On a bright and sunny afternoon last weekend, myself and a bunch of fitness loving bloggers descended on Covent Garden, our destination: Yotopia, our goal: Hot Pilates.
The lovely people at simplyhealth put together the event to celebrate the launch of their Back Care app, which provides you with bespoke moves and exercises tailored specifically to your back pain. Pilates is known for its core strengthening and toning properties, what I didn't know is that it is also amazing for your back!
Hot Pilates is in fact a great alternative treatment for back pain, I'm a great believer in self medication over prescribed medication and despite not having any major back problems I noticed a huge difference in my back after just one class, so can only imagine the relief it would bring to a long term sufferer!
Now heres the sciencey bit: Hot Pilates encompasses the basic principles of Yoga and Pilates, but utilises infrared radiant heating panels. These panels emit Far Infrared Rays (FIR) which safely warms the skin and speeds up the process of producing sweat. These rays are totally invisible and capable of filtering through the body, where they gently raise the body’s surface temperature.
The long and short of it all is that Hot Pilates is amazing, it detoxifies the body, chucking out all those nasty impurities and toxins whilst giving you a great all over workout, toning and tightening those muscles- perfect if your looking to shape up for the beach!
I've never done a 'hot' class before, so made sure I wore shorts and a vest, however I think a pair of capri's would of been fine! The room was warm, but more in a dry heat kind of way, definitely not unbearable!
We were taken through the class by Amy Slevin, a Yoga and Pilates guru and if her bod doesn't motivate you to take up Hot Pilates then I don't know what else can!? We started with standing movements, helping us to find our balance and improve our posture before taking to the floor for some tricky plank movements!
Amy was fantastic, she talked us through each movement and explained why we're doing it and how it benefits our bodies, the one I found most interesting was the deep squat; can you squat on the floor with your feet flat? I can't! Yet its one of the most natural positions for the human body, take a look at asian culture, they spend most of their time chilling in the squatted position!
The class was a pure sweat fest but definitely manageable for even the most novice. We all left the class feeling invigorated, refreshed and like we had really worked every muscle in our bodies!
Yotopia are amazing studios and whilst I got to attend this event for free, this has in no way clouded my judgement of the studios or our amazing instructor! Yotopia also hold a variety of yoga classes, both hot and normal and I will definitely be heading back soon to try out some of their other classes!
Have you ever tried Hot Pilates or any other 'Hot' classes?
For more informatiion on simplyhealth and how Hot Pilates can help back pain click here!
Big Thank you to simplyhealth and Yotopia for inviting me along!
Kirsty x
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