by Megan on Tue, 01/06/2015 - 5:35pm | 0 comments
Sometimes (ok, I’ll be honest…..all the time) I get in a fitness rut, and don’t take the time to try new things. As you may or may not know, I love lifting weights…so lifting is my entire fitness routine. So many of my clients and friends take pilates or barre class and tell me how challenging it is, but to this day I avoided barre class because I thought it would be “too easy”. I may even have been guilty of rolling my eyes on some occasions when people told me how difficult barre was, my mom always told me that I needed to learn to be “more responsible” for the facial expressions I make, but clearly I’m not.
A new Barre, Pilates and Yoga Studio (Endurance Pilates) just opened up in Boston on Washington Street, and my close friend Nikki Stalling is teaching a Barre class, she she invited me to try. I had my doubts, but decided to give it a go….trying new things is an important part of life right?
Here’s where the surprise set in for me. Barre is hard, I mean really, really….like I can’t finish what we are doing….my legs (or abs…..whatever body part we are targeting) are on fire and I need a breather….tough. Some of my favorite parts of the class were: the attention to posture and form. It’s so easy to get in the habit of slouching and slumping, and having someone correct that is so valuable. Beautiful posture emits confidence and looks amazing. Don’t you want that? The subtle, targeted moves we did for abs. It’s pretty common to do an ab workout in the gym without actually hitting the desired muscles. Not here. Nikki corrected a few things with my form and the ab work was so much more effective. I can only imagine the changes that I would see with this over 4-6 weeks. This alone makes coming back completely worth it. To me, all of the movements we did were targeted and efficient. When doing barre work there was a strong emphasis on shaping the back of the leg as opposed to the front of the leg. There was also a strong focus on glutes which is helpful for so many reasons. From a vanity perspective, having a great butt…it looks good. Clothes look better, swimsuits look amazing. No one looks good with a flat butt, but with all of the sitting and inactivity…..you see it all the time. From a health perspective, strengthen your flutes and you’ll be less prone to back injury and pain.
I’ll be making the Barre class with Nikki Stalling at Endurance Pilates Boston a regular weekly addition to my workouts that I already do. I’m so excited for the results that I’ll be seeing in a few weeks, and think it’s a great workout.
Stay beautiful and healthy!
Megan
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