so i remembered this weekend that bally's has a pilates mat class. I thought “i can fit that in before i go skating at the beach”. I can only handle about an hour and a half of being inside a gym so far. The class was way more of a cardio workout than i would have thought, i mean we're talking about pilates. Right? I've only practiced it for 12 years. It is a method of mindful intention, focused form and alignment and breathing, not just pulling in your stomach to do an exercise. During the first 15 minutes of the class i was like “when are we actually going to pilates”? if i wanted to do ballet moves i would have signed up for ballet not bally's. Don't get me wrong, ballet is amazing, i took several classes in college for fun. But if you go to pilates class you kind of want to do pilates. The class was full, 20-25 people, 20 % approximately were men. I was really glad to see that many men in a group class. The method was a classical style pilates class as opposed to contemporary. The first actual pilates exercises were advanced ones, one of them i rarely do with clients because it is so hard and that was one of the first ab exercises. No instruction on the goal of the exercise was given, just a description of how to do the movement and not to mention no direction as to how to make it easier if you can't do it. The rest of the class was fast paced, pilates speed for the A.D.D. is what i would call it, that's what it felt like. Some exercises were not pilates moves, they were ab versions from a traditional tone & scupt kind of class. These movements had no clear goal or base from which to work from. In Pilates i learned that you mobilize one area of the body and stabilize another, some of the oblique moves were so awkward i couldn't tell where i was supposed to stabilize, the teacher did not explain the movements completely in every exercise, she did for some, not all. During these non- pilates exercises i had to decide for myself where to focus. This class is not for beginners, group classes mean by definition that each participant has to be able to take care her/himself. Beginners can not do that in this class. During many exercises people in class would collapse or give up when the teacher did not specify how many reps, and the teacher did that most of the time. The class felt like it was designed by a fitness trainer who took one matwork certification program and then created a pilates mat class for bally's.