Thrive Pilates has just opened its doors in Manners St and two lucky Plus One writers went down for a lunch-time session to check out the new studio.
Turning my out-of-office on, I removed myself for lunchtime and strolled over to the studio. Tucked away upstairs on Manners street, the noise of the buses and city faded as I made my way up. My first impression of the room was how light it felt, waist to ceiling windows hug the space displacing the need for fluros. Healthy plants, wood paneling, a palette of grey and coppers bring a slick yet warm feel to the place. Being a soggy Wellington day I also was delighted by their well heated room.
Anna Cochrane, owner and instructor, greeted us and showed us the generous changing rooms, and we lounged in the open-air reception area having a chat. Everything was easy an un-rushed. She took particular care to note if any of us had existing injuries and gauged our level of experience with Pilates. It was a higher attention to individual detail than I’ve had in group classes before.
The session itself was held on reformer machines. This is a big step up for me from previous Pilates experiences I’ve had, which were always mat based. Anna helped us through the set up and away we went. For me, the 45 minute class flew by. Before I knew it, I had worked a whole range of muscles that I did not know existed. It wasn’t overly demanding but I could feel my body working. I appreciated the way Anna came and corrected her students form. She did it in a way that wasn’t belittling or trying to force our bodies. She gave attention to everyone and her instructions were clear, well delivered and evenly paced. I felt very much in expert hands.
As background Anna is a paramedic, arial artist and Guinness World Record Holder. Her hope in creating the studio is to provide reasonably priced classes for inner city workers. She also has a fantastic team behind her that also offer Pilates for cyclists, handstand/ balance work and mobility / stretching classes. This is definitely a studio that has a lot to offer.
I’m a busy person and lunch breaks for me are usually slamming sushi rolls in my mouth between meetings. This class was the perfect excuse to give myself a little attention, free up my limbs and clear my head for the afternoon. I enjoyed it and could see me putting one or two classes a week in my diary and still managing to get through my to-do list.
– Hilaire Carmody
Hilaire is art crazy, theatre crazy, dance crazy, music crazy, comedy crazy, people crazy and most importantly Wellington crazy. You can follow her @hilairec.
Thrive is located at Level 1, 29 Manners St. Classes from Monday – Saturday. Morning lunch and early evening.
