Coming into college, I hadn’t made my fitness a priority since I played grade school sports. Sure, I took PE in high school and went on runs (they usually turned into walks), but I never had a real workout regime that I followed. Since I’ve been more independent in Lexington, I’ve made a bigger effort to improve my fitness and overall strength. Visits to the gym slowly became more frequent and, over quarantine, I familiarized myself with different at-home workouts on YouTube, like many others. Part of the reason I applied to intern with Lucie was that I wanted something to encourage me to keep working towards my goal! I’m a bit of a stranger to workout classes in general, but I had never dabbled in Pilates at all before this semester.

I had always heard good things about Pilates, that it worked your body in a more low-impact way, improved your flexibility, and just all around made you feel stronger, though I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect walking into Lucie’s studio. Not having the most impressive track record with fitness, I was excited to try something new but nervous to go alone. Thankfully, my roommates were eager to join me, even though they had also never done Pilates. It was exciting getting to try something new with some of my best friends and knowing that we were all stepping outside of our comfort zones together.

Having a class of beginners, Lucie walked us through each step and encouraged us to push ourselves throughout the hour. She instantly created a relaxing and welcoming space for us all to try something new, while still getting a good workout in. One of my friends mentioned to me after the class that she appreciated how welcoming it was to newcomers. The intimidation we had went away as soon as we stepped through Lucie’s door!

My friends and I all agree the intimacy of the small studio and the friendliness Lucie had was something that made it easy to continue pushing ourselves out of our comfort zones. After our session, we all felt energized and ready to take on our day, feeling like we had started it in the best way possible. This morning, we all woke up sore in the best possible way! A reminder of the hard work we did yesterday, it’s difficult to not want to return back soon. With such a fitting name to her studio, Lucie does an incredible job at encouraging a space for everyone, newcomers and pros, to truly Shine (pun intended)!