Physio-led Pilates in Broughty Ferry
Your own programme, in a room of six.
Studio Circuits runs in the ground-floor studio at 594 Brook Street. Fifty minutes, never more than six people, and everyone in the room is working on something different.
If you've looked at a room full of Pilates equipment and quietly decided it wasn't for you — that's most of the people who come. It's also why the class is built the way it is. A physiotherapist writes what you do, adjusts it every session, and knows what your back did last week.
Nutrio has been a physiotherapy studio in Broughty Ferry since 2015.
What Studio Circuits actually is
It isn't a circuit class in the gym sense
Nobody's racing a clock and nobody's doing the same thing as the person beside them. The word describes how you move round the room, not how hard you're breathing.
Everything in the room runs on springs
The trapeze table, the chairs, the fuse ladders, the ladder barrel, the reformers. What changes is which part of you is pushing or pulling, and how much the spring is holding you while you do it. Once you've got that, the room stops looking like a machine shop.
Your programme is yours, and it changes
What you do today depends on what you did last week, what you're working towards, and how you've arrived. Two people side by side on the same piece of equipment will often be doing different things.
A physiotherapist is writing it
Before you arrive we've read your health form, so we already know about your back, your knee, your shoulder. If you've come across from a physiotherapy appointment, we've already watched how you move.
What a session is like
You'll start on the reformer, because it's the one you've already seen
It's the piece most people recognise from Instagram or a film, so it's the least strange place to begin. We'll get to the rest.
You move clockwise, and you'll be told when
You don't have to work out where to go next or whether you're allowed. The next station is set up and waiting before you reach it.
There's more equipment than there are people, so nobody stands waiting
Six people, more than six pieces. There's always somewhere to move to, which means you're never hovering while someone finishes.
Arriving a few minutes early helps, but it isn't essential
People tend to arrive in a wave. If you're early we'll get you started; if you're bang on time we'll put you on something you already know while we settle everyone else.
We finish the same way every time, with a roll down
However different everyone's hour has been, it ends together.
What each piece of equipment does
The trapeze table is where lying flat stops being a requirement
It takes a wedge, so you can be supported rather than flat. It's a stable structure with a lot of spring options, and legs held in springs asks considerably less of you than feet in straps. Good for building strength and mobility when you're starting from sore.
The chairs are for balance and side body
Standing balance, seated balance, working through the legs, or weight-bearing with your hands. There are two of them, so there's usually one free.
The fuse ladders are for pushing, pulling and turning
We use the two differently. One for standing or seated work, facing in, pushing and pulling against the spring. The other for climbing — stepping up and drawing through, or stepping sideways and rotating against the tension.
The ladder barrel opens the front of you
Supported extension, standing leg stretches, side bending. Sitting up high on it and curving into a C is one of the harder things in the room, and it comes when it comes.
The reformers do a bit of everything
Lying, side-lying, standing hip work, or sitting with your legs over the edge working through the arms. Two of them, so there's room.
Reformer and Studio Circuit are different kinds of class, not different levels
This is the question we're asked most, and the honest answer is that they do different jobs.
In a reformer class, everyone is on a reformer and the room moves together — the same exercise at the same time, led from the front.
In Studio Circuit, downstairs on the ground floor, everyone is doing something different. You work through your own set of exercises, moving between the reformer, the trapeze table, the chair and the ladder barrel, in a room of no more than six. What's in front of you was chosen for your body by the physiotherapist who assessed you.
So: if you're working around something specific — a knee, a back, a shoulder, something you've been given to do — Studio Circuit gives you your own programme. If you want to get stronger and enjoy being taught for fifty minutes, the reformer classes give you the class.
Most people who do both will tell you they aren't substitutes for each other. And you don't have to decide permanently — one class pack covers everything we run.
If you've never done this before
Most people who come for the first time have spent a while deciding to. If that's you, here's what's usually behind the hesitation, answered plainly.
You don't need experience, and you don't need a 1:1 first
You can book straight into any class. Some people prefer a one-to-one session before joining a group and that's fine too, but it isn't a requirement and nobody will assume you've done this before.
Nobody in the room is doing what you're doing
Which means nobody is comparing. Everyone is on their own programme, and most of them were as unsure as you on their first morning.
“The room adapts to you, not the other way round.”
Say something before we start and the whole hour works around it
A niggle, a flare-up, a bad night's sleep. You don't need to justify it, and you won't be asked to push through it.
The studio is on the ground floor — no stairs
Studio Circuits runs downstairs. If stairs are part of why you've been putting this off, this is the class to start with.
Prices and how to start
The best way to start is three classes for £45
Three classes, to be used within 21 days. By the third you'll have worked across most of the equipment and we'll know how you move, which is when the programme starts being properly yours. Three is deliberate: one class tells you whether you liked the instructor, and three tells you whether it's helping.
Most people move onto a ten-class pack
Ten classes for £190, which works out at £19 a class, valid for six months. That's roughly once a week with room for a fortnight away and a week when everything falls apart. It's what most people choose after their introductory three, and it's enough to actually feel a difference — this is something you notice around week six, not week two.
If you're coming every week, fifteen works out best value
Fifteen classes for £255 — £17 a class, also valid for six months. It's where most of our regulars end up, and it leaves room to add a second class in the weeks you want one. Or for a gentler commitment if your diary is a little unpredictable, Five classes for £105, £21 a class, valid for three months.
One pack covers every class we run
Packs aren't tied to one class type. The same pack pays for a reformer class, a Studio Circuit, or a mat class — so you can book what suits your week rather than what suits the pack. It also means you don't have to decide in advance which kind of Pilates you're going to like. When you attend the last class, the next pack starts automatically, so there's no gap and nothing to remember. You can pause or cancel it yourself in your account at any time, or email us and we'll do it. If you want it all in one place, what reformer Pilates costs in Dundee sets out every price we charge and what sits behind it.
Common questions
Neither. Most people arrive having not done much for a while, and plenty have never touched a piece of Pilates equipment. You'll start on the reformer with something straightforward, and we build from there.
Do I need to be fit, or to have done Pilates before?
Then you won't have to. The trapeze table takes a wedge so you can work supported rather than flat, and if you need more under your head you'll have more under your head. Mention it before we start and it's already sorted.
What if I can't lie flat?
Often, yes — a good deal of the room is managing something. Tell us what's happened on your health form and we'll work around it. If it's something that needs looking at properly first, we'll say so, and a physiotherapy assessment is the better place to begin.
Can I come after surgery, or with an injury?
Do I have to come at the same time every week?
No. Your pack works across every class we run, so you can book whatever suits that week.
My back's flaring up this week. Should I stay at home?
Usually not. Say something when you arrive and the hour gets rebuilt around it — lighter springs, different equipment, more support. You won't be asked to push through anything.
How is this different from the reformer classes?
Reformer classes are six people on six reformers, working through broadly the same class together. Studio Circuits is six people moving between different pieces of equipment, each on their own programme. Same size of room, different shape of hour — and Studio Circuits is on the ground floor.
Where are you, and is there step-free access?
594 Brook Street, Broughty Ferry, Dundee DD5 2EA. Studio Circuit classes are on the ground floor.