Fuel Body Lab Georgetown

Tucked inside a Georgetown townhouse, Fuel Body Lab Georgetown is a welcoming studio with seasoned instructors and hard workouts. Expect to sweat through your low-impact, high-intensity Pilates, barre, or tabata class and try not to get distracted by the views of the city below. Fuel Body Lab Georgetown is a solid toning workout for beginners and an ass-kicking for advanced students.

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

Tabata at Fuel Body Lab is a cardio circuit meets Pilates class. The warm-up is pulled from a typical Pilates class and included a thorough demo of exercises we were about to get into. There are eight rounds of each move, made up of 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest. Half of the exercises are cardio-based (think mountain climbers, plank up-downs, side shuffles) and the other half are pulled straight from the Pilates playbook. Though we were definitely sweating at the end of class, we didn’t love the combination of exercises. With each back and forth, we wished we were either in a regular Pilates class or in a true cardio tabata class since we didn’t feel like we really got either a full toning or cardio workout.

INSTRUCTOR

Sara is the type of instructor that Pilates newbies and veterans alike will love. Her energy is calming and encouraging, but she doesn’t come off in an off-putting zen yogi way. She’s clearly very experienced in her craft, which comes through with consistent and thorough cueing. Sara asked at the start of class if anyone had any injuries and checked in throughout class to see if those with injuries were doing okay. Given the wide range of ability levels present, she also offered modifications for some of the more challenging Pilates moves and made hands-on adjustments to help us really dig deep. Her focus on proper form made us work harder, and has us looking forward to the next time we take her class.

SPACE

Remember that super cute two bedroom apartment you toured to live out your future fantasy life where you make lots of money and own a place in Georgetown? Fuel Body Lab rented it. The studio is the second floor of a townhouse, which by nature makes you feel at home in the space. High ceilings and bright decor make Fuel Body Lab welcoming and the big windows in the main studio space allowed us to peek out onto M Street when we were trying to distract ourselves during the 100 warm-up. Though there is a kitchen stocked with coconut water and grippy socks for sale, there is only one small bathroom and no shower.