Book Your £85 Assessment →
4.9·120+ Google reviews

Reformer Pilates Shenley & Radlett · Full apparatus studio in London Colney · Three miles up the lane

Told it is wear and tear. Never told which bit. Reformer Pilates for facet joint pain, about 10 minutes from Shenley and Radlett.

Most people who come to us from Shenley and Radlett have been told there is some wear in the lower back, and have left it at that. What they describe is oddly specific, though: fine while walking, worse standing still, worse reaching up or leaning back, and better the moment they sit down or lean on a trolley. That pattern is not vague at all. It points at the small joints at the back of the spine, and it wants different work from a disc. The hour that starts here is a Movement Assessment, and telling those two apart is a large part of what it is for.

Does that sound like yours? The movement self-check will place it in two minutes →

Full STOTT Pilates apparatus suite Maximum 7 per session STOTT Pilates® certified Founded 2001 Free parking · M25 J22 Beginners welcome
6+
STOTT Pilates apparatusReformer, Cadillac, Stability Chair, Barrels & more
7
Maximum per sessionTeejay knows every client personally — every session
£85
1-to-1 Movement Assessment60 min · 1-to-1 · beginners welcome · no obligation
2001
Founded in St Albans25 years professional · 35 years total experience
Reformers along the tall studio windows, with the Ladder Barrel and the Cadillac / Trapeze Table frame, in the high-ceilinged apparatus room at Applied Pilates, London Colney, St Albans

The Sogunro Practice · Serving Shenley & Radlett · Founded 2001

Full STOTT Pilates apparatus studio — Reformers, Cadillac, Stability Chair & Barrels.
Not a Reformer-only boutique studio.

Reformer Pilates Cadillac · Trapeze Table Stability Chair Ladder & Arc Barrels

Getting here from Shenley & Radlett

Three miles up the lane from Shenley, four and a half from Radlett.

From Shenley it is barely three miles up the lane into London Colney. From Radlett it is nearer four and a half, either out through Shenley or along the A5183. Junction 22 of the M25 is two minutes from the studio if the motorway suits the day better, and AL2 1JG will give your sat-nav a live time on it. The areas we cover carries the route from every other town we serve. Also close by: Borehamwood, Watford and London Colney.

The studio is Unit 5, Hertfordshire Business Centre on Alexander Road, with free parking directly outside and no time limit. Ground floor throughout, step-free from the car park to the studio door — which matters more than it sounds if you are arriving in pain.

"Discs object to sitting. Facet joints object to standing still. Treating one as the other is why the exercises did not help."

Teejay's full story and credentials
Teejay Sogunro — credentials
✓STOTT Pilates® Full Comprehensive Certified
✓STOTT Pilates® Rehabilitation Certified
✓Qualified Sports Therapist
✓Studied osteopathy — Middlesex University
✓Watford FC Rehab Pilates Sports Therapist, 2015–2018
✓England Over-60s International Squash Rep · Top 32 World Ranked 2024
✓Trigger Point Dry Needling
✓25 years professional clinical practice · Founded 2001
Full credentials and background →
Reformers and apparatus in the Applied Pilates studio, London Colney, around fifteen minutes from Watford
A few minutes up the lane — and the reason for the drive is the room itself, not the class timetable.

The pattern that names it

Better the moment you sit down. Worse standing still.

Every level of the spine has a pair of small joints at the back of it — the facet joints. They guide how each segment moves and they take load when you lean back or stand for a long time. They are proper joints, with cartilage, a capsule and a nerve supply, which is why they are perfectly capable of hurting on their own account.

Their pain has a signature. It builds while standing still rather than while walking. It sharpens on extension — reaching up, leaning back, lying face down. It eases when you sit, or lean forward onto a trolley or a worktop. It is usually one-sided and local to the back, and when it travels it goes to the buttock or the back of the thigh rather than past the knee.

That is close to the opposite of a disc, which tends to be worse sitting and worse bending forward. The distinction matters because an exercise that helps one can provoke the other. It is how people end up working through a sheet of back exercises that makes them worse, and concluding that exercise is not for them.

