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| Cha-Ching! |
Classic Pilates is in a real nice area of Dallas near Turtle Creek. It's actually over where Equinox is located. The studio is very cozy is very adequate is bright and sunny. Although sometimes it was all emasculating to be doing vbarre stretches while looking out and seeing the construction workers across the street checking out the class while on their lunch break.
Facilities/Layout
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| The AC tube thing was here for only one day, then it was gone. |
It looks like any pilates/yoga studio it's very good very clean they have water filter water and it's free and I saw some people and grab a banana or some other fruit after class and I think think it was all free too so that's a really nice touch. I actually had got the chance to have some puréed juice water after a class it was very refreshing and light so it's nice that they provide those little perks.
Pilates
I've done Pilates over the years, so this was not a totally new experience for me. Once again I'm the only man in the class because it's noon in all the guys are working in all the women are taking a lunch break or are not working, I don't know. I will say though that this studio offers a mens only reformer class. I'm very much interested in this, but since it wouldn't have been free I decided against it. ...Though I may come back and actually pay for that experience, it's that cool of an idea to me.
Although I've done quite a bit of pilates over the years, I am by no means a master so I don't feel very capable of giving a in-depth critique of the instructor. I will say that it was a very difficult workout for me, but it seemed fairly doable for the other members, two of which were doing it for their first time ever. So perhaps I'm just struggling because I'm an inflexible dude.
Vbarre
Actually got to meet the instructor here who invented Vbarre. She was very nice and pretty much what'd you'd imagine: personality fit into a dancer's body. She was very friendly. In fact, all the instructors were very friendly.
Vbarre is some variation on the Barre method. I think it has more cardio? I'm not sure. I'm interested in the core work because I'm recovering from treating various injuries in my upper/mid/lower back. With my back muscles suddenly able to (but not knowing how to) work correctly, I have to make sure to develop proper mechanics from the get-go. Thus my ability to, uh, ignore the fact that vbarre seems to be designed for women who want to look like a ballerina.
The class felt similar to a pilates class in that you really work on posture. However, the movements definitely felt more ballet-inspired. I haven't heard "second position" in almost thirty years (my mother put me in ballet class when I was young). So there was a bit of nostalgia for me. For some exercises we used a mat that allows for sliding our feet. This was used for things like mountain climbers, which I imagine is an example of how Vbarre differentiates from traditional barre.
I found these movements to be much easier than in Pilates, probably because most of them don't reveal my tight hamstrings like trying to hold an L position.
Surfability
Obviously I got lucky finding the free week to try. However, they do offer a free class at like 6:15 every Thursday, where the class is an opportunity to train the instructor. So if you like your Pilates in the morning then you've got a free workout once a week here.
All in all, I really like this place. Very friendly and nice, and the instruction seems to be pretty darn good. They were pretty funny in that they kept trying to get me to convince my wife to join, probably because they figure her to be a more likely long-term client and didn't take me too seriously.
If I do ever come back for the men's only class. I will update this post accordingly.
Amount spent: $0
Days in: 79
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