This year, one of the things I wanted to do is try new things in the fitness world.  I am always reading and researching and learning from the other therapists and trainers at my studio.  I also try to soak up as much knowledge as I can when talking to the great practitioners in my network, but I haven’t actually been out there to try what the other guys are doing in a while.

So I have committed to trying something new each month and to write a review about it.  By no means do I pretend that these are objective reviews.  Think of this as more my opinion as a fitness expert (it does say opinionated fitness guru in the title).  Also, there may be things I don’t like that you do.  I am not here to debate, just stating my thoughts because my name is in the url.

Mecha – Resistance

Ok, that was seriously hard.  I consider myself to be in good shape and I rarely have a hard time in group classes, but I got my a$$ handed to me at Mecha.

Mecha’s Resistance class follows the Lagree Fitness method which is kind of a pumped spin-off of Pilates.  The class utilizes a machine called a Megareformer, which looks exactly how it sounds.  Think of the delicate, traditional Pilates reformer, and make it a “Mega” version.  It is bigger, wider, has more padding, handholds, and little nooks and straps to hold your feet, heels, elbows or anything else that needs stabilizing.  I personally think it is a pretty cool machine.

The class is 45 minutes long and the idea is to focus on one body part or move until it is completely fatigued and then make a quick transition to the next set of exercises.  The moves are done at a slow 4-count pace so that you can really focus on your form and really burn out your muscles.  A Resistance Fundamentals class is also offered to beginners to help introduce you to the machine and the class.

Our class started and ended with a series of planks and core exercises.  Within the first 5 minutes, my core was on fire and I was dripping in sweat.  Smooshed between the plank-athon was 14 minutes of lunges (7 minutes spent on each leg).  We lunged moving both legs, moving one leg, holding a lunge position, using handles to help us lunge, bending over, reaching to the sky – you name it, we lunged it.  We also did a few upper body moves for our chest and shoulders.

Classes are limited to 10 to allow the instructor to watch your form.  Our instructor walked around the room the whole time, making adjustments to our positions throughout the class.  While there was a good amount of bad form going on (as there always is in all group classes), the instructor was doing his best, without embarrassing the participants in public, to get people into the right position.  He kept a pretty close eye on me since I was the new girl and definitely helped me adjust into the right position more than once.  The class went by fast and was challenging and interesting.

Summary

Cons:  I arrived 10 minutes before class started so that I could get comfortable with the space and the machines.  However, I stood around for 8 of those 10 minutes waiting for someone to return to the front desk or at least say “hi” to the new person.  After 8 minutes, I finally sought out the front desk woman (who had been chatting with a regular for the last 8 minutes) to let her know that I had never been here before.  By the time she took me to meet the instructor, he was obviously annoyed that he had about 30 seconds to show me the equipment and get me situated for class.  It was not a great first impression, especially after last month’s great experience with Orange Theory.

Pros: The slow movement of class was great.  I loved how the instructor kept reminding us to go slow.  It gave me a chance to really do each exercise correctly and get the most out of it.  I also really enjoyed the moves.  They were familiar but had unique twists.  I was sore for about 4 days after I took class.  And to be honest, I am a little upset that I couldn’t do everything in that class.  I will be going back until I have mastered it!