Barre Belle

Two days ago I took a ballet barre class which is all the rage in the fitness world of late. I actually took this class a number of times while I was pregnant. It was very challenging then but I thought it had to do with the fact that I was carrying twenty extra pounds on my body. Oh no! I can guarantee you that the padding around my stomach was not what made this class tough. It’s is a kick your tush royally class!


It’s a high energy class. The instructor (who gave birth a few days before I did, who also taught the classes I took prior to pregnancy), who looks phenomenally fit and lean, plays very uptempo music so it’s very contagious in that regard. You are singing while your body is burning and wobbly. It’s quite a sight!

There are a lot of exercises and moves done with the assistance of the barre. You do a number of different sets of various plies. Sometimes you incorporate a ball in between your knees to focus on your inner and outer thighs. I could feel my legs give way underneath me through most of this part of the class. You then do some arm exercises at the barre and then with weights in the middle of the studio. You go back to the barre to do some butt exercises which are also incredibly effective in the wobbly-leg making capacity. Then you move to ab exercises on the floor which included numerous variations on the plank position (which were the easiest part of the class in my eyes – physical therapy was good for this if nothing else!). Then you do a number of inner and outer thigh exercises on the floor. Between each section, you do some stretching which feels great but doesn’t really alleviate the hurt. At the end of class you do more stretching which makes your muscles cry out in little meows because they can’t get a full blown roar of relief out.

It is an effective full body class. Every single muscle between my neck to my ankles was touched on in some way or other. As I left class, I was already sore and in pain. I texted my husband that it would take me a while to walk home from class (class being only 2 blocks away); I was that wobbly. Getting down the stairs to my apartment made me look like I had debilitating arthritis. And two days later, I am still ‘ouching’ my way through various everyday motions – like getting in and out of my chair, walking, going up and down stairs; it’s so hard to go to the bathroom because my muscles hurt to squat!

My husband is chuckling at me during every step. If it weren’t so effective, I could actually kick him but I can’t move my legs to do that. I’ve stretched to assist in the pain relief but it seems to no difference. This is the exact same effect it had when I took the class during pregnancy. The only difference is that I, of course, don’t have the belly to deal with and my face looked a lot thinner in those mirrors you have to look at throughout class. But let me tell you, when they say it’s incredibly good at changing your muscles, I can’t help but agree. Mostly because I can’t move the muscles that would make me shake my head to say no.