There's No Clever Pun for Pilates

I channeled my inner basic white girl this week and narrowed down my fitness class choices to either pilates or yoga. Pilates fit perfectly into my schedule so I did my weekly routine of dragging myself out of the comfort of my bed to the White gym. I owe my motivation to go to the gym to this passion blog. Thanks blog, you're always here for me.

Sadly, no one could come to this gym class with me so I was all by myself.

I waited in a line of other girls as we waited for the gym doors to be opened. When they were, the instructor greeted each of us with a smile as we filed in. We made our way to the cubbies and the instructor who introduced herself as Katie told us that this was a barefoot class and instructed us to take off our socks and shoes. She then told us to grab a yoga mat and a couple of the mats used for ab exercises if we felt that we would need them. I felt super official as I sat on my yoga mat and was prepared for the class. The atmosphere was really relaxing with dimmed lights and upbeat yet relaxing music playing in the background.

Katie started the class by having us all sit criss cross apple sauce (throwback to elementary school) and corrected our postures, emphasizing the importance of a straight spine. After taking a couple deep breaths, Katie had us interlock our fingers and and straighten our arms forwards with our palms facing forward. We then raised our arms and palms toward the ceiling and then leaned towards the left, and then the right, stretching our obliques. Then, we started out our exercises with a plank set. We held a front plank for a while, and then rolled over to the right and held the right side plank. Afterwards we returned to a center plank, and then held a left side plank. My shaky arms every time I do planks give away the fact that my arms are as strong as spaghetti. After holding the center plank for a little, Katie told us to lower our knees to the floor, do a push up, then roll onto our heels into the downward dog pose. Then we slowly stood up, and then returned to a plank and repeated that set of exercises. After we did multiple sets of the exercise, we got on our hands and knees on the mat and did table top exercises, which were also used in Washboard Abs and Butts and Guts. We started out by raising our legs up towards the ceiling to about hip level and then lowered them without our toes touching the floor. Then we drew a triangle with our toes, tapping them on one side of the mat, raising them towards the ceiling, and then tapping them on the other side of the mat. We finished off our table top exercises by bending our knees and flexing our feet so the bottoms of our feet were facing the ceiling. Then we began kicking our legs up.

After those sets of exercises, Katie told us to shift our weight and stretch our backs and hips by going into child's pose, and shifting our weight from left and right. We continued on to do the typical set of leg raises. Then we kept our legs in a right angle with our bodies and raised our shoulder blades off the mat with our arms moving up and down by our sides. Next, we did leg circles first with one leg and then with both. Afterwards, we stretched out our abs by extending our bodies out fully while laying down. Then, we started doing half supermans, raising only our legs, and then raising only our upper  bodies. We held one of the half supermans working on our upper half, and then did what Katie called airplanes. With our upper bodies raised, we twisted our body and tapped our fingers to the ground. We finished our workout with another plank set. This time when we did our side planks, we dropped our hips to the ground and did side lying leg lifts. Afterwards we stretched ourselves out with another child's pose. Finally, we sat criss cross apple sauce once again and did the side stretches to end the class.

This class was definitely one of my favorites. All the exercises flowed into one another, and the atmosphere was extremely relaxing. Not to mention, there was constant stretching, giving your muscles a break and ensuring that you don't strain anything. The music choice and lighting also keeps you very relaxed, but the workout still worked our abs, glutes, and legs very thoroughly. Katie was also a great instructor, making constant rounds and helping everyone out. Definitely check out pilates if you have a chance! Because if this blog post didn't convince you, this Gif definitely will.

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