Instructors
TOM PITIRIS
What makes your class so f’cking awesome?
Expect to feel the burn, especially in your upper body, as you get long and lean to a banging playlist of familiar tunes from 90s pop to high energy dance.
What was your journey to becoming an instructor? How the hell did you get here?
Having trained as a professional dancer/actor in Australia I found the benefits of reformer Pilates quite early on and fell in love with it immediately. Once I moved to the UK to pursue acting I looked for a complimentary career that I was equally passionate about and it had to be Reformer Pilates!
What is your signature move?
I loooove a bit of upper body work. As someone who is quite tall I always find myself slouching and rounding through my shoulders and I think as we progress further into a more sedentary lifestyle it’s super important to keep the back, chest, arms and shoulders active and strong. A lot of people avoid working the upper body too much, thinking that they will increase too much in size, but in Reformer Pilates it’s great for strengthening the muscles around the spine, maintaining spinal health and toning the arms and shoulders.
What makes you, you?
I grew up on a sugarcane farm in far north QLD, Australia. My great grandparents migrated to Australia from Cyprus and began farming sugarcane which my grandfather and father have continued to do.
What does your downtime look like?
Aside from acting and Pilates, I have been a professional barista for 8 years and trained in my family’s own coffee shop in Australia before moving to the UK. Coffee is the elixir of life! Well, my life at least ;) I’m always out and about searching for a great coffee and an even greater brunch!
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
The best piece of advice I was ever given was from my aunt. She always used to say to me, “It is what it is. Make the best of any situation you’re in and if you don’t like the situation then change it. You and only you have control over your circumstances and can make the choice to change them at any point.”