Oregon Guide and Deals

Today’s Groupon gets you five conditioning gyrokinesis and/or Pilates mat classes with Geometry Pilates for $35. Mix and match your classes and prepare your body to become capable of contorting into letters and spelling out words from the 2006 National Spelling Bee.Lovable Bears defensive lineman William “The Refrigerator” Perry is generally considered the Godfather of American Pilates due to his memorably rapped couplet: “You’re lookin’ at the Fridge / Pilates focuses on the core to improve strength and posture.” The Fridge continued to influence the popularity of Pilates in America when he guest-starred in an episode of the The A-Team, playing the deceased German founder of Pilates, Joseph “The Refrigerator” Pilates. The memorable episode is re-run every July 4th to celebrate Independence Day.

Pilates strengthens core muscles through isolated movements and controlled breathing. From the luxury of its open and peaceful studio, Studio Blue’s certified staff of Pilates instructors will guide you through a repeated series of strengthening and stretching maneuvers. Studio Blue offers a variety of class styles, ranging from breath-focused exhale Pilates to progressive-resistance-focused Pilates Reformer, designed for all levels, from beginner to ender. Though some movements and breathing techniques may be difficult to master, each class will give you individualized instruction that helps you maximize results.

Moving Moxie Pilates believes in the power of the human form and the acts of fitness it can achieve through proper encouragement and practice. The studio's Pilates Method Alliance–certified teachers operate from the beautiful confines of Moving Moxie's spacious space, located near Hillsdale, where taupe walls complement smooth wooden floors, creating an environment of zen comfort and physical awareness. Whether Pilates is an old friend or a mysterious new neighbor unloading its moving truck into your exercise-garage, the combination of one hour-long private lesson and six 55-minute mat classes will instill the strenuous values of repetition into the muscle-fibers that stretch like taffy until the body builds a tight, lean core made out of firmer taffy. Hearts grow healthier as workouts become easier through practice.

Pilates is a low-impact, total-body discipline that uses tension-band spring-resistance machines such as the Reformer in coordination with stretching and controlled breathing patterns to make the body looser, lither, and healthier. Introductory Reformer will help you lay the foundation for further fitness, priming your core for redwood strength and the rest of the body for octopus flexibility. Though group classes are capped at five to keep personal attention high, the private lesson whittles that number to one, bringing you to the pinnacle of performance. This closed-door, one-on-one flex-fest will allow the instructor to assess your individual fitness needs, which will increase workout efficiency and forever bond you as sweat siblings.

After suffering from a back injury, former dancer and athletic fitness guru Elise Moore discovered Pilates during her rehabilitation. Her love for the exercise form continued to flourish even after she felt better, inspiring her to open her own studio where she could put her Pilates certification and 20-plus years in the fitness industry to good use leading group mat and reformer classes.