Yesterday on an invite I tried out Pilates.
Above, we’ve
got Eden, my friend and trainer extrodinaire. She’s big time. I’ve mentioned her on here before but to recap she
was picked as trainer of the year by the Improper Bostonian, she’s started mindbodybaby, a personal training oasis and she’s actually very good at what she does.
Here’s a quick hit
from her site:
I provide my clients with tools for maximum strength, flexibility, coordination
and weight loss. With passion, I motivate and support my clients in achieving their fitness goals. Through humor, I help my
clients laugh through the sweat.
That last part is right on… just replace sweat with
embarrassing because we’re talking about me.
I laughed throughout her class but my favorite quip
was, “Very creative Dana.” I’m pretty sure she blurted it out when i was attempting the move she’s
doing at the top.
It’s just not something you want to here in a teacher led class. Maybe in art class,
but not here. Either way, it was funny and helped me relax a little bit.
But I’m getting ahead of
myself here.
On Tuesday night, I headed into town and visited one of the nicest gyms I’ll never ever
belong to, Equinox.
I’ve never been in a place where they had lounge chairs sitting next to exercise
equipment. But Equinox was that place. It was one part globo-gym, one part night club and two parts unaffordable (for me).
That said, it was sweet.
After getting changed I walked around without a clue for a bit until
I found the studio where we’d be working out.
Eden’s friend and most favorite student, Anne
also came along for the trip even though she’d just worked out a mere 12 hours earlier, in the same class. If
you took Betty Draper from Mad Men and combined her with Jillian Michaels you’d get Anne.
Anways,
on to the class. Aside from Eric, Eden’s boyfriend and all around cool dude and two other guys, it was all girls in
this class, which isn’t surprising but I’m just setting the scene for you.
We all walk into
the low lit room, there’s rectangle windows matching small rectangle lamps along the walls. At the edge of the hardwood
floor in the circular room, zen rocks. Tons of them. I had to make sure they were real and ended up fumbling around with a
few.
It was clear to me that everyone knew I was the square peg in this class.
My strategy
in these last few months has been to just fake it when I have no idea what I’m doing. I basically just try to fit in
and look around at what everyone else is doing to get my bearings.
But, thanks to Eden, despite some of
the jargon (which I didn’t really understand. What the hell is a neutral spine?) I was able follow along pretty well.
It’s a real talent when you can balance a class full of people who want a challenging workout with one inexperienced
kid who just want’s to have fun and maybe get a workout.
Despite myself, I did get a workout. A serious
workout.
Apparently, pilates is just based around doing half a sit up and holding it for an hour. Obviously,
there’s a lot more but my abs simply don’t work today.
I can understand why people are so in
love with this workout. It will destroy you if you’re not prepared. I broke a serious sweat and I felt great afterwards.
Even though I’m sore today, I don’t regret a minute of it.
Truthfully, its a little intimidating
when girls are just moving seemingly without any problem into poses that my body just can’t comprehend.
There
was a lot of holding legs in the air, doing mini crunches, holding the arms out and deep breathing. It kind of reminded me
of yoga, just 1,000 times harder.
Will I try it again? Yes.
When will that be? Maybe
in a month, when it doesn’t hurt to breathe.
