Six Packs on the Body

actually, Sixpax is on South Michigan Avenue

10/18/2011 1:24 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

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1329 S. Michigan Avenue, Sixpax is on the 2nd floor (photo by Bonnie McGrath)



Fayth, dancing

Fayth Caruso is new to the neighborhood. She grew up in Long Island, went to the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, became a successful dancer and choreographer in New York City (including a stint at Lincoln Center), met an actor in New York named Jordan Brown from Kansas City who became her fiance and who got a job at Timeline Theater in Chicago, where the pair moved to Roosevelt and Michigan last December, and where she opened a business last month--a block away from her home--called Sixpax.


Fayth, a South Loop neighbor and South Loop Observer reader, sent me an invitation to check out, try out and work out in her new business at my earliest convenience. Her business is dedicated to strengthening one's core: Pilates classes, big exercise balls, half balls, half styrofoam cylnders coated with something that makes them firm, a little Vinyasa Yoga, and a combination of Cardio and Pilates. She also does accreditation for experienced Pilates teachers.

The studio, on the second floor above a sports clothing store, wasn't built out for her--she just found it walking with Jordan in the neighborhood one day, after a disappointing round of working with a broker who showed her neighborhood spots that were too expensive, owned by landlords who wouldn't budge on the price--even if the space had been empty for years. Her brand new space is clean, bright, nicely painted and looks like it was totally made for her--with a nice wooden floor, big mirrors, a huge-windowed office, a reception area, a bathroom, a storeroom and a nicely slate-tiled area for what I am going to tell you about hext: getting rigged up in a Pilates machine.

Yes, Fayth rigged me up this morning in a Pliates machine. Although she has group Pilates mat classes, she likes to start everyone on a machine so they understand how it's supposed to feel and how it's supposed to be done. She says everyone makes jokes about the machines being like bondage or a gynecologist's office (yes, there are exercises on the machine in which you put your feet in stirrups while laying down)--and a whole lot of other physically restraining mechanisms from our culture that we giggle about. She had me pulling and pushing and extending and breathing and flattening and neutralizing and bending and flailing. But it was fun! And I think I may have lost five pounds of fat and gained 10 pounds of muscle--all in 30 minutes.

You, too can experience a workout at Sixpax like I did. Peruse the class schedules here. But don't get your heart set on handcuffs or a dungeon. Just a good rigging.


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By Erin from travelling
Posted: 10/19/2011 10:12 AM

Fayth is an amazing instructor!Her workouts are challenging but also so much fun. Definitely check out Sixpax!