Fierce Grace

Hot and hard.

Attention! We have found the hardest workout in New York. Lower East Side studio Fierce Grace Hot Pilates class will make you sweat out more than you thought you had in you, nearly pass out and leave with a face as bright as a tomato. Very unattractive but oh so worth the pain.

Hot Pilates is a full body, high intensity, low impact workout using Pilates principles performed on a yoga mat in a heated room. And we mean, heated like a Bikram yoga studio. Think spinal articulation, ab work, core strengthening movements, squats and just when you think you’re done, there are burpees to truly crush your will to live.

Instructor Sarah Ghilardi is the reason why we keep going back. She is from Eastern Europe and is very literal with her use of English to the point where everything she says is endearing. Some favorite Sarah-ism include motivational instruction like: “Squeeze your kegel muscle, it is the one where you have to pee, but you cannot” and “No matter what you have going on in your wrist, or the rest of your life, right now we plank level change.”

This hidden gem of a class is only 6 points on Classpass for Sarah’s Tuesday and Thursday 7 am classes and like she says, we will plank level up and everything will be fine and it’s probably true.