Iron Butterfly Pilates

Saturday morning I was invited to participate in a blogger pilates workshop at Iron Butterfly Pilates in the Atherton Lofts in Charlotte.

(picture from studio website)

I actually have done Pilates before, but it's been a long time.  I have a Winsor Pilates DVD that I have used, which is one of my few informercial purchases.  When I belonged to the YMCA I used to attend Pilates classes once a week or so, in conjunction with yoga and cardio classes, so I'm familiar, just a little rusty.  I like the workout, because it's very core-focused and leaves me feeling like I really worked my abs when I finish.  Somewhere a long the lines, I got more into yoga and running though, so Pilates unfortanately fell by the way side. 

Iron Butterfly is a small studio and kind of reminded me of a spa when I walked in, very warm and welcoming.  I love that the room we practiced in looks out on the mill and has brick walls and exposed ducts.

We got all set up.

Then began the the class.

 I had forgotton a lot of the moves, but it kind of came back to me as we went along.  The breathing in Pilates is really important, much like yoga.  Instead of breathing through your nose the whole time, you breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.  I think the breathing in Pilates helps a noticeable amount as it seemed to get me through a lot of the difficult moves.

We also used a few interesting pieces of equipment, such as a ring like this one:

We held this between our thighs and squeezed.  Think Thigh Master!  I was afraid it was going to shoot out from between my thighs and hit another blogger in the head or something, but I managed to control it!

In addition, we used rubberbands to create resistance when doing leg exercises. 

It was a great hour long workout.  I'd recommend Pilates if you haven't tried it.

It was also great to see Erin, Kelly, Andrea, Jessie, and Jen.

(L to R: Kelly, Me, Erin, Jessie, Andrea)

It was a tough workout for me, I'm not going to lie.  As you know, I haven't exactly been on a great workout schedule since my marathon and trying to concieve, so I felt like this was a pretty tough workout.  We were doing push-ups, planks, and all kinds of exercises my body hasn't done much lately.  I can really feel it today in my muscles!  I think that's a good thing though...  said as I wander off to douse myself in Icy Hot... :)

Thank you to Iron Butterfly for having us!