Work your core at home with these excellent online Pilates classes

Sitting at a makeshift home office chair and staying indoors can leave your muscles screaming, so focus on core strength to protect that lower back and get a good dose of endorphins while you’re at it with these online Pilates classes. From traditional approaches to cardiovascular conversions, these classes offer more results than sporadic stomach crunches in the morning. As with our yoga classes round-up, booking in virtually with your favourite Pilates studio will ensure you support these hardworking teachers — as they in turn support you to keep that fitness and flexibility on track.

Thrive Pilates
Having become masters of Zoom during earlier lockdowns, the team at Thrive Pilates have saved all their online classes onto an easy-to-access database: the Video Store. Download classes that go for 45-60 minutes, at $15 each, while bite-sized 5-or-10-minute sessions are $9. Whether you want to challenge your abs or power through some planks, there’s a class for you among the great selection.
www.thrivepilates.nz

Core Collective
Core Collective’s expert teachers are on hand all week to lead live virtual classes over Zoom. Find the class timetables on the C.C. Instagram, and if you can’t make the specific time the class remains conveniently live for 24 hours. Book in for just $10 via the MindBody website and get ready to feel that delicious burn.
www.corecollective.co.nz

Sweat Yoga & Pilates
Newmarket studio Sweat is sharing a veritable goldmine of classes on its Instagram account all week, and they’re very kindly offering them free of charge. Its HIIT Pilates sessions aren’t for the faint of heart, but they will banish any guilt for slouching, Gollum-like, over your computer keyboard all day. The classes are uploaded permanently on the grid so you can do them even outside the prescribed time, and they should be just enough to tide you over until the heated studio can open back up again for in-person clients.
www.sweatyoga.co.nz

Wild Pilates
Founded by instructor Laura Mohi, this extensive online studio has over 150 classes on offer, with at least one brand new session added every week. Spanning mat, HIIT, targeted and beginner Pilates workouts, there’s sure to be something for nearly every level and ability. If you’re new to Wild Pilates, you can try it out with a seven day free trial, and start getting those muscles lean, long and strong.
www.wildpilates.co.nz

Matworks Pilates
Matworks’ physical studio may be located in Remuera, but there’s no need to leave your home thanks to the plethora of classes on offer on its website. Find plenty of free videos on its YouTube channel, (don’t forget to like and subscribe), or browse an even larger selection on FitFlix for a monthly access fee. Matworks also offers a dedicated 12-week ‘NatalWorks‘ programme, specially designed for women both pre-and-post-giving birth, and you can find the first week free online.
www.matworkspilates.com

Lockdown

If you make one thing this Easter, Mimi Gilmour’s homemade hot cross buns should be top of your list
These at-home yoga workouts will help kickstart your day, or wind it down
Cocktail recipes to shake things up, plus the best Bloody Mary for the next day