Glow Pilates – my first experience

Yesterday I went to my first Glow Pilates class at Good Vibes in Covent Garden. As you might know I have been coming here for Power Plates and Yoga classes for a long time, but I have never tried out Pilates. I’ve read a lot about how great Pilates is as a complement to running so I decided that I’d give it a go.

The class takes place in the beautiful yoga studio. The studio is heated so that it’s warm – like a sunny day – rather than hot like a Bikram studio. It’s a lovely place to work out with twinkly lights down one side of the room and not a mirror in sight – which in my eyes is a good thing.

The class was fairly full – not uncomfortably at all – which I thought was a good sign. It’s obviously popular. I chose a place near the front so that I could see the teacher and relaxed on my mat before the class started. I wasn’t totally sure what to expect. I have been to a couple of Pilates classes a long time ago and couldn’t really remember much about the experience except that it was very focussed on the core.

The Good Vibes website says that “A Glow Pilates class is more than just core work. Prepare yourself for a full body workout. We will work you from head to toe, inside and out using old school classical Pilates intense, flowing and pulsing movements throughout the class – toning your arms, back, abdominals, waist, hips, thighs and legs”

And it really was a full body workout. We moved through a series of exercises which worked pretty much every part of the body. Most of the moves were quite small but felt intense and at all times we were instructed on how to get the most out of the moves by focussing on keeping other parts of our body still and moving from our core.

There were quite a few moves that I was familiar with from the 30 Day Shred and Six Week Six Pack – the double leg stretch for example.

The teacher was great – clear instruction and a mix of demonstrations and coming around the room to make corrections to people’s techniques. I found the class challenging but achievable – exactly how I like it. No point in exercising if it’s totally easy but there’s nothing worse than being in a class that’s beyond your capabilities. I was especially pleased that the last move in the class was the plank and that I managed to hold all three rounds of it without dropping to my knees – I think I have Jillian Michaels to thank for that!

The hour went very quickly and before I knew it we were cooling down with a series of lovely stretches. We used Pilates rings to help stretch out our hamstrings and I managed to get into one of the deepest stretches I have for a while – I may have to invest in one for home.

As I left the class I felt ‘tighter’ – almost as if I was wearing a corset that someone had just done up another notch. This morning I had a pleasing ache in quite a few muscles which let me know that I had definitely worked them.

I really enjoyed this class and will definitely come back again. Next on my list to try is a Spincyle session at the Good Vibes Fitzrovia studio. I think it would be good to add a different type of cardio other than running into my regime every now and again.