Name: Kerry Patel
Age: 38
Profession: Previously in commercial title insurance; now a stay-at-home mom with a 2-year-old son.
Fitness goals: Core strength and flexibility.
Workout of choice: The Fitness Chair Complete Workout, a form of Pilates that uses the MVe (Maximum Versatility exercise) Fitness Chair to combine cardio, coordination, and strength training in a full-body workout.
Location: Madison Area YMCA, Madison (madisonymca.org).
Frequency/cost: Forty-five minute class twice per week. “I believe if you want to get results from any class, you have to sign up for more than one session of exercise per week,” says Patel, who complements the class with others, including body sculpting and yoga. The cost is $75 for five classes.
How’s it going? “I’m really seeing results,” Patel says. “I feel firmer, I feel more energy, and I’ve noticed that my overall posture has improved.” Even outside the classroom—whether she’s sitting at her computer or standing and having a conversation—she says she takes the proper stance, controls the curve in her back, draws in her bellybutton, and breathes properly—“all of these little cues you take with you once you leave the class.”
As someone who is not a big fan of cardio, Patel says she loves that she comes out of each session sweating. “You would never guess by looking at the chair that it could make you work so hard,” she says. “It’s a very simple apparatus that allows you to work your entire body, from your glutes and hamstrings to your upper body and arms. It’s so simple and yet it really challenges you.”
At the Madison YMCA—the first facility in the state to use the Fitness Chair—the class size is no bigger than five, which Patel likes. “You get that individual attention,” she says. “Form plus breath plus movement makes the exercise. My instructor is able to walk around and make sure we’ve all got the form, which is critical.”