My
30-Day Pilates challenge has officially started last Monday when I first stepped into studio, waiting anxiously to start my first pilates class at Breathe Pilates’ Novena studio. The whole studio seems like a little gymnasium to me, with all the fitness equipment with handles and bars attached. I couldn’t help but to think of it as a playground where I could imagine swinging myself like a monkey on the steel bars. And the fun begins right at the moment, our instructor, Deborah asked us to get onto the reformer.
Day 1
We started off with simple mat work where we learnt how to work and engaged our abs more effectively. In fact, through the first lesson, I learnt that the beauty of pilates lies in its simple and graceful movements which activates and stretch the body muscles, including the ones which we hardly use due to our sedentary modern lifestyles. When each pilates move or posture is done correctly, the muscle groups would be put to work more effectively and efficiently. With that, more calories would be burnt along with the increase of lean muscle mass. But all of these comes with a great body awareness where you are able to feel your muscles contracting and relaxing. In other words, when I am doing pilates, I wouldn’t be thinking about work but raising the awareness of my body and focusing on working my muscles. So throughout the 60-min class, I was only thinking about my abs and nothing else. That sexy abs.
Day 5
When I was back in the studio on Friday night, I felt like I’ve missed out quite a bit because by Day 5, the other pilates challengers were getting stronger each day and I could see that their stamina was upped by a level. Within a mere timespan of 4 days, there were already experiencing subtle changes in terms of physical strength.Amazing or what?
Friday’s evening class could only be summed up by one word, “awesome!” I get to play around with the various pilates equipment like the rollers, reformer and towers. I could actually perform some of the pilates movement with ease using the machines. And if I want to toughen up my workout, I could increase the resistance using the springs of the reformer to increase the intensity of each pilates move.
Joseph Pilates
While I was performing the pilates moves on the reformer, I couldn’t help but to think what a genius Joseph Pilates was. The innovation series of movements and exercises he created is in fact suitable for all ages as these exercises are not too strenuous or intensive for the body.
Day 6
We had a rather exhausting circuit workout which I really enjoyed because this was the only class I actually perspired. To me, this is hardcore full body workout with the reformer and TRX. We did repetitions of hundreds, footwork, chest press and other arm and leg exercises that tones the muscles. You might think that I’m mad but I really enjoy the high intensity of the workout because I could really feel the calories burning. And the class was fun with our highly energetic instructors who is always there to motivate and push us to reach our fitness goals! You must know that it’s really difficult to find a really good fitness instructors out there so I was really glad that Breathe Pilates had a good pool of highly professional instructors!
In fact, you could get creative and perform a whole range of other pilates movements on the reformer. Both the reformer and tower are so versatile that I think that they could replace the use of gym equipment.
Though I only attended 3 classes this week due to my tight schedule, I have learnt a lot especially about correcting and performing the right pilates moves using the right muscles. It made me realize that I haven’t been doing the right pilates moves during my mat pilates class at the gym! With a smaller classes like this, the instructors were able to provide more attention to each student. Since the class size is smaller, that would also mean that you can’t slough off because your instructor could be watching you!
My target for this week is attend as many pilates class as I could along with my usual gym classes. I’m also working on my nutrition and diet as I realize that I haven’t been eating clean. Though I didn’t attend the nutrition workshop led by Dana Heather, I was glad that I was given a set of their healthy raw recipes. Stay tune for the next post as I whipped up a healthy raw vegan salad sauce!
Read about my pre-30 Day challenge post here!
Breathe Pilates
(Novena Branch)
#09-33 Novena Medical Center
10 Sinaran Drive 307506
Nearby MRT Station: Novena
(East Coast Branch)
#02-05/06/07
217 East Coast Road428915
Nearby MRT Station: Eunos
