Pilates repaired my back and pelvic after child birth, I opened a fitness studio

She hurt her back. She had just had her first child. Being in the first flush of youth Tahireh Kassiri, now 38, ignored the situation, expecting it to get better naturally.

However, when the pain did not reduce, she opted for Pilates, a form of strength training exercise where you adopt a position and then challenge your core by moving your arms or legs.

Soon she felt better.

Not long after, she experienced a messy pelvic floor after her second birth.

“That’s how my Pilate journey started in 2018. I hurt my back after pregnancy, and Pilate helped with the rehabilitation. After my second child, my pelvic floor was messed up, and Pilate sorted me out again. I realised many doctors don’t know how to sort you as a woman when in certain situations like a weak pelvic floor and need to strengthen it,” Ms Kassiri says of the moment she decided to teach it.

A weak pelvic floor after childbirth comes with many symptoms, such as leaking urine when coughing, laughing, running, or jumping, and reduced sensation.

Such women require rehabilitation to help strengthen the pelvic floor. Besides restoring the pelvic floor, Pilates being an intense abdominal exercise helps improve flexibility and posture and perfectly tones your body.

Sitting on a Wunda chair, she crosses her legs and swings her long hair, streamlining every strand to the back. She then grabs her legs mid-air. She repeats the act a dozen times to illustrate how to do the exercises.

The brightly lit studio at Nairobi’s General Mathenge Drive has a Cadillac machine, Wunda chairs, high chairs, and baby chairs, and the Barrels machines sit in the middle.

The Ped-O-Pull equipment leans on one of the pillars, while the reformer machine is at the furthest end of the studio. There is a stereo crooning relaxing Luther Vandross songs.

The fitness studio feels like walking into a high-end hospital, only that it is not.

“This is Basi Pilates Academy (BPA) studio in Nairobi. We are part of the certified Body Arts and Science International (Basi) academies worldwide. Basi was established in 1989 by renowned Pilate educator Rael Isacowitz,” Ms Kassiri says.

She started the studio with her friend Anuja Chehar.

When they met in 2019 in Nairobi, Ms Kassiri, a qualified health coach with a Masters in Public Health, was already a certified Basi instructor.

“After our interaction, we realised we shared the same ambition, and so I flew to South Africa, trained, and had my certification as a Basi instructor,” Ms Chehar says.

They would then set up the academy during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Just like her friend, Ms Chehar also has a background in the medical world.

“As a natural result of my background in physiotherapy, the movement became a growing curiosity and an integral part of my life. My journey as a physiotherapist unveiled a passion specifically for women’s health and that’s how I discovered Pilates,” says the 36-year-old.

Pilates was created in the 1920s by physical trainer Joseph Pilates to rehabilitate injured soldiers during World War I.

Since then, the basic tenets that Joseph set down have been preserved to this day, and even with some modifications such as Basi, Pilates remains true to its origin.

The Cadillac

While Ms Kassiri demonstrates a Cadillac, alias the Trapeze table pose, Ms Chehar explains what Basi is about.

“In Basi Pilates specifically, we are very particular with the different details of the exercise. You see her first come into a neutral spine and pelvis and then extend her back, but she holds her legs in a nice stable position as she extends her back downwards. It’s a full-body integration exercise,” she says.

Joseph invented the Cadillac when he served as an orderly on the Isle of Man, working with patients of war who could not walk. He attached bed springs to the hospital beds to help support patients' limbs.

Reformer exercises

"The next demonstration is reformer exercises. We have three different types targeting the whole body and use them for most of our group equipment classes. Our entry-level reformer exercise is the plank support. It's like a plank move from the mat work but more challenging because of the springs attached to it. Because of the springs, we can also access our body's stabilising muscles, which is really difficult to exercise from the mat work," she says.

Every spring on the reformer offers different resistance, each bearing a different colour representing different strength levels.

The reformer was the first piece of equipment Joseph invented. It features an elevated bed-like frame, either made from metal or wood or both, that houses a gliding cushioned platform (carriage) that moves along rails through a pulley system. On one end, the carriage is attached to the set of springs.

“On the reformer, you can execute several exercises by adjusting the equipment. You could use the straps to do arm work (biceps), put the straps on your feet and do hip work, or attach the springs on and do footwork using the bar,” she says.

Every time Ms Chehar and Ms Kassiri demonstrate an exercise, you can hear them breathe loudly.

“The breath work is critical in Pilates. We always inhale to prepare and exhale to execute the movement. So we are maximising our breaths during the exercise,” says Ms Kassiri.

According to Joseph, who exercised until the age of 82 before his demise a year later, mastering the art of correct breathing is the first and last act of life.

Pilates’ various breathing techniques enhance relaxation, lower blood pressure, and help activate specific muscles that improve posture.

“There are over 600 exercises in Pilates which all target resistance. In Pilates, it’s all about executing the correct range of motion with resistance, control, and stability,” Ms Chehar adds.

Ms Kassir adds, “For example, the biceps we do in the gym and the ones in Pilates, the challenge is totally different. In the gym, they use a lot of momentum, and the higher the load, the harder the work is. Over here, the precision to detail makes the work more challenging. In this case (using a reformer), we focus on keeping our collarbone broad and wide, and our upper arm and elbow stable, and when we do that, we are isolating the work to target just the bicep muscles. Even without weights, with resistance, you can build muscles, not just muscle, or even strengthen a weak core,” she says.

Another example Ms Chehar gives is the back extension exercises.

“Back extensions in Pilates, unlike the gym, we are never compressing the spine but elongating it. By doing that, we are creating spaces between each vertebra which is always the aim, and what that does is keep each disk on every vertebra nice and healthy and as you may know, a healthy spine is a healthy body. Joseph Pilates says you are as young as your back,” she says.

The clientele

Every month Ms Kassir and Ms Chehar attend to at least 50 clients, including golfers who come to the fitness studio to improve their swings.

“Whatever exercise one is engaging in, work on form. Injuries happen when a range of motion is lacking, meaning your stabilisers aren’t working as they should. What we do here is teach proper movement, then you can go to the gym or the golf course and do your thing,” the Pilate trainer says.

The instructors say most clients use Pilates as their primary exercise or complimentary workout.

“We have golfers, swimmers, triathletes, cyclists, and dancers who use Pilates as a complimentary exercise to their main workouts. Generally, we have a variety of clients. We have some rehabilitating clients recommended to us by hospitals or physiotherapists, pregnant women, or those who have given birth. We also have group classes”, says Ms Kassir, adding that they train apprentices to become Basi Pilates instructors.

Most of their clients are women.

“Those who come prefer private sessions,” she says.

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