5 Questions for Brooke Riendeau with [solidcore]
May 9—For 5 Questions this week, the Herald speaks to Brooke Riendeau, manager of [solidcore], a Pilates studio in Grand Forks, at 801 S. 42nd St.
Q: Please tell us how you got into teaching this kind of Pilates.
A: I had read a lot about how effective Pilates is and how easy it is on your joints. Then when [solidcore] opened their first studio in Grand Forks, I just saw that as a great opportunity to infiltrate myself into the fitness industry. I have my degree in public health, education, and nutrition, so getting into the fitness world just seemed like the right choice.
Q: The website says, "a Pilates workout unlike any you have done before." What's it like?
A: The solid core workout is incredibly intense and challenging. However, it's doable for everyone, there's modifications, amplifications for every single move so the workout is accessible to almost anyone. And it's ever changing, no class is ever going to be the same. The main difference with it is everything we do on the machine is extremely slow, so it's slow, controlled movements that literally cause your muscles to fail. You push yourself until the point where you're going to fall flat on your face, but you don't. For the Grand Forks studio right now, everyone who's never taken a class before, your first class is free. We're not sure how long that's going to last, we've never done it before.
Q: Is [solidcore] a chain of studios?
A: Yeah. Actually there are right now 72 [solidcore] studios, the first studio started in Washington, D.C. Our founder and CEO is actually from Bismarck, and that's why she wanted to bring [solidcore] to North Dakota.
Q: The studio is involved with charitable donations, tell us about that.
A: They have a team at headquarters that really focuses on what's going on right now, like culturally and globally, and then tries to pick a few different organizations to donate to. Every studio will host a certain amount of classes, and all those proceeds will go somewhere, or what they will do is hold an entire company challenge. So if clients take more classes a percentage of their memberships will go towards these certain businesses and organizations.
Q: You have to be in great health. Do you have a guilty pleasure?
A: Oh absolutely. I'm going to say my guilty pleasure is definitely pizza and chips. I really love Doritos.
