Where: Physique 57, 161 6th Avenue of the Americas, 1st Floor, New York, NY

Dry Humor from Ashley; Sweaty Brow for Me.

Have been hearing about Physique 57 forever (the one summer my friend went three times a week her bod looked ROCKIN) so I was jazzed to get a chance to check out a class. Wasn’t disappointed by Ashley who was peppy and slightly sarcastic, in an upbeat way.

On Ashley:

• My favorite and best thing about Ashley: she asked at the beginning of class who was “brand spankin’ new”. I informed her that I was, but didn’t tell her my name. BUT: she figured it out from the class list, calling me out and checking in with me by name all through class. Nice move.
• Ashley keeps a quick pace in this class. Arms, boom. Thighs, boom. Abs, boom. No dragging ass between moves, but also slightly less stretch between moves than I am used to.
• Gave good pointers. Turns out some of the barre moves I’ve been doing on a regular basis aren’t quite correct - felt like a got a good tutorial from Ashley.

Ashley was snarkily funny. 

• After receiving a tepid response to her announcement that we only had abs left to do she said: “Well that was an overwhelming response guys, glad you're psyched.” 
• She also laughed at my "deer in headlights" look when she asked us to push up into a particularly daunting plank pose: “[BeFit] you look terrified, sorry I know this is only your first class!”

On the class:

• I know that Lactic will disagree with me on this, but I really hated the carpeted studio. It was nice to loll around on, sure, but made planks almost impossible with my feet slipping all over the place. I had a friend with me who was wearing the special Physique-branded socks that are supposed to be non-slip but she was having trouble as well.
• Ashley noted that there were people there that had been in her class the day before so she changed up her routine.
• Favorite segment was bent leg-lifts with a “playground ball” squeezed in between the top thigh and calf. Turns out I have no rhythm whatsoever when it comes to “knee/toe taps” (tap top knee to the knee on the floor keeping the leg lifted, then tap the top toe to the bottom toes).
• Another exercise I liked was “rounded back” which involves a bit of slouching on a padded mat with your back against the mirror - very ungraceful to look at, but when you start extending your legs in and out, being all hunched over like that helps you hit different abdominal muscles than your average core workout.

On the music:

• One element that I wasn’t wild about was that there was no music/workout harmony. In fact, the music seemed to be more of an afterthought. I heard the same song played twice, sometimes the music would stop for a long pause and at one point Ashley jumped up to skip a track and said “I have no idea what’s up next, so get ready for a surprise!”
• The music issue didn’t affect my rating of Ashley but I always prefer classes where the instructor really puts some thought into his/her playlist and thinks about which songs will suit which exercises best. Just a personal preference. I also get great download ideas for my own ipod from these classes, so impress me, people, I need the help!

Post-class follow-up:

• Ashley checked in with me after class was over to see how I had liked it, which was nice.
• I was less wild about the fact that she then gave me the hard-sell on how I should really take a “Beginner” Physique class. I get why she did it - she was pointing out the virtues of learning the Physique terminology in a slower paced class - but…..I DO WHAT I WANT. I also take barre classes at multiple studios, and found the mixed class to be fine in terms of my ability to keep up.

In sum:

Liked that Ashley doled out the personal attention in this class, and I it was challenging but there were opportunities for modification. All-in-all a good workout with a little humor thrown in. I’m good with that.

From the Physique57 website: Ashley Yeater was born and raised in Moundsville, West Virginia. She began her dance training at the age of seven after she realized little league t-ball was not her calling, then trained at the Larraine Susa Dance Unlimited in Uniontown, PA. Ashley moved to New York after high school and landed the role of Ariel in the West Coast Premiere/National Tour of “Footloose”. Other theater credits include Broadway: "The Producers"; National Tours: "Chicago", "The Producers", "Cats"; Regional: "Dancing in the Dark" at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego and NYC reading of "The Bandwagon". Ashley was last seen in the City Center Encores! production of "On The Town". Ashley is currently performing on Broadway in "Follies". She is thrilled to be joining the Physique 57 team.

Find out about Physique 57 at www.physique57.com  

Find out more about Ashley Yeater on her website

 

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