Happy weekend! What fun things have you been up to so far? Or maybe it’s just been a much needed couple of recovery days after a long week. I’m definitely feeling the whole cuddling up on the couch thing today!
Saturday I spent most of my day at a training session to get certified to be a Piloxing instructor! I’ve loved taking the class myself through my local gym over the past year and a half, and now that I’m becoming interested in teaching myself, this seemed like a really fun one to start with.
For anyone unfamiliar with Piloxing, the class is a cardio fusion class that blends Pilates, boxing, and dance into an interval training format. The boxing portions are the highest intensity, interspersed with segments of standing Pilates and dance for lower intensity active recovery. The format for each class includes a warm-up, 35-40 minutes of standing work, 10 minutes of floor work (abs and butt), and a cool-down. Several segments of choreography are required to be taught in every class, and the rest is up to the choice of the instructor (so every Piloxing class will be a little bit different).
As someone who enjoys taking a wide variety of fitness classes (I get bored really easily!), I’ve really enjoyed including this class in my routine. The floor work especially is a killer abs and glutes workout, and I love how strong I feel during the boxing segments. Plus the class can also be done with a pair of 1/2 pound hand weights for extra burn. Comparing it to other classes I’ve taken, I’d put this somewhere in the middle intensity-wise. Not as intense as a bootcamp workout, but more intense than doing Zumba. If you’re familiar with Les Mills classes, I’d rank it a bit easier than those (at least cardio-wise). But for me the most important thing is that it’s fun! If I don’t enjoy my workout, I’m of the philosophy that I need to find another way to be active that I do enjoy.
Anyway, back to the certification: the closest training I’ve been able to find was two hours away in Zion, IL. Not the most convenient, but since it’s just a one day commitment I wasn’t too worried about the drive. So Friday after work I packed up my workout clothes and a lunch and drove down to Zion to spend the night at a hotel (I’m not a morning person and knew having to wake up at 5am prior to a long day of training wasn’t going to work for me).
After an evening in my hotel room reading the latest issue of Wired magazine and watching a couple episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, I hit the hay early. Wake up call at 6:50am!
Power-up breakfast of oatmeal (with all the fixin’s) and a mug of lemon tea. And a banana to snack on later.
My hotel was conveniently located just a few blocks from the studio hosting us for the day, so I had just a short 3 minute drive to Joiwithfitness for the training.
The morning started off right away with a good sweat sesh in a Master Class taught by our trainer, Leslie Benson Grosshauser. Several of the 11 people in our training had never taken Piloxing before, so this was a great intro for them, as well as being a fun start to the day for everyone. Classes typically last about an hour, but Leslie extended ours a bit to an hour and 15 minutes since we were having so much fun. :)
After the Master Class, we grabbed snacks and water, changed (there is nothing more uncomfortable than having to stay in your sweaty workout clothes any longer than necessary), and settled in for about an hour and a half of overview about the program, the format, and the basic principles of technique used in the class.
Quick break for lunch, a little more lecture, and then it was time to go through a sample class structure and polish up our boxing technique. As I mentioned before, there are several “Signature” Piloxing segments that are required to be included in each class, so we spent a lot of time running those and making sure we were using proper form for the moves. Our instructor also took us through example segments that we can use if we choose or replace with another segment of the same type (the blocks always cycle through intervals of Boxing, Pilates, and Dance as you move through the workout).
The day flew by surprisingly quickly. The longest part (which of course also coincided with that dreaded time of day–the afternoon slump) was definitely the afternoon segment when we were up on our feet actually learning and practicing the moves. We made it through though! Everyone in the class was super friendly and excited to be there, and it made for a fun day.
Below is a photo of the other trainees, plus some of the other ladies from the studio that participated in the Master Class with us in the morning.
It’s official! Obviously there’s still a lot of work to be done before I’ll be ready to teach (memorizing the choreography, practicing cuing, etc), but I’ve already got some test subjects lined up (you know your bf is a keeper when he’s willing to try Piloxing ;) or maybe he just doesn’t know what he’s getting into…) and am excited to get going!
My overall impressions about the program are mainly good. I had read another blogger’s experiences with a Piloxing training before I took mine, so I was prepared for the format of the day and also knew in advance about the instructor association we’d be encouraged to join. The certification earned from the training is good for one year and allows you to teach Piloxing anywhere you choose. However, to maintain the certification, you either need to re-certify every year or maintain a membership through PIA (Piloxing Instructor Association). Since I’d read about it already, I was already prepared to join, but coming into it without knowing about the additional cost already (it wasn’t well explained when signing up for training how the membership worked) would have turned me off a little. PIA provides additional instructor resources, new quarterly choreography and music, and products at wholesale, so overall it does seem like a good deal (just one of those things you’re not necessarily prepared for when you already paid upfront to take a training).
I made it back home around 6:30pm. There was no way after the long day that I was going to make it very far into the evening, but Aaron and I did go out for a quick bite/celebratory dinner at Cafe Porta Alba before I crashed. (How apparent is it that we’re having a bit of a love affair with Italian food right now?) We started with an order of Impepata di Cozze (mussels in a tomato and white wine sauce–delish), and then shared a Gorgonzola salad with walnuts and dried cranberries and a BURRATA pizza for our main course. Omg, yum. And this wasn’t just your typical Neapolitan-style pizza with a bit of mozzarella for flavor. Oh no, they really piled on the cheese. Oh, how I love burrata.
And that was my Saturday! We snuggled up to watched the latest episode of Grimm after we got home, and afterwards I promptly passed out for the night.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
What are your favorite styles or formats of fitness classes? If you’re an instructor, which are your favorite to teach?
