Name: Strong Pilates Location: Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick
Website: www.strongpilates.com.au
Form of exercises: Reformer Pilates and high intensity cardio (bikes or ergos)
Most suitable for: People of high levels of fitness who enjoy a variety of exercise options under the one roof.
Caution For: People with back injuries, knee injuries, shoulder injuries, inexperience with reformers or rowing, deconditioned.
Overall rating: 3.7 stars
Introduction
We eagerly attended Strong Pilates for the first time in September 2023, just as the sun was starting to shine again in Melbourne and fitness addicts everywhere were inspired by the fresh smells of cherry blossoms and the aura of excitement with summer just around the corner. Tamar had heard about Strong simply from driving past its bold black sign on Glenhuntly Road Elsternwick. We vaguely knew that it utilised “row-formers” (a port-manteu of pilates reformers and ergo rowing machines), but we really didn’t know much about the concept of the class otherwise. We were simply bored of our own workouts and were looking for a place to regain some pilates based inspiration.
We attended two of their “strong body (plus+)” workouts and Tamar attended an additional “pilates only” session. Strong body is described as “a well rounded full-body pilates inspired workout. You will feel a complete full-body burn with low impact movements; paired perfectly with high intensity cardio bursts. The goal: strength & mobility with a huge calorie burn.” And calorie burn it did!
Overall impressions
Strong is a pristinely and professionally run pilates and cardio gym that, upon first trial, will leave you unable to walk for days. The high intensity music and friendly staff heightened our overall experience and we would both safely say that we would attend again. It is definitely a high level workout which means that its accessibility and safety is saved for those on the higher end of the fitness spectrum. But in saying that, its strength lies in the combination of both strength and cardio, the variety of which may assist in preventing overuse injuries compared to gyms that only utilise one or the other.
5-star criteria
Fun: 3.5 stars
The strobe lighting, music perfectly timed to the intensity of the exercise and competitive nature of the cardio intervals all added to the enjoyability of this class. In addition, the pilates exercises had a great variety and incorporated multi joint movements, balance and neuromuscular control, which required a lot of concentration, so it was easy to get lost in the exercise in a good way! We found ourselves constantly laughing and smiling at each other throughout the session, most of the time to laugh at how much we were physically struggling, but it was undeniably an enjoyable experience overall . But, let’s also be real. It was a gruelling workout and we were very happy when the clock said it was time to go!
Cost: 3 stars
Pricing (as of 28/12/2023):
Intro offer: $50 unlimited sessions 10 days
Unlimited contract: $75/week
6 month unlimited contract: $70/week
2 sessions a week: $50/week
One off class: $35
5/10/20 packs also available
As far as Pilates classes go in the area, it’s definitely on the more affordable side. Unlike some other gyms, we’d also be more than happy for people to attend 3 or 4 times in the week due to the variety of classes that are offered.
Customer experience: 4 stars
The booking process was made easier with their custom app available on apple and android. We were a little confused on first booking having not received a confirmation email. This meant that when we arrived we walked in a little sheepishly and walked right past the sign-in ipad. This was minor, as the friendly instructor showed us to our lockers (which included charging ports), gave us pilates socks to borrow and ensured that we had row-formers next to one another. The room was pristine and beautiful to the eye, albeit a little dark and lacking colour for my personal taste (perhaps this works better in winter when it’s dark and lacking colour outside anyway). The instructor was professional and friendly and clearly knew what she was doing. Tamar and I both agreed that our favourite part of the customer experience was the eucalyptus smelling face towels given to us at the end of our gruelling session. I can still smell the sweet scent of eucalyptus now!
Minor annoyance was the persistence of the follow up calls, one of which came whilst we were actually doing a class itself. But this certainly wouldn’t stop us from recommending strong to our clients and friends.
Accurate to description and effectiveness: 4.5 stars
They promised a tough workout with effective cardio bursts and that is exactly what we got! The cardio intervals were extremely effective from a sports science perspective, giving goals to aim for to ensure that you were working at a high heart rate. The strength components are arguably more ‘endurance sets’ given that there was next to no time to recover in-between, although the sets were generally between 10-12 reps with different weight options for different people which means that you could work at an appropriate strength dosage for the individual.
I’d say these workouts don’t replace gym based strength work but are an excellent adjunct that helps you work on functional strength tasks under a state of fatigue. In addition, if increasing cardiovascular fitness in an efficient manner is your goal, I'd argue this is one of the best places to do so.
Accessibility and safety: 3.5 stars
Strong scores down on accessibility and safety purely laregely due to the high level of fitness required to attend these sessions. If you have not had prior pilates experience and rowing or cycling experience, we would not recommend attending until you have up-skilled in these areas with a personal trainer or physiotherapist. In addition, with one instructor to up to 15-20 people, if you don’t have great body awareness and good rowing or cycling technique, there would be a lot of training required before we’d comfortably say that you are safe to attend.
For those with prior history particularly of back and knee issues, we would highly recommend seeing a physiotherapist before deciding to take on this class regularly, however even those with a history of other injuries (e.g. shoulders and wrists) should attend with caution. The instructors are able to provide minor modifications but you really need to be in control of what you are able and unable to do.
In saying that, if you are at a good level of fitness with no injury concerns, we think it is a great form of fitness that has a good amount of variety which puts the risk of acquiring new injuries low. We would definitely recommend this to our appropriate clients and would be more than happy to train our clients to work towards being able to attend these classes (which is a lot more than we can say about other places!).
Overall Total: 18.5/25 - average 3.7/5
Did we get a great work out? My legs certainly say so. Would we go again? - absolutely! Would we recommend it to our friends? You betcha! (the fit ones anyway). Thanks strong for an excellent work-out and the inspiration for our podcast. We will be back.
Listen to our us discuss The Breath Haus on our podcast
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