5 Reasons I’m Loving Pure Barre

This week I celebrated a milestone at Pure Barre by hitting 100 classes! It was soo fun to celebrate with my besties and the rest of my class but even more it just felt good to accomplish this and be able to sign the barre! I thought it would be fun to share my pure barre story along with 5 reasons I’m loving pure barre!

Here’s the thing, I love the way I feel when I have a consistent exercise routine. This is no longer just about how I look but how it makes me feel. Feeling strong makes me feel more confident and the boost in endorphins helps me deal with stress and other hormone issues. Since 2020, however, I have struggled to stay consistent and was honestly stressed out at the thought of going to workout. I needed a change.

Working out for me is partially social. My best workout buddy for years was no longer able to meet me regularly and I am just not self motivated enough to consistently head to the gym at 5:30am without a little something to look forward to. My friend Holly recruited me and our friend Katy to try Pure Barre for a month and I decided why not.

I’m not going to lie, I didn’t love it at first. My brain has been trained to believe I needed more high impact cardio for so long that the slower pace of the moves felt a little boring to me. Not to mention, the one thing you need for Pure Barre is a strong core and mine was, well, not that! It took me a month or so and a little bit of an attitude change but at some point I realized I was feeling way less stressed about going to workout than I had been in a long time. Relieving stress is part of the reason I work out so realizing what I was doing was adding to my stress was an eye opener.

So I’ve pulled together the positives I’ve found in my 6 months of heading to the barre for my primary workout. I am feeling stronger and have even noticed a few positive changes in my body composition like, hello, sexier arms!

5 Reasons I’m Loving Pure Barre

COMMUNITY – With smaller classes (typically 15-20), it’s easy to get to know your instructors and classmates. The instructors are always so postive and encouraging and I never feel left out even if I cannot master something immediately. Being able to cheer on classmates and celebrate each other has definitely been a positive.

MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH – Using weights, doing tons of core work and resistance training has definitely made me feel stronger physically. So many moves also take mental focus with lots of balance challenges and the need to focus on feeling the moves where you should be working. Maybe all workouts take mental and physical strength but I’m not sure I’ve always used both! The instructors really work to make sure you are tying the two together and over corrections when needed.

CHALLENGES – Wow, I didn’t think I was a star chart kind of gal and honestly rolled my eyes when my friend Holly was so excited about it. Here I am 6 months in and sad when a month goes by that doesn’t have one! The Pure Barre app tracks all of my workouts so I can always see how many classes I’ve taken and milestones are celebrated at 100, 250, 500 and 1000 so it’s something to shoot for. Typically every other month there is some sort of challenge to attend a certain number of classes in a certain mix and it has really motivated me to schedule my classes more intentionally and actually go!

CLASS OPTIONS – At first, I was only willing to go to the Classic format because I was super afraid of the others! Now, I love the Empower and Reform classes and rarely miss an Intensive. Classic uses a ball, weights and resistance bands but I’m shocked now that I’ve gotten stronger how hard I can actually make the class for myself. It is definitely the lowest impact of the formats. Empower uses a platform and wrist/ankle weights and is the highest cardio class of the bunch. It really works on balance as well. Reform uses sliders and resistance bands and also ties in some balance work. Of course all fo these classes incorporate the barre! Intensive classes that focus on specific areas are sprinkled in over the month as well. A good mix of all of these is my favorite! I feel stronger and my posture has definitely been better for sure!

ACCOUNTABILITY – I have a love/hate relationship with the fact that classes have to be scheduled on an app. This takes intentionality and prioritizing my workout just like I would any other on my calendar. The kicker is you cannot cancel within 4 hours of the class or you have to pay a fee. It really, really makes you reconsider when you know there is a penalty. This was really hard for me at first and one of the reasons I wasn’t sure I would stay with it but it has turned out to be the reason I have shown up 100 times since Feburary 1st!

So that’s my Pure Barre story! If you have any questions I’ll be happy to share more. Any workout that you do is the best workout for you. I’m happy to have found something new that has sparked some new energy into my daily routine.