It’s Wunda Wednesday!  Last week I announced that over the next 60 days that I’ll be taking 3-4 classes per week at WundaBar Pilates in exchange for documenting my progress weekly.

Welcome to Week 1 of Wunda Wednesdays (try to say that 3 times fast)!

I’ll admit that I was a little nervous about starting this 60 Day Challenge at WundaBar Pilates.  I have doing Pilates PT 30 minutes twice a week since February and I did take one 50 minute WundaBar Pilates class (just to check it out) but the thought of graduating to nearly 1 hour classes 3-4 times a week scared me a little bit.

This is what I saw while waiting for my class to begin.

I was intimidated by not having what I considered a “Pilates body” – tall and lithe with wonderful posture since I’m short, squat and round shouldered – but I know that Pilates has been helping to promote a healthy and strong spine and core in my PT efforts so I attempted to get over myself.

After my two sessions last week (May 1st was a Wed. making it a short week), I had classes with two different teachers, I realized I had nothing to worry about.  WundaBar classes have all different body types and people – young and old, men and women, and beginners and long-time WundaBar workout devotees.  Everyone was in class for the same reason – to get strong and have fun while doing it!

We’re told not to covet but the WundaBar instructors didn’t make it easy!  These women had WundaBodies for certain!  However, what I found most inspirational was that the 2 instructors I took classes with both suffered from back injuries!  It was easy to see that both Isabelle and Cassidy utilize the WundaBar method of Pilates for themselves and to help clients to work the muscles of the back and core muscles of the abdomen and to protect, strengthen and provide flexibility to the spine.

Isabelle, my first WundaBar teacher for the Challenge.

The small class size did allow the instructors to be attentive to not only my needs as someone with an injury but they were able to assist newbies and offer additional challenges to the experienced class goers.  There were definitely moves in class that I couldn’t do (like holding a ball in between my calves during side planks) but there were many that I could with no problem like side plank with a bar push down (see photo at the right).

It was (and will continue to be) my goal to focus on form and execution of the moves rather than attempting to keep up with reps.  Trust me, I still was a sweaty, shaky mess after both classes and I had the DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) to prove that I worked hard in class.

Next week I’ll explain more about the specialized reformer known as the WundaFormer, introduce some of the moves that I’m learning in class and let you know how my body is responding to these new techniques.

*This post is part of my series Wunda Wednesdays which I have agreed to write in exchange for classes at WundaBar Pilates for the next 60 days.  All opinions are my own.