So the work is to give the stiff segments some movement back, take the standing load off those joints by getting the hips and mid-back contributing again, and then build tolerance for being upright. On the apparatus that can start lying down, which matters when it is standing that provokes it.

01
Rehabilitation-informed — not fitness Pilates
Every exercise is chosen because it is clinically appropriate for your body. Fewer well-chosen exercises deliver more lasting results than dozens of generic ones. Teejay's approach is shaped by sports therapy, osteopathic principles and STOTT Pilates methodology.
About Teejay's approach
Reformer Pilates Shenley & Radlett clients train here — the STOTT Pilates apparatus studio at Applied Pilates, London Colney, St Albans
A single studio at London Colney — nine minutes from Shenley, twelve from Radlett, with free parking outside.
What mattersStandard Reformer studioApplied Pilates Shenley & Radlett
ApparatusReformer onlyFull STOTT Pilates suite — 6+ apparatus ✓
Group size10–13 clientsMaximum 7 clients ✓
ProgrammeFixed class — same for everyoneBuilt on your Movement Assessment ✓
Instructor trainingReformer-only qualificationSTOTT Pilates full comprehensive — 4+ years ✓
ApproachFitness and wellnessRehabilitation-informed clinical ✓
Osteolates TherapyNot available ✕Integrated hands-on treatment ✓
Suitable for chronic painNot designed for it ✕Specifically designed for back pain, sciatica ✓
ParkingVaries ✕Free parking on site ✓
Reformers, Cadillac, Trapeze Table, Stability Chair, Ladder and Arc Barrels and Spine Corrector in the London Colney studio
The studio you would be travelling to — London Colney, two minutes from M25 J22, with free parking on site.

Client results

What Shenley and Radlett clients say once the right thing gets loaded.

★★★★★ 4.9 ★ on Google · 120+ reviews · London Colney, St Albans
★★★★★
Chronic lower back pain
"Forget trendy studios and fads, Teejay is the real deal. Hugely qualified and endlessly patient he allows you to work at your own pace offering modification, correction and challenge as needed. With his background you can be sure you are in safe hands. His studio offers a calm little oasis without judgement or comparison. If you are looking for reformer Pilates I would skip the franchises and head here."

— Tanya C.

"I went to teejay with back problems after seeing a number of specialists teejay told me what the issue was straight away! in just a few sessions my back pain went completely! I see teejay once a week and it has changed my life"

— aaron R.

"My 9th year going to The Sogunro Practice weekly which keeps my back free from pain and in working order. My exercise routine is tailored to my back and evolves along with my strength (and sometimes re-injury). This is a friendly and calming place for anyone needing expert help in recovery from a bad back, strengthening it and keeping it in shape."

— Shan G.

★★★★★
Sciatica
Reformer Pilates Shenley & Radlett · WD7

Four miles to have it named properly.

Shenley and Radlett are not short of Reformer studios, and a class will make you stronger. What a class cannot do is work out whether your back objects to bending or to leaning back, which is the difference that decides what should be loaded and what should be left alone for now. That takes an hour of assessment, then a programme built on the answer. The drive buys the answer, not the apparatus.

Who travels in from Shenley & Radlett

People who have been told they have wear, degeneration or arthritis in the lower back and want to know what to do about it. People who stopped their exercise sheet because it made things worse. People who are fine on a long walk and miserable standing at a school gate. Facet joint syndrome is the reason a good number of them ring.

Clients come from Shenley, Radlett, London Colney, Napsbury, Aldenham and Borehamwood. Distances from every town we serve are set out on the areas we cover, and neighbouring pages cover Borehamwood, Barnet & Edgware and Watford.

Others arrive by a different route: after a course of physio that eased it without settling it, or after knee replacement or hip replacement that changed how they stand and left the back complaining. Plenty carry back pain that has been in the background for years, or sciatica that comes and goes, and a hip or knee that has quietly altered the way they load one side. Shoulder and neck pain often sits on top of all of it.

