A few weeks ago, I went to an Endurance Pilates & Yoga class with Blog and Tweet Boston. Endurance Pilates & Yoga opened in January 2015 in the South End (close to Flour and Jaho). Founder Julie Erickson brings over 20 years of experience (including four Pilates certifications and an Ashtanga yoga certification) to this new studio location. The studio offers group Pilates classes and private lessons on the mat, reformer, and Cadillac, as well as barre, TRX, vinyasa yoga, and HIIT classes. The variety of classes suits all types of fitness enthusiasts. Julie is an avid runner, and I appreciated that she knows how to build strength and flexibility to complement running. Additionally, most classes are very adaptable for pregnant clients and the studio will eventually offer prenatal yoga.
Julie led our blogger group through a mix of mat Pilates, barre, and vinyasa yoga. A stickler for proper form and alignment, she gave accurate cues and adjustments in all three workouts. She made sure that we could all access the exercises and differentiated for those who needed more of a challenge or modifications. The mat Pilates class was my favorite of the three. I like the traditional exercises and that we targeted arms, legs, and core. Julie’s directions also ensure that you work hard and get the most out of each exercise. She designed her own format for barre (which seems more like traditional ballet barre exercises than the other formats I have tried) and uses portable barres rather than wall-mounted ones so that clients don’t rely too much on the support of the barres. The barre exercises alternate with cardio bursts such as jumping jacks. I’d be interested to see what a full barre class experience is like. Like the mat Pilates, the vinyasa yoga was traditional and familiar. The sequences we did felt good after the toning and strengthening we did beforehand. After our class, Julie did demonstrations of TRX and the Cadillac. She also led small groups of us through a few exercises on the reformers. In my few minutes on the reformer, I could immediately see why celebs like Jennifer Aniston swear by it! I look forward to coming back to try more Pilates classes in the future.
Disclaimer: I attended this class free of charge and received a coupon for a private lesson. I was not paid to write this post.
