"Now just breathe in, lower the navel to the base of the spine, tilt the pelvic floor to a 3 and…read morebreathe out sideways while leaving your navel and pelvis tucked." Good luck. For someone who understands the basics of core strength and who has a medium level of fitness, pilates with Simon still leaves me feeling like I've done a 60 minute Body Attack class at the end (minus the beetroot, sweaty appearance). So if your only workout is changing the trying to find the television remote then this might not be the best place to start. Simon does insist you come in for an initial assessment prior to coming to the class though, so you'll know soon enough if your best left doing hand eye coordination exercises in a pub on a weekend instead. For $10 per class (or $8 if you buy a 10 class pass) you get: - 45 minutes of zen where you have no option but to purely focus on how I'm supposed to lift my leg and keep a flat stomach without straining. - New found abs and buns of steel (or just the feeling that you now have them since you will be a little tender 2 days after class - A really flexible and laid back teacher who brings as much fun into the class as possible whilst working you damn hard. It is important to note though that I do struggle with Simon sometimes getting sidetracked during class, causing him to loose count and you then ended up working one side more than another. So either be prepared to omm and move past it or cheat and do a bit of extra work to balance out those buns.

"Lift, bend, stretch, flex now put your leg on the bar and 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." Yeah right…read more Having been a mini ballerina back in the day I expected to enter this class and be slowly and painstakingly led through a series of leg sweeps, arm wafts and plié. I was wrong. Instead I was swiftly swept into the group and cued by Bec along the way. If you have more left feet than right, I would strongly suggest starting with their Xtend Technique class instead of Xtend Barre. Facilities are really good with free lockers available. The classes are well sized and there is plenty of space for you to move about so you don't whack into someone. By the end I was sweating, shaking and swearing at my quivering thighs. Don't doubt the challenge of the plié people when it's sped up to 80s Kylie-esque music! Luckily I had fellow friend, and Yelper, KheShan G with me to giggle along the way with. Note: bring a friend to suffer through the process with you. They even have a Mum's and Bubs Xtend class here too so bring the babe if you fancy! Will I be back? Definitely, there is almost an Xtend Barre class every 2 hours EVERY DAY here. There's no excuse not to be grand jete-ing my ass in there at least once a week now.

Love the barre classes. Low impact but great workout. The instructors are great too, always…read morecheerful, positive and motivating! The studio is open space, has fans (no aircon) so it does get a bit hot on 35degree days.