Pilates Plus Porter Ranch

For those that follow my blog, you know that I enjoy my TRX workouts. However, now that I am about 8 weeks out from summer, I’ve decided to kick my fitness routine up a notch & try out a different fitness class once a week for the next 4 weeks.

Last Wednesday I tried out Pilates Plus in Porter Ranch. Pilates Plus Porter Ranch has been open for about a year & a half. It’s close to my house & I had wanted to try it before but never felt comfortable until now. It took a “sweat date” with a fellow blogger friend to push me out of my comfort zone to try out the Megaformer at a Pilates studio in Pasadena. Having familiarity with the machine helped me decide to try out this place on my own.

I signed up for a complimentary group class through the Pilates Plus website. NOTE: The first class is free for new customers. I chose the Full Body Workout class that was taught by the owner Vanessa Aleksanyan. Although I took a class with Vanessa, she explained that she is very selective in hiring her trainers.

When I arrived at the studio that morning, I got there about 10 minutes early so that I could talk to Vanessa. She pointed out the various parts of the machine – arm straps, leg strap, the board with the blue & yellow springs.

Vanessa uses 1 yellow for 1 or 2 lower body exercises; however, the majority of the time we used 1 blue or 3 to 4 yellows. This adds more tension to the machine & gives you a more challenging workout.

The studio is nicely decorated, clean & well lit. They have a shelf area in the back of the room with little cubbies for your bag, jacket, water bottle, etc.

I really liked the inspirational sayings that Vanessa had place around the studio. During the exercise session, Vanessa has you face various walls of the studio. I found those sayings helpful when I started to get tired. It helped motivate me to keep going.

I enjoyed Vanessa’s class. She played great music that really helped with the pacing of the class. She gave excellent cues before we started a new exercise. I really appreciated that because as a relative newbie, I needed those prompts to get me in the right position before we started the next round of exercises. We did a nice mix of lower body, ab work & arm exercises.

I really enjoyed this type of workout a lot, so much so that I decided to purchase a series! NOTE: You will get a 15% discount if you sign up for a series after taking a free class (must be purchased that same day). They have a variety to choose from: 1 month, 3 month, 6 month, etc. I opted for the 1 month session/4 classes.

Overall I think Pilates Plus will help me achieve my strength training goals. The day after my first class I felt sore, but it was a “good” sore – the type of feeling I get when I know that I had a good workout & targeted muscles that hadn’t been challenged in a while. While I still love TRX, I think this class will help me take strengthening & toning to the next level. I’m looking forward to my next session!

Disclosure: I signed up for a free Pilates Plus session through their online website. Though a post was not required, I wanted to share my experience. All opinions are my own.