I’m not casting for sympathy, but I’ve been laid up for the past week after having my appendix removed. I am now in convalescence, my body is unwilling to move, which, for a movement ‘expert’ is a tough thing.

What am I missing most? A run around the golf course? A walk on Skipwith common? A swim at Energise? Actually no, I just cannot wait to play on my Pilates apparatus: The Reformer, The Cadillac, The Wunda Chair and the Ladder Barrel.

Most people who come to my Pilates Studio are surprised to see the room filled with this large equipment. Many people think that Pilates is all about exercising on a mat on the floor and never have the opportunity to experience the work on the original apparatus. But when Joseph Pilates started his fitness studio in New York in the late 1920’s the exercises were mostly performed on the machines, the mat work that he taught went alongside the apparatus work. His little book of mat exercises that we still refer to today was published in 1945 so that people who couldn’t get to his studio were able to learn his method at home.

When I first encountered The Reformer I fell in love with it. I had been teaching gym work for several years before being bitten by Pilates so I was thoroughly versed in going for the burn. However, Pilates apparatus turns that idea around. Rather than taking a muscle area and working it until it’s had enough, the apparatus work teaches you to incorporate your entire body into the exercise. Pilates is about learning to make movements rather than working out muscle groups, muscles become synergistically strong because we learn to move with equilibrium.

The Reformer lets you feel your way into a movement. It supports you or it dares you to go a little further; it allows you to slow down and think about how you are performing - useful if you are doing a complex exercise. You can can lie, sit, or stand on the moving platform attached by springs to foot of the ‘bed’. It looks like a bed with springs and pulleys attached, and that is exactly how it came into being, Joe Pilates first attached springs to hospital beds in the camp where he was interned on the Isle of Man during the First World War.

When I first saw the Pilates apparatus I wanted to play on it. I’ve got to confess, you will always find me joining in when I take my grandson to the park! my very favourite thing at primary school was rushing out to play on the bars at break time. Do you remember the excitement and fun of that? The joy of sitting on a bar, swinging backwards and somersaulting off (can still do it by the way) or hanging upside in a handstand (still working on that one) is unbeatable. Exhilaration and achievement, we didn't need to think about keeping fit, it was just playing.

- Patricia Issitt is a movement therapist and Pilates instructor based in York. Find out more at yorkpilates.com