Meet Lisa Simpkinson, the Founder of The Mat App!

Meet Our Founder!

Lisa Simpkinson, founder of The Mat App, has revolutionised the world of Pilates from the one-size-all norm to an individual experience that works on a woman’s specific goals, one woman at a time. 

While Pilates, a system of repetitive exercises to promote strength, stability, and flexibility via mat work or the use of machines, has been prominent in the overall fitness and health of the people who use it, Lisa discovered that a lot of the best-known practises were not capable of solving the issues many women experienced, especially postpartum. 

And that was her basis for bringing together both the great parts of Pilates with her Whole Woman practice to create a space that welcomes all women to address all their pelvic health needs.  Her focus stems from her own experience with prolapse and incontinence after the birth of her fourth child, and she brings that expansive knowledge and her 22,000 hours of teaching movement to a host of clients looking for real support for their women’s health issues. 

Words from Lisa

From “My Story”, Lisa Simpkinson.com 

Ever since she was little, she’d been fascinated by the human body, its functionality, movement and flow. She expressed herself by creating her own version of gymnastics, rolling and jumping through her childhood home. She loved to pretend to be a ballerina, and no one was surprised as she entered the world of dance.

As she grew up through years in dance, she quickly discovered she could push her body to see what it was capable of. But as she grew older, she found it intriguing that what had been fun movement as a child had become taxing as an adult. This intrigue was the foundation of her longing for a more holistic and beneficial way to work with the movement of her body, and she began her study (and subsequent completion) of her Level 4 Pilates instructor course.

After successfully running her own Pilates studio, getting married to the man of her dreams and giving birth to four boys, she felt like the body she’d trusted for so many years, all the experiences and joy, was letting her down.

And after the birth of her fourth child, she experienced a prolapse. This led to more anatomical self-discovery, as she was curious to learn about the prevalent, postpartum symptom. Her passion for teaching brought her to a new goal of self-healing and understanding to help not only herself but other women.

She enrolled in Whole Woman™ and was soon certified as a practitioner, and that newfound knowledge turned her whole Pilates world upside down. Practises she had long thought to be beneficial to women’s pelvic health turned out to be detrimental. And if she was just discovering this, how many other women didn’t know?

Like most things revolving around women’s health, there wasn’t a lot of current information out there, and not all collocated in one place. Lisa felt drawn to fill that space with a community for women to learn, nurture and grow, and together share, overcome, and heal.

This gift from Lisa is the foundation of our The Mat App.

And as she always says, “Embrace it. Breath. Enjoy.”

Ready to Get Started on The Mat?

Welcome to Pilates Done Differently.  With The Mat App, you will get access to on-demand Pilates and Barre classes with new classes added monthly, challenges and workshops for every experience level and targeted area, specialised classes with a holistic approach toward pelvic health, and the ability to connect with other like-minded women on our community Facebook page. 

Our instructors are specialists in both Pilates and Barre and share their unique approach to women’s health with our Wholewoman™ holistic alternative to conventional medical health rife with outdated information about how women’s bodies work. By supporting the principles of self-care, women are empowered with the knowledge that no one knows their body and its changes better than themselves, giving them the best baseline to learn how their movement and breath affect their health. 

Through our app, you’ll learn moves like:

Pelvic Curl

1. Lay on your back with your knees bent. Plant your heels about 3.5-6″ apart (called your sit-bone distance). Your arms should be flat and pressing into the mat next to your hips. 
2. Inhale and hold your breath before exhaling. As you exhale, use your lower abs to draw your pelvis beneath you. 
3. Using your glutes and your spine, move your hips up until your body draws a line from your knees to your shoulder blades. 
4. Inhale and pause as you find your stability through your core supported by your arms and legs. 
5. Exhale and drop your sternum and melt slowly into the mat, one vertebra at a time, and release your glutes as you meet the mat. 

Back Extension

1. Laying on your stomach with one hand atop the other. Lay your forehead on your hands. Using your lower abs, press your pubic bone gently into the mat, point down the line of your inner thighs through your feet. 
2. Imagine you’re pushing the back of your head to the sky with your chin slightly tucked to lengthen the back of your neck. You should be looking down. 
3. As you inhale, lift your head from your hands.
4. As you exhale, lower your head back to your hands. 

As you feel more confident, you can extend this form by imagining the crown of your head lifting through the throat and the collar bones to engage the upper mid-back. And remember to be patient! These might seem easy, but don’t be disappointed when you find them to be hard. Practice will build strength, so you can do other moves confidently, too! 

Improve your strength, mobility, breathing, posture and form, through The Mat App. Start your free trial today!