I’ve really gotten into home workouts during isolation. Specifically, I’m a huge fan of at-home pilates and barre classes. You may have seen me waxing lyrical about Fluidform Pilates, a local Aussie studio doing amazing online workouts. But I have another obsession – Alo Moves.
Alo Moves is an American based, fully online studio specialising in yoga, pilates, barre and HIIT workouts. It came off the back of the hugely popular Alo Yoga activewear brand – basically, get your Alo Yoga gear and then do their workouts.
It’s not exxy, not cheap. For $20USD a week, you get access to their HUGE repertoire of workouts. They’re all professionally filmed and you can filter them down by fitness type, instructor, intensity, time – you name it. Basically, it’s fully personalised.
Originally I just signed up for the free trial after being shown a targeted ad on Instagram. Clearly, I’m shopping for yoga pants too much. The ad made it look pretty good, so I gave this 10 minute “Booty Burn” workout a go because like most people post-iso, my ass is a pancake.
I figured, oh, this is ten minutes long. It’ll be an easy ride and maybe I’ll feel a bit of ~booty burn~ at the end.
MY. GOD.
This had to be the hardest workout I’ve done in my life. My sister and I ended up curled in the foetal position at the end, unsure as to what exactly happened. I felt like I’d been attacked by a flock of pigeons or something – not exactly injured, but very much mentally overwhelmed and scared.
In part, the reason Booty Burn was so intense was because you’re doing rep on rep on rep, then in standard barre/pilates form, working on the same muscle for 4-5 moves in a row.
But the moves are SO targeted. Props to instructor Adrienne Kimberley, because she absolutely nails the exact moves that’ll hit those hard-to-hit muscles in that glute area. They’re nothing new – I’ve done all the moves before. But putting them together like this really, REALLY kills you. In a good way.
After that, I was hooked. The next workout we tried was this one:
Again, it was BRUTAL. To be fair, at this point I realised I was selecting Intermediate workouts. You can drop to Moderate, or even Beginner. You don’t have to experience my pain here. See that wide leg stance Emily Sferra, the instructor, is in there? She’s in that for AGES. You are doing small pulses on and on and on, WITH light weights for arm work. But again, I really felt like I hit the muscles I needed to hit – those weird little ones you rarely use in day-to-day life.
Some other great things about Alo Moves – heaps of the workouts use a household chair as a barre, with the moves tailored to this less sturdy option so you’re not expected to put all your weight on it. Some online barre workouts I’ve done are like “just use the kitchen table and now lean back and squat!!” which is insane and you would fall over and probably die.
The instructors are all different and have different energies. I’m a fan of Emily and Adrienne who I mentioned above, but there are ex-dancers and male teachers, really enthusiastic ones and more chill, grounded people. It means you can pick and choose workouts not just based on the intensity, but on how you want to be taught that day.
I’ve now been doing Alo Moves a few times per week, mixed amongst Fluidform Pilates and taking my dog on these insanely long walks so she stops being a lil’ bitch at home. I feel like these classes are helping me target really specific parts of my body with maximum intensity, while Fluidform is still my favourite for all-over workouts. Mainly because Alo Moves seems to LOVE a plank, and I hate planks with the fire of a thousand suns.
I’d recommend Alo Moves to anyone who wants to ruin their life for thirty minutes but come out the other end with a sick desire to do it all again. It is really, really tough. But it also leaves you feeling like you actually worked those muscles that seem to lie dormant through most other workouts. This is focused toning, and Alo Moves is so brilliant at that.
See you on the mat, eh?
