HOW WE'RE DIFFERENT 

The Pilates Barre provides the ultimate experience in mind/body cross training. This hybrid of technique is designed to effectively strengthen, tone and balance the entire body.  We are able to combine exercises from our various disciplines, making our workouts entirely unique to our studio. Motivating music sets the tone for group classes. Students remain energized as the work transitions to exercise sequences designed to isolate muscle groups, develop long, strong limbs, and substantially increase core strength and flexibility. Clients have the ability to experience Pilates, Barre, and TRX on alternate days using the same package. 

CLASS BENEFITS

What is Pilates?

Pilates is a system of more than 500 controlled exercises that engage the mind and condition the total body. In Pilates, muscular imbalances are identified and corrected before injury occurs. This full body workout is designed to target the deep core unlike any other exercise routine. The abdominals support both your spine and other vital organs. As a result, deep strengthening of the core (both pelvic and shoulder girdle) improves the body's overall function and general health. Clients alleviate chronic back pain and improve posture and circulation, which is why Pilates is most often recommended by physicians and physical therapists alike. Slow, controlled motions put minimal impact on joints and clients are able to strengthen muscles while achieving a lean look without bulk.  

Benefits include:

  • A complete full body workout in 60 minutes providing muscle definition and increased length
  • Complements sports training and develops functional fitness for daily life activity 
  • Corrects overtraining of muscle groups, which can lead to stress and injury
  • Helps improve posture and spinal alignment 
  • Stabilizes deep core muscles to alleviate and prevent back pain
  • Improves flexibility, coordination and balance 
  • Promotes stress reduction, mental focus and clarity
  • Enhances metabolism and lung capacity
  • Stabilizes and strengthens joints
  • Increases energy level and promotes weight loss
  • Classes are invigorating and results can be life-changing

What is Barre?

Barre classes integrate the fat-burning format of interval training with muscle-shaping isometrics to quickly and safely reshape the body. This non-impact workout uses both the ballet barre and the mat, and targets all major muscle groups. The result features sculpted arms, flat abs, a lifted seat, and elongated thighs. Rather than straining your body through large, compound exercises (such as squats or shoulder presses) tiny one-inch increments called isometric movements are the foundation of Barre classes. However, don't be fooled by how easy it looks; these isometric movements push muscles to the point of fatigue, making them more elastic without causing them to tear. Mental focus is required as muscles are strengthened and then stretched to create a longer, leaner physique. 

Benefits include:

  • Isometric movements help isolate and shape specific muscles
  • Low impact motions are gentle to the joints. 
  • Provides interval training, which benefits cardiovascular health 
  • Burns calories while gaining lean muscle 
  • Results can be seen in 8-10 consistent classes
  • Low risk of injury
  • Increases flexibility 
  • Improves posture 
  • Increases muscular endurance
  • Fun and motivating

What is Bodhi?

Bodhi is a full-body strength workout that utilizes a person's own body weight as resistance instead of relying on machines or dumbbells. Born in the Navy SEALs, Suspension Training exercise develops strength, balance, flexibility, and core stability simultaneously.  You are in control of how much you want to challenge yourself on each exercise by simply adjusting your body position to add or decrease resistance. Unlike any other rope suspension system, Bodhi has two independent ropes and four suspension points for a greater variety of exercise options.  Using your own weight with more reps will help you to lengthen your muscles without expanding them or creating bulk. Clients who take Bodhi report feeling more flexible and gaining an increased range of motion. The bands give you freedom of mobility. You are able to move around differently than you would be able to on your own, creating a foundation for core stability. As in Pilates and Barre, all muscle groups are targeted, with an emphasis on the core. 

Benefits include:

  • Helps build a rock-solid core
  • Delivers a fast, effective total body workout
  • Increases muscular endurance
  • Benefits people of all fitness levels, pro-athletes to seniors. 
  • Stabilizes the shoulder and pelvic girdle, improving posture and balance.
  • The difference can be felt after just one class.
  • Provides muscle feedback to balance strength 

HISTORY OF WORKOUTS

Origin of Pilates & Equipment

The foundation of our Pilates programs is based on the works of Joseph Pilates. Born in Germany in 1880, Joe suffered as a child from muscular weakness due to asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever. In an effort to overcome his limitations, he dedicated his life to becoming physically stronger. Joe Pilates became accomplished in sports as a boxer, gymnast, wrestler and skier in addition to practicing yoga and meditation.  At the outset of WWI, he was touring with a boxer in England and placed under forced internment as an "enemy alien". It was in the camps that he refined his ideas of the perfect fitness regimen and trained other internees including those who were bedridden. Taking springs from their beds and rigging them to create resistance, he began to devise equipment to "rehab" his patients. This led to his later designs in apparatus and the birth of the Pilates Reformer and Tower which both function today as remarkable tools in rehabilitation and the development of true muscular balance and strength. In the 1920's, Joe brought his method to NYC with his wife Clara and they opened the first Pilates studio. They rented a small space in the same building as The NYC Ballet, where his method was quickly adopted by the ballet world as an adjunct to their work -- and a godsend for injured dancers. Joe trained clients of all ages and disciplines until his death in 1967 at the age of 87.

Origin of Barre 

Barre Technique has its foundation in the work of Lotte Berk, a Russian dancer who developed a protocol for her own rehab after a serious spinal injury in the 1940's.  She opened a studio in London in 1959 that was frequented by celebrities. One of her pupils, Lydia Bach, licensed the method from her and opened the first US studio in 1971. There are countless brands of Barre classes and although most Barre brands incorporate the use of the ballet barre, these classes have little to do with ballet. They are a fusion of ballet, yoga, and Pilates-like exercises but unto their own. Barre classes focus on isometric exercises by moving in a tiny range of motion to work muscles to exhaustion. 

Origins of Bodhi

Pilates instructor Khita Whyatt developed the Bodhi system after sustaining serious injuries in a car accident as a way to rehabilitate her body. This is suspension training plus, providing countless exercise options, dynamic balance and deep flexibility. Your core muscles naturally learn to fire as you utilize your own body weight and gain even more mobility and stability as well as strong, well toned arms and legs.