Congleton Golf Club in Cheshire has broadened its leisure offering to its members and guests by laying on Pilates classes to help those recovering from injury.
Pilates instructor Alison Farrell, also puts on Pilates classes at nearby Congleton Leisure Centre and the The Old Saw Mill café and community centre, has been overwhelmed by the reaction to the classes, which started last year, and have proved popular with golfers and non-golfers alike.
One of her non-golfing Pilates students, Ann Taylor from Biddulph, has been cured of chronic back pain thanks to Remedial Pilates. She said: “Alison’s classes have been life changing. I was enduring so much pain with my lower back – and had been for several years – I had been prescribed Amitriptyline to take at bedtime to help me sleep. Six months after starting Remedial Pilates, I was able to stop taking the pills and my GP was so impressed he said he was thinking about recommending patients to Alison.”
It was at the golf club around 18 months ago that the seeds were inadvertently first sown for Ann’s recovery. Her husband, Tim, suffering from mild back trouble at the time, noticed on line that pilates classes were starting at the golf club. He rang up and was impressed when clubhouse barman Fred Bailey, who answered the phone, took the trouble to leave the bar and go downstairs to the changing rooms area to get the poster containing the contact details. When Tim attended his first class at the golf club, he discovered Farrall puts on Remedial Pilates at Congleton Leisure Centre, which is more suitable for back pain sufferers.
Tim, who later joined the golf club, said: “My back improved quickly, and if Pilates can have this effect on Ann and myself – not in our first flush of youth – then goodness knows what it can do for younger people. Obviously, wherever possible, physical exercise is preferable to taking pills and it all started with Fred taking the trouble to make sure we got the information we needed, which turned out to make such a big difference to our lives.”
For details of the Pilates classes at Congleton Golf Club, call 01260 273540 (ext 3) or email pmdconggolf@gmail.com