trained eye

A British schoolteacher-turned-Pilates pro looks back on 36 years of people watching

Claim to Fame: Alan Herdman, who has operated a Pilates studio in London since 1970, is credited with bringing Pilates to the United Kingdom. He has also established studios in several other countries. Herdman, who is known for taking a therapeutic approach to Pilates, presents at international conferences and runs a teacher-training program, but he still spends most of his time working with clients at his studio, Alan Herdman Pilates.

Hometown: Born in Northumberland, England, Herdman has lived in London since 1966.

Books: Pilates Plus: Grown-Up Pilates for 50+ (Gaia Books, 2005), The Pilates Directory (Ivy Press, 2004), Coffee-Break Pilates (Fair Winds Press, 2003), Pilates Body Conditioning (Barron's Educational Series, 2000), Pilates: Creating the Body You Want (Gaia Books, 1999)

How Pilates found him: "It was a complete fluke," says Alan Herdman, 64. In 1969, while he was teaching grade school, he enrolled as a part-time student at the London School of Contemporary Dance. The dancers there had heard about Pilates and wanted to practice it themselves. Because of his teaching experience, Herdman was asked to go to New York to learn the method. "Everyone said, 'Alan, you're absolutely crazy. You've got this good job, you're living in London, and you're giving it all up to go to New York to do you don't know what?' I'd never been to America, so I thought, 'why not?'" After nine months studying with Bob Fitzgerald, who had trained under Joseph Pilates, Herdman went back to London, eager to pass on the benefits of the Pilates method to the school's dancers, a role which suited him well. "I was much more interested in movements rather than getting up onto a stage and performing," he says.

How he kept learning: "I didn't have a community when I went back to London. I was the only studio in England," says Herdman. Although he returned to New York frequently to work with Fitzgerald and Carola Trier, another of Joe's protégés, he turned to other specialists, such as physical therapists and osteopaths, when he needed day-to-day help with certain clients. He also studied tai chi and incorporated its focus on balance and breathing into his practice: "It was the influence of people outside the Pilates world that helped me base a lot of my ideas." Even today, Herdman is still learning. "I'm like a sponge," he says. "And I tell teachers I train to never close the door. Always be open to ideas. You must bring your personality, your experience in life, into your teaching."

Many teachers with your level of experience spend more of their time training other teachers. Why do you still spend so much time with clients? "I still want to work with clients because I'm always learning from clients," says Herdman. "It gives me more insight into the technique. This is a problem I have with a lot of training courses. People learn the exercises, but they don't have a lot of exposure to people. It's [important to learn] how people react to those exercises and how you sometimes have to think on your feet. If things aren't working the way you planned, you have to adjust as you go, which is very good training."

You must have watched a lot of people move over the years: "That's what's so interesting-people move so differently. I'm an avid people watcher. Even sitting at the airport, I'll watch how they walk and how they sit down and just store all this up. I'm still very interested and excited about working with people, seeing them grow, seeing them improve."

How Pilates can help older people: "It's never too late to do Pilates," says Herdman. His new book, Pilates Plus, is about just that. In it, he adapts Pilates exercises for older adults, teaching them how to deal with conditions like arthritis and osteoporosis, and also provides tips for everyday activities like going up and down stairs and sleeping comfortably. "It's not so much doing exercise, it's teaching them how to deal with their bodies again. [It's] giving them an awareness of how to put one foot in front of another, how to reach up and take something from a shelf without hurting themselves."

What's your advice for people who are new to Pilates? "Don't rush it," suggests Herdman. "It takes time. Take your small successes one by one, and they'll all add up to a big one. But also, be realistic. Concentrate on the things you can change, and forget about the things you can't. Too many people spend a lot of energy on things that can't be changed."

On living the Pilates lifestyle: "I firmly believe that Pilates changes your approach to people," says Herdman. "It takes away tension; it makes you a nicer person. And I firmly believe that it has to be a part of your lifestyle, whatever you do. You can put Pilates' basic principles into cooking dinner or making a bed. It has to be part of you."