Gentle stretch

England's weary World Cup squad may have trouble picking themselves up to begin training for the new domestic season, but Graham Potter certainly won't. The York City left midfield player missed the last few games of last season with hamstring problems, but now he has a new secret weapon - his girlfriend Rachel Pickering.

Rachel has recently qualified as a pilates instructor. And as well as putting her new skills to good use by running classes for beginners at the York Moat House Hotel's Body Club, she is helping Graham get in tip-top shape in time for the start of pre-season training on July 3.

Pilates is a system of gentle, relaxing exercises that stretch and tone the body, improving posture, flexibility and tone rather than building muscle.

Developed in the 1920s by physical trainer Joseph Pilates, who worked mainly with dancers, it involves a series of roughly 500 different exercises to help improve balance, co-ordination, positioning of the body, strength and flexibility.

This is ideal for Graham, who admits he is not particularly flexible and by the end of a gruelling season his hamstrings are wound tight as a drum.

"I'm playing two games a week, and the position I play is fairly physically demanding," he says. "Then you've got all the journeys, travelling by bus. Combine that with my general inflexibility and I tend to be constantly working with the hamstrings and lower back.

"By the end of the season they just got really, really tight, to the point where I could not walkwithout pain. They literally packed in."

At 27, he's not getting any younger - and missing the last few games of last season came as a wake-up call.

Now, under Rachel's guidance, he has started doing Pilates every day - and he's already feeling the benefits.

It is not hard to see why. He and Rachel demonstrate one of the exercises he has been using to build flexibility into his spine: the Shoulder Bridge. Like all the exercises Rachel teaches, it's done on a mat. Graham lies on his back with his arms by his side and his knees raised. Then, pressing down with his hands and arms, he slowly raises his hips, lower and mid spine, forming a straight 'bridge' with his body from shoulders to knees.

He holds the pose for a moment, breathes in, contracts his abdominal muscles then, breathing out steadily, 'unrolls' back down to the floor one vertebra at a time, starting with the upper back and finishing with the tailbone.

It's a gentle, calming exercise, excellent for improving flexibility and mobility of the spine, says Rachel, who has been checking Graham's posture throughout.

A form of gentle, almost meditative exercise such as Pilates may seem far removed from the macho world of football. But Graham says he has City physio Jeff Miller's support.

"And one or two of the lads have been saying they would be interested," he says. In fact many top-flight footballers - Dennis Bergkamp among them - have turned to Pilates as part of their exercise regime, and more professional footballers at a lower level are also catching on.

It's all part of a change in attitudes towards training in the modern game with its gruelling programme of matches, he says. "These days, you can't just turn up, kick the ball around for a couple of hours, then go home."

Graham says he will have to build Pilates into his daily routine, around his regular training schedule. "I am getting older. So it's a lifestyle change. It is going to take longer than a couple of months. I am already feeling stronger in my hamstrings, but there is still a lot of tightness there I have to work through."

The great thing about Pilates, says Rachel, is that it is for everybody. You don't have to be a dancer or a professional sportsman to benefit. "Old, young, male, female, it is ideal for anybody."

The former part-time aerobics instructor clearly believes in it, having given up a secure job with Norwich Union to take a seven-month intensive course in Modern Pilates instruction organised by the Leeds-based Northern Fitness and Education Centre.

She limits her classes to 15 people at a time, and begins each 75-minute session by assessing the posture of the people there.

There are four basic posture types that people slip into, she says - the 'sway back' in which the upper body leans back with arms dangling and the hips and pelvis are thrust forward; the lordotic posture in which the pelvis is tipped forward and the bottom is pushed back, which tends to lead to very tight hamstrings; the kyphotic posture, in which the shoulders are curved forward and the top of the spine can be curved; and the flat back, in which the natural curve of the spine is straightened - a rigid and inflexible posture.

Each posture causes its own stresses and strains on the body and Rachel organises each class around exercises designed to correct class members' particular posture problems and strengthen weak muscles.

Each exercised is carried out in a controlled, gentle manner, with Rachel closely supervising, and repeated up to six times. The exercises are accompanied by relaxing music throughout, and classes end with a ten-minute relaxation session.

The benefits, she insists, are widespread. "You gain more mobility and flexibility, better posture, and you also feel relaxed. It helps with stress management, too. There are a few people in the class who come not so much for the exercise but to relax after work."

Rachel Pickering's Pilates classes for beginners are held on Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings at the Body Club, York Moat House Hotel. Classes cost £8 for a 75-minute session, with numbers limited to a maximum of 15. For more information contact Rachel on 01904 610471.

Updated: 08:43 Monday, June 24, 2002