Watch carefully because even though there's a chair involved, you're not likely to get a chance to put your feet up--at least not in the traditional sense-- during this fitness class.
Accompanied by this odd-looking contraption known as an MVe chair...
Class participant Katie Horstmeyer says, "I think the chairs just work muscle groups that no other exercise equipment can. Pilates is such a good exercise and then it just strengthens, lengthens all those muscle groups."
...class participants are getting a workout that's the latest thing in fitness centers on both coasts. That's despite the fact that they're sitting down on the job, so to speak.
Horstmeyer says, "The chair really emphasizes the lower body--your quads, hamstrings, calves it emphasizes all of that."
Instructor Barb Bakke explains, "We can bring in people who are in very excellent physical condition--very strong-- and we can still challenge them. But we can bring someone in and make modifications and so to bring someone in who has never exercised."
Armed with a $700 chair, a yoga mat and a carefully choreographed routine, this workout includes such moves as "the frog", "the mountain climber" and "the mermaid." The idea is to challenge the core muscles of the body.
Bakke says, "Core is the muscles through the back, through the belly--our stabilizers. To think that when we walk, everything that we do, and to bring the breath fully into the body, fully into the core."
Horstmeyer says, "I normally teach Matworks, Pilates and the chair is definitely different from any other piece of equipment."
Exercisers beware because class participants give the workout on the MVe chair about a 7 or 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.
