Endurance Pilates and Yoga

Nestled in a storefront in the bougie South End of Boston, you’ll find this quaint Pilates and yoga studio. We can’t tell if it was because we were rushed to fill out a waiver or a tad bit hangry, but the staff seemed more Posh Spice then Baby Spice. That aside, just as Boston is a city deeply rooted in history and tradition, Endurance classes hold true to the conventional Pilates reformer-style.

The studio space was on the smaller side, and that was without a private session going on in the same room as our class. Still our feelings of concern were squelched, as it turns out four reformers make for an intimate setting we really enjoyed, especially when paired with great cueing. Even at $35 a class, we can see why Julie Erickson’s Endurance is the talk of the South End. The owner seems to deeply care about the amount of training each of her instructors has (word is she even has a mentorship program), and it shows in the studio! We’ll for sure be coming back for a second go.

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

Weighted balls, pole, toning ring, short box, long box: This class had it all! We started off laying on white reformers with two weighted balls on our stomach–a great technique for keeping those abs scooped, which is key. Working with our reformer mostly on two springs, we began our footwork with heels together in “V” as we moved the carriage forward and backward, ending with prancing. Next up, we became reunited with those abs–hello, again!–with 100-beat holding Hundreds.

We eventually transitioned our feet back onto the foot bar while bending over and scooping our abs up–a position we’ve never done before but with each exhale we felt the lengthening, so it must’ve be working! Placing the straps around our hands next, arm work commenced by way of Hug a Tree followed by bicep curls. We then mixed in two different type of rollbacks with our hands in the straps as we gently tried to lean our backs down to the carriage before coming back up again. You know, nearly impossible. To make up for it, the silver weighted pole–aka our new favorite accessory–was added into the mix.

With class approaching the end, we placed our feet in straps and sent our legs up 90 degrees for foot circles. Before we know it, we’re completing our last core exercises in Elephant, kind of like yoga’s Downward-Facing Dog but on the carriage. We end with a Pilates traditional lung stretch and call it a night.

INSTRUCTOR

We’re not gonna lie; when Christie Wang told us she was a recent college grad with just nine months of teaching to back her up, we got a little judgey. We immediately figured this class would be a doozy, but we were oh, so wrong! Had she not told us of her newbie status, never would we have guessed–especially not after the creative approach of dropping the weighted ball on our stomachs, her genuine kindness when she greeted us at the door, and her stellar cueing skills. Don’t let her seemingly basic exercises trick you into thinking you haven’t done tough enough movements–take it from us; they are silent but deadly. Although we missed the stretch at the end of class, we’re over the moon with the amazing class she led. In fact, we still can’t feel our legs.

SPACE

The long glass windows make for a sense of open space in the top floor of the studio. When you first enter, you will see the shoe rack, the Cadillac (reformer) to your left, and four low to the ground regular reformers to your right. With almost no room to move around, you wonder where you are even suppose to check in? The clutter has us feeling a little off center, but we can’t think of a better layout for Endurance to utilize their space. No one gave us a tour, so we aren’t even sure where the bathrooms are, let alone what they or the downstairs room looked like. But with a class so good, like we said, we’ll give this place another chance to work our abs.