go cold. A like here and there. The occasional "ooh I'll come back to you" that never comes back. Class numbers fluctuate (just like your bank account).

And you're starting to wonder if it's you.

Sounding familiar....?

News flash babes!

It's not you. 😘

When the things you're putting out there aren't bringing in clients, it's almost never the thing you think it is.

It's not the Canva template. It's not the hashtags. It's not the time of day you posted.

It's something else.

I've put together a free guide on this called Why your flyers, posts and posters aren't bringing in postnatal clients. It covers the four things that are actually not working and what to do instead.

If you want it, DM me the word 'CLIENTS' and I'll send it over.

Alice x

Can I share the most common thing I hear from instructors about working with C-section clients?
"I don't get many C-section clients anyway."
And I get it.
If they're not coming through your door regularly, it's easy to file this under "I'll deal with it when it's relevant."
But whether you like it or not...
If you're teaching women full stop, you're likely teaching clients who are postnatal and have had a C-section.
Whether you're running dedicated postnatal classes or not.
And if you ARE running postnatal classes (or planning to), this is something you're 100% going to come across.
The other version I hear is: "I'll just avoid those exercises with them."
That's not a strategy.
It's a gap in your service that your clients can feel, even if they can't name it.
And it's a risk - to you and to your client - if you're modifying (or not modifying) without actually knowing what's appropriate at each stage.
Here's what changes when you actually know your s**t 👇
You stop hesitating and start leading.
Your clients feel the difference between an instructor who's winging it and one who knows exactly what she's doing.
That's what builds referrals. That's what builds reputation. That's what gets you known as the person to send postnatal clients to.
The C-Section Modifications Workshop gives you the framework to work with any postnatal client who walks in - whether she's 8 weeks post-section or 8 years.
£39 until midnight Friday. Then £89.
Link in comments 👇
https://yourtimepilates.thrivecart.com/cmw/