10 things I've learned after 10 classes of Pure Barre

1) Grippy socks are important. Wear them.

Pure Barre sells $12 black socks with colored grips on the bottom (pink, grew, purple, yellow, turquoise, blue)

It's hard to hold plank on carpet in normal socks. Wear the grippy socks and you've got a better chance of staying up.  Also, you can tell the new people by who wears their own socks. All the pros will be in black pure barre socks.

2) Everyone wears LuluLemon.
Pure Barre's unofficial sponsor of overpriced barre classes. Seriously, everyone wears Lulu. I see a girl in a super cute girl in a top that fits her perfectly and sure enough I see the little horseshoe. It's great advertising and the clothes are ridiculously cute.

3) Chair position while holding on to the barre is the worst. 
Okay, everything on the barre is the worst. The mirror might be there so you can see your grimace of pain.

4) Calf cramps are real. 
This is normal after your first few classes.
(Trick: You can roll out your calves with the red Pure Barre ball. Sit on the floor, weight on your hands, and place the ball under your calves and roll on it.)

5) Get to class early if you want a specific spot, in the back or in a corner. Usually the front has a spot or two, but the classes are full or close to it.

6) Seat means butt or ass.
The instructors won't say that a movement should come from your ass, she'll say seat. It's more zen that way, I guess.

7) They really want you to have fun with the hip thrusting at the end of class. And it gets really dark in the evening classes when the turn the lights out.

8) Pure Barre is full of pretty young things. The girls are (mostly) all 20-something, perfectly put together and beautiful. The instructors are all former dancers or cheerleaders and are drop dead gorgeous.  I don't know why more guys don't go just to ogle the girls in lululemon yoga pants.

9) It's a 10 count, not 8 count for a lot of the exercises. And I have never been so glad to get to 10 in my life.

10) It's OKAY if you get a correction from a teacher. That way you can do it better next time. It is not the end of the world. You want to get corrections so you do the exercise right and work what it was intended to work. 

Don't mess with my gym schedule

Today my husband invited me to margarita night at the nearby taco place.

It's a small victory because for years I tried to get him to go to the restaurant only for him to staunchly refuse. He finally gave in one day and is now addicted to their tacos. That first week, he ate there every day. Now, it's once a week.

But it's Tuesdays. And Tuesdays mean TRX and then cardio. Two hours at the gym. I don't really have a lot of time for margaritas.

I suppose I could cancel and not go to the gym. But then I'd lose two hours of working out for the week. And when there are no classes Friday, Saturday or Sunday, that's awfully difficult to make up.

If I was tired or hurt, I'd cancel. But for margarita night, I think we'll have to reschedule. #GYMRAT.

(Note: we did get tacos on Saturday, so it worked out. I got my workout in and we had date night at a time that worked best for both of us.)