My knees were weak and my palms were sweaty as I entered the Pure Barre in Garden City. The room was filled with sunlight, perfectly illuminating the regulars who I could tell were in incredible shape, and immediately I was intimidated. Pure Barre is a workout class that “[utilizes] the ballet barre to perform small isometric movements set to fantastic music” in order to “lifts your seat, tones your thighs, abs, and arms, and burns fat in record-breaking time.” So basically, death.
It was after weeks of seeing my sister come home after Pure Barre classes and rave about how much they were toning her body that I decided to give it a try myself. Because, although my sister has been dancing for years, and I went to one ballet class when I was two and ran out crying because I hated it, I decided why not.
My nerves started to deplete as I talked to the instructor who said it would be a “light” class. I now know that she and I have different meanings of the word “light.” This class, in particular, was a small one, and there were maybe 7 other people besides my sister and I, which also calmed my nerves because it made the class feel more relaxed. But, as soon as the class started, those relaxed feelings were gone.
Within five minutes we were in full swing. Literally. We were standing arms length from the bar and leaning down, stretching our legs out and then bringing them back into our chests, which results in a killer burn in both the stabilizing leg and the chest. For the next 50 minutes the instructor played fun remixes, to distract from the inevitable pain coursing through every inch of my body (but like in a good way, like very feel the burn, ya know), and pushed us to finish the sets, even coming by to help every individual and make sure they were correctly doing the positions.
By the end of the class, my abs were shaking and my body was covered in sweat (sorry for the gross visual but I lived it ok). Although I was in pain, I walked, well hobbled, out of class with a big smile on my face. Not only was I proud that I was able to make it all the way through the class, I could tell how good Pure Barre was going to be for me and was already excited for the next class. I had been given the chance to release my inner ballerina I had run from 16 years ago, gracefully (er, maybe gracefully is not the right word) moving my foot onto the bar and stretching my arm overhead. I felt like a powerful ballerina by the end of it and felt 1000x stronger.
Pure Barre was the perfect mixture of hard work and entertainment that although it was so challenging, I enjoyed (almost) every minute of it. There were times where I didn’t know if I would make it through, but then Marisa, our instructor, would pump up the tunes and give us some much-needed encouragement.
I wrote this article because I am always afraid to try new workout classes, or to just go to them in general. I am not the most in shape person and I always feel like people will judge me, or because I am weirdly competitive that I will want to compete with others, or that I will be the most unfit in the class. But not only did Pure Barre push me out of my comfort zone, it made me feel welcomed and even beautiful while doing so. And yes I know this sounds like a sponsored advertisement for Pure Barre but, not only would I be the worst sponsor because I barely made it through the class but as someone who struggles with finding workout environments I feel truly comfortable in, Pure Barre was a very welcomed surprise. And in fact, I just attended my fourth class yesterday.P.S.: when you go to Pure Barre, you get cool socks (which I have pictured below so you can see how truly awesome they are). As I am an adamant sock person, this really sold it for me.
