After working the Pilates For Pink Breast Cancer event in Union Square with fellow HSTers this past weekend, I was inspired to get my cookie-eating tush back to the gym.  After 2 months of finding poor excuses to go anywhere else but Crunch, I decided I'd ease my way back into working out by starting with a low-risk class: Pilates.

I guess I didn't read the class description thoroughly enough.  This wasn't your ordinary pilates class.  This was Pilates with a GymStick.  A what?  A GymStick, I soon disastarously discovered, is basically a baton with 2 resistance stretchy bands with holsters that you stick your feet into.  This contraption looked frighteningly complicated, and I seemed to be the only beginner in the class.  These people were GymStick pros!  I was already at the gym, so I wasn't about to leave!  I stuck it out, and made nice with my GymStick for the following 45 minutes.  I came out of the class slightly bruised (at one point we were instructed to lie on our bellies and stretch the baton straight out in front of us, so that when I removed my right hand for a moment to itch a scratch on my forehead, the baton came bouncing back, and hit me right in the face).  Other than that, my sides are slightly sore, and I guess my core feels stronger...?

Ladies (and Pilates-inclined gentlemen), be wary of your next Pilates class venture.  Be warned that sometimes they use GymSticks.