Today’s post is part of a new health and wellness series on ITB Insider™. Finley’s Fitness will look at all Raleigh has to offer for getting in shape and staying healthy.
Finley’s Fitness: Getting Fit for Fyre Festival at PBX®
“That was the best workout class I have ever taken,” my Mom said, calling me after taking her first class at PBX® (Pilates Barre Extreme) last December.
“Seriously? So you think it’s ok to put them in my Christmas gift guide?” I asked.
“Definitely,” she said. “I’ve taken every class possible at the Y. I’ve done Flywheel, yoga, barre classes, you name it. That was the best workout I’ve ever done. You’ve got to take a class.”
I wasn’t taking a class. At the time, I only cared about making sure PBX® was an ITB approved workout that I could endorse in my gift guide. Since I’m not the workout type, I did what any ITBer would do and made my Mom take the class for me. Her stamp of approval was all I was looking for.
Then I bought a ticket to Fyre Festival and everything changed.
I’ll explain more later, but going on a weekend-long music festival with celebs and models on a private island once owned by Pablo Escobar means I need to be in the best shape of my life. I’m talking peak physical condition, like the kind of shape The Rock will be in when he plays for NC State next year.
Based on my Instagram, it’s safe to assume my diet of pizza, chicken biscuits, French toast, and Goodberry’s hasn’t exactly translated to peak physical condition. It was time to make a change. It was time to take a PBX® class. Since I’m an award-winning media empire, I figured I’d get some great #content by documenting my experience and sharing it with you all.
The Class
As I’ve said before, PBX® is a fitness studio for everyone. If pilates, cardio, and strength training had a baby, it would be PBX®. They offer a variety of classes, including the new Saturday morning Weekend Warrior class geared towards people like me, who spend most of the week recovering from weekend late nights and 30,000 calorie Sunday brunches.
I signed up online for the PBX® Core Jump class. Side note: I don’t know if this is normal for fitness places, but I was impressed with how easy it was to find and sign up for classes online. And they even have an app. With an emphasis on stretching and strengthening, the class was going to improve my core strength and flexibility, which is crucial for all the limbo and beach volleyball I’ll be playing with models at Fyre Festival.
I arrived early for class, put on my grip socks, which allow for maximum gripping or something, and started to investigate the studio. I was the only one there, and secretly hoped no one else would show up. Legendary Broughton baseball icon Ethan Burton was my instructor, so I started asking him questions about the equipment.
“So how does all this work?” I asked, standing next to the machine.
“You lay down on your back, and put your head between the two shoulder rests,” he explained.
As I surveyed the equipment, I noticed the straps near where my head would be. I interrupted, “Ethan, this looks like something from Fifty Shades Darker…”
“This is an Allegro reformer, it’s actually very comfortable. It’s one of the best ways to exercise because you get a whole body workout that’s easy on the joints, but with the same results of high impact exercise.”
“Be gentle,” I whispered, trusting he wouldn’t hurt me.
The rest of the class arrived and we all picked out the machines we’d be on for the next 50 minutes. Everyone laid down and we began with a warm-up leg press that was really easy. Fyre Festival, here I come. We then changed the resistance on the reformer and started the jumping part of the workout. This. Was. Awesome.
I guess it was the lying down part that makes you feel weightless, but as the carriage moved back and forth it felt more like jumping on a trampoline than exercise. Looking back, this is where I got a little carried away. I was actually having fun and forgot to breathe. That’s when the burn started.
I toned down my jumping in hopes that the burning would stop and that I could survive the rest of the workout. I decided to take a self-imposed water break while everyone else continued the workout. As soon as my feet hit the ground I realized my legs were as stable as a Churchill’s Jell-O shot. Fortunately, my water bottle was nearby and only required a few steps to retrieve it. I prayed that I wouldn’t fall down in front of the eight other people in the class.
We then started doing a core workout in a plank position, which is apparently like a pushup and not the 2011 meme where you lie face down on random surfaces. Then we grabbed an arc and put it on top of the reformer for some crunch type of exercise that worked on something called “oblique muscles”. I managed to get through it, but could feel my body starting to question why it was doing things it had never done before. It was then that I just started staring at myself in the mirror, wondering if there was some sort of shortcut to the Greek God physique I desperately needed for Fyre Festival. Suddenly the class was over.
The Result
I would guess that I made it through roughly 40 minutes of the 50 minute class before zoning out and questioning my life choices. In my defense, I only ate cereal for lunch that day. It’s recommended that you actually eat food like a normal human being before going to these classes, so I’ll take the blame there. I was definitely sore the next morning, which is to be expected when you don’t workout ever. Overall, I really enjoyed the class and I took away a lot of lessons. For starters, I need to eat food like an adult and breathe properly. Also, my Mom is better at working out than I am.
Check out the Weekend Warrior series and the other classes that PBX® has to offer.
We’ve partnered with PBX® to bring you a look at their offerings as part of the Finley’s Fitness series. Stay tuned for more.