What a Shenley and Radlett session involves

The first hour is the Movement Assessment. For a back like this it spends its time on direction: what leaning back does, what bending forward does, how long standing still takes to provoke it, and which segments have stopped moving while their neighbours do the work. The Movement Assessment is £85 (60 minutes, 1-to-1). From there the usual route is the Foundation Programme (£269, three 1-to-1 sessions) and then small-group apparatus classes, capped at seven people, or a 1-to-1 Reformer and apparatus course if closer supervision is wanted.

Because this is a full STOTT Pilates apparatus studio — Reformers, Cadillac / Trapeze Table, Stability Chair, Ladder Barrel, Arc Barrel and Long Box — rather than a Reformer-only room, the spine can be worked lying down and supported before it is ever asked to hold itself upright, which is where a back that objects to standing has to start. Where the soft tissue around it is the thing holding progress up, Osteolates Therapy runs alongside. Prices and memberships

Shenley & Radlett questions, answered

  • Three miles up the lane from Shenley, four and a half from Radlett, or two minutes off junction 22 of the M25. Parking is free, right outside, with no time limit.

  • You do not have to — that is the assessment’s job. The short version is that facet joint pain tends to be worse standing still and leaning back and better sitting, while disc pain tends to be worse sitting and bending forward. The two are told apart by how the back behaves under load, not by a scan. Facet joint syndrome has the longer explanation.

  • The Movement Assessment is £85 (60 minutes, 1-to-1). After that: the Foundation Programme is £269 for three 1-to-1 sessions, single 1-to-1 sessions are £95, and a six-session 1-to-1 course is £479 — about £79 a session. Small-group apparatus classes are £32 pay-as-you-go or £299 for a 10-session block, about £30 a session. Memberships start at £129 a month. Full detail is on prices and memberships.

  • A class teaches one sequence to a room, and a good deal of a general Pilates sequence involves leaning back. If that is the direction your back objects to, the class is working against you. Here the direction is established first and the programme is built to suit it. That is what clinical Pilates is for.

  • The changes on the scan are, mostly. How much they hurt is not, because that depends on how the joints are being loaded and how much of the work the surrounding muscles are taking. Those are the parts that move. Nobody here will tell you the scan is wrong — only that it is not the whole account.

  • The studio runs Monday to Thursday 7:30am–7:30pm, Friday 7:30am–5:30pm and Saturday 7:30am–1:30pm. Group classes are booked through the timetable; assessments, 1-to-1 sessions and Osteolates Therapy are arranged through the enquiry form or on 07734 578959. Being three miles up the lane from Shenley, most clients here treat it as a regular weekly slot rather than a trip.

Reformer Pilates Shenley & Radlett clients are usually in the studio within a week of enquiring. Book your £85 Movement Assessment

Before you book

Book nowContact & DirectionsEnquire to book → PricingPrices & MembershipFrom £85 — view all → ScheduleTimetable & BookingsView timetable → Also availableOsteolates TherapyFrom £65 → Reviews4.9 ★ on Google · 120+ reviewsRead all reviews → AboutTeejay SogunroCredentials & story → Back painBack Pain St AlbansBack Pain Pilates St Albans → SciaticaSciatica St AlbansSciatica Treatment St Albans → SportsSports Injury RehabSports Injury Rehab St Albans → Men'sMen's Applied PilatesMen's Pilates St Albans → Over 60sPilates for Over 60sPilates for Over 60s St Albans → HomeApplied Pilates St AlbansVisit homepage →
Ready to find out what's really going on?

Start with the
£85 Movement Assessment.

Sixty minutes, one to one with Teejay. You will leave knowing which direction your back objects to, which segments have stopped contributing, and why the last set of exercises did what it did. Ample free parking on site. Every Reformer Pilates Shenley & Radlett programme starts here.

Enquire About Your £85 Assessment
Or call Teejay directly 07734 578959

info@thesogunropractice.co.uk

The Sogunro Practice · Applied Pilates & Osteolates Therapy
Unit 5, Hertfordshire Business Centre, Alexander Road
London Colney · St Albans · Hertfordshire · AL2 1JG · Free parking on site