Yesterday I went to a C2 Pilates blogger barre class with Jess from Little Miss Runshine and Denisefrom Fit 4 a Foodie. Other attendees included Sarah from SarahFit, Jen from Boston Bachelorette, and Monica from Burpees and Bubbly.
Jess, Denise, and me
CC began with an introduction of the studio, rundown of the class routines, and rationale behind their method. I appreciated this–though I have gone to many barre classes, I like knowing what to expect! In fact, I was a little nervous because I heard from Jess that the class was supposedly harder than the ones she had gone to before.
CC and Carolyn put their heart and soul into designing great barre & pilates classes for students of all ages and fitness levels. As we get older and spend most of our workdays at desks, it gets harder to complete and recover from long runs, ultimate frisbee games, and tough classes such as soul.train Crazy 8’s. I am now trying to lure my 50-something coworker to Pure Barre. Though she did gymnastics and cheerleading as a teenager and has natural athletic ability, she was hoping for a “beginner” version of barre.
CC and Carolyn
C2 Pilates provides a different approach than many of the other barre studios, making barre more accessible to ladies like my coworker. Differentiation of instruction rocks! Their oldest barre client is 84, and they are also doing a fundraiser (Pink Barre) for breast cancer. Instruction will be modified to accommodate physical limitations or provide extra challenges. The classes are also designed for more of a slow burn than the intense burn that many other barre classes incorporate, and it is comprised of 50 minutes of standing work and 10 minutes of floor work rather than moving from barre to floor and back. I’ve noticed that Pure Barre, Core Fusion, and Bar Method clients tend to be in their 20s and 30s–would love to see some 84-year-young ladies in there too!
CC led the warmup, arms, legs, abs, and cooldown sections while Carolyn led the cardio legs sections. The music was slower and calmer than I was used to, and at first I felt like we were in a more traditional ballet class. I liked the scaffolding of the exercises (gradually increasing in difficulty, and spiraling back to different muscle groups). For example, we worked arms and legs several times rather than moving in discrete sections. Over the course of the class, we did eleves, releves, arabesques, attitudes, plies, tendus, and rond de jambes as part of the carefully choreographed routines (all of which were timed perfectly to the songs). The instructors’ cuing was helpful and accurate. They positioned themselves so that they could see us and we could see them in the mirrors, then provided verbal corrections to our form and alignment. I worried about going the wrong direction from the other students and hitting someone in the face. Thankfully, this did not happen (though I did drop my orange ball in the later leg work!).
All in all, the C2 Pilates barre experience was a fun way to meet other bloggers and shake up my fitness routine. Thank you CC and Carolyn!
