I Joined A Gym.....Pure Barre

So one of my New Years Resolutions was to create a balance of health and fitness. This is something I constantly struggle with. I have been a dancer all my life- taking and teaching dance classes for six plus hours six days a week. Since I've changed jobs and am now sitting in a chair eight hours every day- I have a tough time keeping myself in shape. So last night...I joined a gym.

I have never been a "gym member" I have always simply danced my heart out and never needed to workout regularly. I have done workout DVDs and taken a few Zumba classes- I have run on a regular basis and then on a not-so-regular basis but nothing has worked for me. I have a free membership with the gym at work so I thought maybe that would motivate me- it didn't.

I need classes- I need dance cardio. I need to motivate myself by committing myself to attending classes. So I joined and went to my first class last night- something I've been dying to try ever since Julie over at PB Fingers mentioned her love for it! Pure Barre.

I pictured plies, grande battemas and tendues at the barre. That wasn't quite what we did- but it was definitely a muscle workout.

We started with a warm-up that included quite a bit of arm work. We worked out our arms, legs, gluttes, and abs. I liked the concept of working the same section for an entire song; however each section of my body were quickly exhausted. We used weights to work our arms and a ball for numerous exercises- although I found the ball to be more irritating then anything else since I couldn't keep it where I wanted it to stay and it kept rolling away!

My favorite part of the class was when we actually went to the barre and worked on plies. It was the easiest part of class for me and I found it to be the most enjoyable- gotta love a good leg workout =)

I think I will try this class again the future- It was a very crowded class since it was the first night of it- but I think I will get a better idea of what the class is when there is more room at the barre. We spent most of the class time in the center on mats which I've heard is not typical so hopefully next time there will be more barre work!

I am planning on heading back to the gym a few more times this week and trying some different classes- I can't wait!

Have you ever tried Pure Barre? What do you think of it?