Yes, that’s exactly what I thought when I first saw it on
the Dorchester 1610 activity planner. At a good guess you’d think it was a
mix of Pilates and boxing and you know what, you’re pretty much there.
According to the 1610 website: Piloxing is a fusion of
dance, Pilates and boxercise to high energy music designed to give you a fun
and testing workout. And could look something like this…fierce!
Image courtesy of www.piloxing.com
As I’m currently going through my New Year fad stage, this
sounded right up my street. A new class for the New Year, what better way to
start then on a Monday night. Oh, and I get to wear one of my new sporty tops from
New Look. Bonus!
Here’s a cheeky selfie snap of the New Look sports top
called Elle. Hmm.. I wonder who inspired the buyer for that one. It’s only
£7.99 and comes in a lovely purple berry colour, with a flattering racer back
and aertex strip. I must admit I’m pretty impressed with this wave of New Look
sports range and the collaboration they’ve had with fitness gurus / bloggers. Check
out their latest video below, there’s even some yoga tips too.
So, off I went to the bright lights of 1610.
Yes, they really are bright. Like a beacon guiding
all the unfit folk after Christmas to the gym.
On arrival at The Studio I was greeted by Anna the
instructor for the session, who was uber keen and smiley with her cliché Jane
Fonda style headband. I must admit at the beginning I was thinking this could
go either way. I’m either going to hate this and wish I’d spent the evening
slobbed out on the sofa watching Hollyoaks or I’ll sign up for another session.
We were given the option to take the session barefoot or
keep our trainers on. Bizarre I thought, but went with the barefoot option.
Although next time I’m keeping my trainers on as my feet ached as they’re just
not used to going naked on a hard surface, and then I was paranoid about
catching a verruca. However, after a quick google, going barefoot can burn more
calories – who knew?!
Anna got the session going with some upbeat dance music. I
was transformed back to my clubbing days in Dorch… which is a while ago now, as
there has been no club in Dorchester for the last 5 or so years.
The class is made up of a mix of boxing style moves – jabs, punches,
hooks which all ramps up your metabolism, whilst moving your feet at the same
time. Two of the key moves are ‘serve the platter’ and ‘jab cross shuffle’. Great
for coordination and bingo wings!! Throughout the session we had to make sure we kept our core tight and think about keeping our posture long/tall as if being pulled up by a piece of string from the top of your head – which is the Pilates element. Along with
a number of balancing sections which helps sculpt and tone the body. It wasn’t
long before I felt out of breath from the interval style training and was
relieved for the dance sections between moves to catch my breath and let the burn
in my legs ease.
At times I felt like I could quite easily be an extra in Fame,
especially with Anna getting us to give a few whoop whoops – cue trance dance
music. Close eyes, open eyes – yep I’m not in the Firestation or Ibiza. Dam!
The last 5-10 minutes were made up of mat work and your typical plank, but then
with the added difficulty element of added kicks and leg raises. And yes my
thighs and glutes were burning. I’d forgotten how that felt. Painful!
The verdict. As I said at the beginning it could go either
way, so I’ve signed up for next Monday’s session, which is a good sign. It was
definitely a real feel good class and with Anna’s energy, cheerleading and
continuous smiling carried us all through. Plus, I didn’t ache too badly afterwards.
I can even see some tone definition in my abs – which is a huge bonus
especially as I’m now nearly 3 weeks away to a beach holiday. Or that might be
due to the effects of the Bootea and NutriBullet smoothies!
I didn’t take any photos from the class as that would just
be weird, but I’ve found a great video online from the official Piloxing folk
below.
I think if I’d watched the video before my class I might not have attended as it’s pretty intense and a bit crazy. But all the cool kids are doing it these days including Hilary Duff, Kirsten Dunst and Vanessa Hudgens, so it must be good?!
Bit more about Piloxing….
Piloxing is the brainchild of Swedish dancer and celebrity
trainer Viveca Jensen and she’s on a mission to physically and mentally empower
individuals through fitness. At the core of the Piloxing fitness programs is
that every individual is powerful and can attain the self image they want by
taking charge of their health. Apparently you can burn up to 900 calories a
session through the all over muscle workout.
To find out more about Piloxing visit: www.piloxing.com
To sign up to the Piloxing class at Dorchester 1610 click here.
