The latest addition to Harrogate’s fitness and wellbeing scene will open next week.

Harrogate Pilates Studio, based on Claro Court Business Centre, will offer a range of pilates classes, including reformer, matt, stretch bar and yoga.

Owner Emma Ryder, 26, has spent her life dancing. She began aged three and went on to become a professional dancer.

Despite finding work on cruise ships and on TV, she told the Stray Ferret it was lockdown that pushed her to find her true passion: pilates.

She said:

“I spent lockdown doing my matt pilates qualification and have been teaching it since 2021. It was then that I had a moment of ‘wow, this is what I really love’.

“I love it because I can apply a lot of my dance knowledge into my work.”

The reformer machines.

The former Harrogate Grammar School pupil then completed her reformer pilates training in 2022 and has since taught in local gyms and to private clients.

She said it is thanks to growing up in Harrogate that she has managed to build a client base here, adding several clients would “always suggest” opening her own studio.

Ms Ryder told the Stray Ferret she wants to deliver a smaller, more personal service in Harrogate and create a “community”, rather than a “come to the studio and leave environment”.

She added:

“In places like London, there can be just inches between the matts or reformer machines. It’s much more personal here.

“I wanted to create a space in which I can interact with all the people in the room – it’s a high-end service and the space and session should reflect that.

“I’d love it to be the kind of place where you end up knowing the person on the reformer machine next to you!”

Harrogate Pilates Studio boasts six reformer pilates machines, each costing £3,000, as well as eight matt spaces.

Ms Ryder will teach classes along with three other freelance teachers.

She told the Stray Ferret:

“In my opinion, everyone should do pilates. It’s so good for posture, for strength and endurance – everything!

“This studio is also a great place to start if you’re new to it because it’s such small groups and you won’t feel like you’re getting lost. It’s an inclusive space, which is exactly what I hoped for because I know reformer can look scary at first.”

Ms Ryder added she is feeling “nervous but excited and optimistic” about the opening.

All equipment is available to use at the studio, Ms Ryder said, adding people do not have to bring their own matts but can if they would like.

Drop-in reformer sessions cost £20, while drop-in matt sessions cost £10.

A matt membership, which offers unlimited matt classes, will set people back £65 per month, and a monthly reformer membership costs between £65 and £110 dependent on the number of sessions.

Harrogate Pilates Studio will open its door on Wednesday, May 1. Classes will be held throughout the day from Monday to Thursday and Saturdays.

It is based in Unit 5 on the business park, next to Doors Direct. Bookings are now open.

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The Yorkshire Centre for Wellbeing is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month.

The business is the longest-standing yoga and pilates studio in Harrogate, having opened on Duchy Road in 2003.

The owners said opening the studio was a “big financial risk at the time”.

However, founder Anne-Marie Burford believes “post-covid anxieties” caused a surge in prioritising health and boosted the credibility of yoga and pilates, as well as causing a shift in attitudes towards them.

She said:

“Yoga in the West can often be about images, especially now a lot of celebrities do it.

“That isn’t the true form of yoga – we just want to support health and wellbeing”.

Ms Burford also said social media has “probably caused the most significant change” in attitudes towards wellbeing.

The studio centres on being entirely holistic and focusses on incorporating Ayurveda, a traditional Indian healing therapy, into the yoga, pilates and tai chi classes.

The centre also “places focus on the spiritual aspect of wellbeing”, including soul coaching, reiki, and various Eastern-style massages.

Staff members have extensive spiritual and physical training, including one-to-one training with Deepak Chopra, as well as a South Asian spiritual pilgrimage. The business also offers yoga retreats to members, both nationally and abroad.

James Burford, one of the teachers at the wellness centre, said:

“I feel very encouraged by the support we already receive form our students, many of whom I consider friends, and the increase in number of students joining and connecting with our centre over the last few years“.

Yorkshire Centre for Wellbeing is holding an anniversary celebration on Saturday, April 16, with pop-up classes, afternoon tea and live music. Full details are on its Instagram feed.

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The Stray Ferret Business Awards will be held on March 9 at the Pavilions of Harrogate. The event will be a celebratory night with prize draw and afterparty. Richard Flinton, the chief executive of the new North Yorkshire Council is the guest speaker. Early bird ticket prices are available until February 9 and available to buy here. Bring your team, network and have fun. 

Harrogate’s Windsor House has opened a dedicated yoga and pilates studio for tenants.

Towards the end of last year, Boultbee Brookes – owners of the former Grand Hotel which is now home to more than 115 businesses – trialled lunchtime yoga classes..

As a result, the company has now created a dedicated yoga and Pilates studio, where two instructors are offering morning, lunchtime and evening classes, four times a week to its tenants.

Karen Winspear, Boultbee Brooks’ building manager for Windsor House, said: 

“When we introduced a weekly yoga class, we weren’t sure just how popular it would be.

