Your Pilates Therapist
Specialist one‑to‑one Pilates therapy in London, tailored to your body, history and goals since 1999
About
Meet Your Private Pilates Therapist
I am a London‑based Pilates therapist, combining clinical Pilates training with years of experience working one‑to‑one and small groups on location
My first duty is to teach safe, appropriate modified Pilates exercises in detailed precision, always going back to basics first. My second is to encourage my clients to sustain their program and move them on to higher levels when they are ready.”
(Daniel Zylbersztajn-Lewandowski)
Every morning my father, who suffered from back pain, would perform 20 minutes of exercises almost religiously. This if anything was my early introduction to exercise.
Much later, I have learned and studied all traditional Pilates moves. Still, I rarely teach “classical Pilates,” to any of my clients, because it can actually be detrimental rather than beneficial to them. We know today that Joseph Pilates himself always adapted exercises to the individual needs of his clients, rather than force them into a regime he published under the name of “Contrology.” Contrology is a basic model of reference, not a one exercise fit all manual.
My training: Many years later I completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Exercise Science and a Master of Science in Exercise and Sport Psychology (formerly called Sports Coaching) at Brunel University (London). My Master thesis was on Ideokinesis, Imagery in Pilates. Key teachers were Ex-Team GB Olympic M.D. Prof. Craig Sharpe, Gymnastic coach Misia Gervis.
I was concurrently Pilates apprentice of Alan Herdman, one of the senior and highly regarded global Pilates authorities, and also trained at the German Polestar Pilates HQ in Köln (Cologne) (also attending studios in Hamburg, Frankfurt and London) and with some other Pilates teachers (A.M Zulkahari, M.King).
I have worked as a Personal Trainer (a.o. at University of London (ULU) Gym) and nutrition advisor before increasing Pilates engagements. At Polestar Pilates and Alan Herman Pilates Studio, I underwent full studio training, and I worked with clients who own the equipment on the Pilates Reformer Machine, Pilates Trapeze Bar Table, and Pilates Wunderchair.
I also hold a UK General Practitioner (GP) exercise referral license and was one of the first government registered advanced Personal Trainers with the Register of Exercise Professionals Level III (I left the register in protest of their refusal to acknowledge my Msc in Sports & Exercise Psychology). I took further inspiration from Margot Holt, who teaches the David Warren Technique (a rehabilitation and sports consultant who advises top Olympian and Tennis athletes).
Wishing also to use massage techniques in Pilates exercise instruction I took professional massage training and hold a Therapeutic Holistic Massage Diploma from ITEC (2005) which comes very handy when working and treating people, and sometimes I offer it in combination.
My own sports engagements encompass an early start in long-distance running. As a pupil, I was exposed to athletics, as I attended the primary school inside the Olympic Village of Munich, which used some of the former Olympic grounds for school training, I also played basketball. I have and am participating in running and cycle events and last completed an Olympic distance triathlon in September 2014. I am now swimming medium distances up to 2000m in cold water all year round.
Jumping Tiger 