What: Yogilates
When: Saturday @ 1:30
Where: Energy Exchange (698 Queen Street East)
Who: Sacha and Vanessa
Superman didn’t have to carry weights. Why do we?!
Erin’s story:
Sunday, June 2 was the Riverside Art Walk, which meant there were a lot of community events going on, free barbeques, face painting, east end bixi rides, free sweet potato fries and (best of all!) free yoga!
My experience with EnergyXchange so far has been mixed. The studio is beautiful and the staff super-friendly, but I was really disappointed with their Om Sweet Om Class. I warmed up to the studio after Jill and I took their Joga class. Their unique classes like Hip Hop Yoga and Yogilates always intrigued me, so when Energy Exchange offered free classes (outdoor!) as part of Riverdale Art Walk, Jill and I jumped at the chance.
Yogilates, like Joga, was HARD. But it was fun. The class was split loosely into 30 minutes of pilates and 30 minutes of yoga, with yoga elements incorporated into the pilates part and pilates incorporated into the yoga part. It’s a killer core and arm workout, that’s for sure! 24 hours later, I was still sore. Crunches galore! Interesting, unlike suspension yoga, I didn’t mind the addition of weights into the yoga poses in this class. Maybe I’m just not built for introduction tension into my workout.
The only downfall to the class was using the beam during yoga. I found it didn’t add anything to my practice and I kept having to adjust it to fit my stance. I’m blaming this problem on being 5’10”, but I know it’s just because I wasn’t doing everything properly.
Sacha and Vanessa were super attentive throughout the whole class. Having two instructors means you don’t get away with slacking off at all. They catch you and they call you on it.
Which is probably for the best. I can be a lazy cheater sometimes.
Sacha, the pilates instructor, was a lot of fun. She reminded me of the cliche peppy 80s aerobic instructors (in the best way). Vanessa, the yoga instructor, was solid, too. She had taught the Joga class so we were familiar with her style.
In conclusion? I think I’m finally an EnergyXchange convert, especially now that they’ve added a simple class pass option to their membership. Thank goodness — it’s too close to my house to not to go regularly.
Oh, and on the way home, we got free spinning passes and free sweet potato fries. The Riverdale Art Walk is the best.
The balls are heavier than they look, I swear!
Jill’s story:
When yoga and pilates had a baby they made yogilates. Seriously. That’s exactly what yogilates is, pilates infused with yoga. Which means you work your core, arms, legs, and butt in a calming way. Sort of.
Calming? What am I saying? My abs and triceps really felt it the next day! And the next day.
So last week, Erin emailed me the flyer to the Riverdale Art Walk indicating we should go. First, I love doing things with Erin and second, when I found out that the EnergyXchange was offering free classes, clearly we were going!
Unlike Erin, I fell in love with the EnergyXchange my first time there. If I lived nearby I would be there all the time. I secretly love the ’80s inspired retro, funky look they’ve go going on. The blue colour scheme makes my eyes pop. So the two free classes for the day were joga and yogilates. The joga class Erin and I took together was not my first, and I loved it both times I tried joga. But we needed to try something new and the idea of yogilates baffled us. As Erin said the EnergyXchange offers a variety of different classes (that all sound super fun). I would love to get me a class card and try them all! Maybe one day…
Because I had my Team In Training run Saturday morning the yogilates class at 1:30pm was meant to be. I ran my 8k then hopped on my bike to Erin’s house for another Saturday of sister fun. But when we arrived for class I was very disappointed the weather was not in our favor and yogilates would be held inside. Oh well. I couldn’t be sad, class was going to be great! I could feel it.
When Sacha walked into the class, I instantly wanted to be her. Her fun, sassy sense of humour made the awful crunches actually enjoyable, and her hot pink tights were so great. You couldn’t hate her for the work she put us through. In a class full of women she new exactly want work needed to be done. I felt really bad for the lone male in the room playing the guitar. The pilates part of class was what you would expect from a regular pilates class, but the yoga portion was a bit of a switch up. Using the props and weights we moved from warrior 2 to exalted warrior to triangle while holding the weights and adding arm strengthening at the same time. We flowed, held planks and squeezed the squish ball with our thighs with all our might. It was a bit awrkward doing yoga around the beam thing on our mats, but having props gave the poses a whole new challenge. Just because it was yoga didn’t mean Vanessa was going easy on us. I liked the additional work she through at us with and after obeying Sacha’s instructions I was going for my tank top arms right then and there.
Thanks ladies, I would do yogilates with you all the time.