“It proved to be a great success, and that led to us taking the step to not only increase the number of yoga classes, but to also introduce Pilates classes.

“We have created our own studio, and I’m delighted to announce that regular classes, led by Jess Barnard, for yoga, and Fern Summerton, for Pilates are now in full swing.”

Further information about Windsor House can be found at its website here.

New Harrogate business group launched to support women

Pictured from left are Carol Beeley and Sarah Shaw from LWL Harrogate and Jan Moxham of Lilypad Restaurant.

A new business group has been launched in Harrogate aimed at offering professional support and friendship to women working in the area.

Part of the nationwide Ladies Who Latte (LWL) network, the group is free to attend and open to all women who are in employment, own a business or are starting a business.

The group will meet at Lilypad restaurant on King’s Road between 9.30am and 11.30am on the second Wednesday of every month, with the first event on February 8. 

It is being led by Carol Beeley, director of On The Spot Accountants, and Sarah Shaw, a European strategy consultant with WEConnect International.

Ms Shaw said:

“If you’ve always been nervous about networking, or are looking to meet like-minded working women in an open and relaxed setting, please do come along.

“Even if you can only spare half an hour to drop by for a quick coffee, you’ll be given a warm welcome.”

LWL is for women who want to build a professional, local support network and feel part of a business community. It offers them the opportunity to promote themselves while sharing their knowledge and passion with others, gaining inspiration and confidence to drive their ambitions and business forward.

For more information on Ladies Who Latte, visit the group’s website here.

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A Harrogate pilates instructor will embark on a personal mission later this month to strike back at the cancer that saw her husband rushed to A&E, fighting for his life. 

Eugenie Keogh will hold a marathon 18-hour pilates session on Zoom from her studio at North Rigton, to raise awareness of the symptoms of leukaemia, a cancer of the blood which kills around 13 people every day in the UK. 

“The early diagnosis of leukaemia remains elusive because the symptoms are often overlooked, and the disease only diagnosed when a person ends up at A&E department struggling for life,” she said.

Eugenie’s husband Stephen was rushed to Harrogate A&E last summer with a combination of classic leukaemia symptoms: shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, a skin rash, an ulcerated mouth, frequent nose bleeds and night sweats. The couple were left “completely traumatised” when the aggressive blood cancer Acute Myloid Leukaemia (AML) was diagnosed.

In the weeks before, Stephen had sought medical help about individual symptoms, but these had not been linked or resulted in a blood test.

Eugenie said: “This resulted in a late diagnosis for Stephen, which is why I am supporting the campaign to raise awareness among GPs about blood cancer symptoms. The earlier the disease is spotted, the better the chance of effective treatment, prognosis and quality of life.”

Stephen has responded well to the treatment regime for AML and is now awaiting a bone marrow stem-cell transplant. 

“This is the only chance for me to achieve complete remission and hopefully a cure,” he said.

Eugenie Keogh is a qualified APPI instructor and operates one-to-one and Zoom online classes from her Body & Soul Pilates studio in North Rigton near Harrogate.

As well as raising awareness, Eugenie’s pilates marathon on Zoom on January 29 will also raise funds for Leukaemia UK, a charity that works to fund innovative research and support those affected by leukaemia blood cancers. Well-wishers can support her campaign at her Just Giving page.

Anyone making a donation will also be invited to keep Eugenie company by logging on at any time for any of the pilates sessions, which will start on the hour every hour from 6am, with the last session ending at midnight.

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A fitness studio in central Harrogate has closed today with immediate effect.

Lear, on Montpellier Street, offered pilates classes, along with personal training, physiotherapy and sports massage.

However, a message sent to customers at lunchtime today said:

“With great sadness and regret, we have had to close Lear Harrogate with immediate effect.

“All classes and appointments from today onwards have been cancelled.”

There was no further information provided, but the Harrogate branch’s social media accounts have all been closed. Reference to the Harrogate studio has also been removed from the Lear health partners website.

The business’ other branch, in Leamington Spa, appears to be trading still, and has posted on social media in the last few days.

It is not known whether any jobs have been lost as a result of the closure, nor whether any members have lost out on sessions they had already paid for.

The Stray Ferret contacted the parent company for a comment but had not received a response by the time of publication.

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Lear Harrogate offered membership packages for £99 and £139 a month, as well as pay-as-you-go options including pilates classes at £19 each.

Earlier this year, a planning application was submitted to turn the ground floor of the building into retail space, with 11 new one-bedroom apartments on the first and second floors, as well as a new third floor.

However, new plans were submitted in December showing the number of apartments had been reduced to eight, on the first and second floors only.

The third floor and roof terrace were no longer planned, with a “high performance ‘warm roof’ built up flat roof” instead. The number of windows on the first and second floors had also been reduced.