"Complimentary Consultation - Pilates and Gyrotonic"

[nancy324]

My gym has a new arrangement with an organization called Half Moon Pilates & Gyrotonic. They have a room set up with some spanking new equipment, which looks really intriquing to me as I have always wanted to try "real" pilates. (I have no idea what gyrotonic is.) They are offering complimentary consultations for the rest of this week, and I am thinking of trying it. But I am a bit wary of being sold on something very expensive.

For gym members, a level 1 instructor costs $60/hr. or $55 for 10 sessions, and the prices go up from there with level 2 ($70), 3 ($80), and "elite" ($118)instructors. I wrote an email to the company asking what happens after 10 or 20 1-on-1 sessions. I thought maybe you could then join a class or something at a more reasonable price, but they don't do classes. I didn't really get any good answers to my email questions, except they said I would probably be meeting with them twice per week.

Does anyone know how this stuff works? Let's say I pay for 10 sessions, and go twice per week. What happens after that? I'm thinking they'll probably have me pay for another 10 sessions, and so on... So do you have to be Donald Trump to do this stuff??? I don't mind paying a lot up front to learn, but I can't pay those prices indefinitely!!!!

Any opinions? Should I forget the "free" consultation or go for it and find out what it's about? Am I being suckered???

Thanks for your input...

-Nancy

 

[clareMc]

RE:

Hey Nancy:

I've been waiting to see what kind of responses you would get, but no-one's bitten the bullet yet.

I know nothing about pilates and quite frankly, I am happy in my ignorance. I've seen the machines and they look impresssive but it also looks too passive for me. I couldn't handle doing anything that required constant supervision by an instructor. It would drive me nuts not to be left alone to let rip, bust a gut, really go for it and set my own challenges. I hate to be watched while I work out, I don't want someone nit-picking my form while I sweat and this sounds like a total anathema to me.

But you are not me, you are you, but you are still somewhat, or a lot, of an independent spirit: could you handle eternally signing up for classes with these instructors elite or not? I mean, it sounds like they are never going to let you loose on the equipment on your own, can you hack this?

What are you expecting for your money? Is it going to catapault your fitness and flexibility and strength into the next universe? Is it promising anything for your flexibility and mental well-being that you could not get at home with say Lotte Berk, or Maria Stott or Jennifer Kries?

Then there's another side to the financial question, can you handle throwing this much money at pilates classes? You are a lawyer and I am a grad student and you probably earn a living wage, yes? I could never ever entertain spending this much on pilates classes, in fact, on any type of classes. I mean, I can never resist doing mental calculations and comparisons: for several sessions of 10 classes I could instead use that cash to buy a sofa, actually own a piece of furniture! Or I could take my family on a much needed vacation that we would all enjoy. Or I could get a fabulous winter coat, pair of high heeled leather boots, a decent leather handbag to replace the horrid mesh thing i use that is falling to pieces.... I can think of a thousand things I would rather do with the money than use it to pay for pilates classes where I might only derive benefit to the extent that I continue the practice of these same classes indefinitely. If I stopped taking the classes, would I still keep what I had gained from them? I mean in fitness, you pretty much have to work at it all the time, mostly the gains are accumulative.

You could go to the free session, try out the machines, see how stimulating or boring it is, meet the instructors and see if they merit your large amounts of cash, etc.

Or save the cash for Cathe's 2004 DVD releases.....

Sorry if this sounds so overwhelmingly negative: I didn't mean it to be when I started out, but I think somewhere my antipathy to potential rip-off schemes just got the better of me.

Hopefully someone on the boards is a pilates instructor or has taken these classes and can testify to their relative effectiveness and value.

A not so tiny voice inside my head thinks you might just be suckered.......but a free consultation never hurt anyone! Leave the credit cards at home when you go though, forcing you to go home and think about it before acting spontaneously. Did I mention my middle name was caution?!?!?!?

See you Nancy and let me know how your free session goes!

Clare

 

[nancy324]

RE:

Thanks for answering Clare!

I must admit, I do indeed harbor a fantasy that it will catapault my fitness and flexibility and strength into the next universe. The brochure makes some pretty impressive claims. I have heard from those who seem to know that mat pilates is not "real" pilates, and can only take you so far. On some level, I want to find out if pilates is really the fountain of youth some people seem to think it is. Okay, it all sounds silly, but New York has lots of pilates studios at even higher prices and the people who go there look absolutely smashing. Maybe it's just a craze, and maybe not, but I'm curious to find out.

But on the other hand, I've communicated with the owner of Halfmoon by email and cannot get a straight answer out of him regarding what the progression would be for an average client. I definitely would not be willing to have 1-on-1 sessions indefinitely. A lot of places offer classes for $15 or $20 per class, such as the place that Iris from these forums goes. You have to get to a certain level of fitness with your 1-on-1 trainer before you can join the class, and then the prices are quite reasonable. But Halfmoon doesn't seem to offer this, and since the guy is obviously unable to communicate with me, I doubt his intelligence or his ability to teach me anything of value. So I will probably forget the whole thing.

I think a free consultation could be quite detrimental. Since they claim to "restore the natural curvature of the spine while rebalancing the muscles around the joints", they may tell me that my spine is a mess and try to convince me how much I need them. So then if I don't join, I'll always wonder..... A free trial is a nice thing, but a free "consultation" scares me! Definitely a major suckering tactic...

Hope all is well, Clare, and thanks again for your input!
-Nancy