My First Hot Mess Pilates Class at Sacred Brooklyn

Last night I was going through my emails and saw an email deal that I saved for Sacred Brooklyn's Pay-What-You-Desire Demo Week. When I first got the email I planned to take advantage of this awesome deal and take several classes during the week since the studio is only one block from my apartment, but it completely slipped my mind and I ALMOST missed the whole thing! Luckily I was able to book late last night and join the 1 hour and 15 minute Hot Mess Pilates class today at noon with Aimee Cox.

"Hot Mess (Hot Pilates) - Yep. We’ve all felt like a hot mess – probably more times than we’d like to remember. This unique Pilates class combines meditation and stretching in a heated room so we can tap into our centers, our core. This focus on the core is a practice that leads to more control over our bodies and our lives leading to deeper peace and, maybe even, less hot messiness. The benefits of Pilates are endless…longer, stronger and leaner muscles, increased flexibility, injury prevention, relief from back pain, improved posture, better body alignment, more efficient and graceful movement, and improved mental focus. All of this plus a heated room makes the work happen with a little more ease. This is a beginning – intermediate level mat Pilates class that is uniquely adaptable to the needs and current capabilities of each individual. So come as you are and receive the gifts that Pilates has to offer. Taking a Pilates class at least one day a week is an incredible way to support and deepen your other yoga, dance or athletic practices."

 Aimee was beautifully fit, she had killer arms and legs and of course great abs. :) She welcomed everyone to the class and took time to greet all of the newbies and tried to learn all of our names. One thing that I like about this studio is the teachers do almost the entire workout with you. There is nothing worse than a teacher who talks you through the moves rather than show you. I'm a very visual person so this is important to me!

We first started out with a little meditation and stretching, then worked our entire body with resistance bands. We focused on working our core and keeping our glutes and inner thighs engaged through each movement. The room was blazing hot the entire time, I had sweat dripping off of me after about 5 minutes into the workout, love that feeling!! She mixed some yoga moves into the workout so I got a really good stretch in, thank goodness because lately my body has been abnormally tight. I also really enjoyed working with the bands, I could feel my muscles working hard to fight the resistance of the bands, good stuff! I came out of the class looking like a hot sweaty mess so I give the workout an A+!

This was my second class at Sacred and definitely won't be my last!  They have great teachers, convenient location (1 minute walk from my house), friendly staff, and clean studios. Another reason they are awesome is they give back to the community by offering free warm yoga classes at noon on Saturdays, they have free meditation classes, AND they offer a work-study program where students can work 5 hours a week in exchange for free weekly unlimited yoga classes, AWESOME! The classes are usually about $20 a pop, but they seem to have deals often, so I will be keeping my eye out for them in the future.

Have you ever tried a hot yoga or hot Pilates class? Which is your favorite?

xoxo - Amber