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. 

Pure Barre Socks—best socks ever

The first time I went to Pure Barre I was pretty turned off by the socks. Ugh! I prefer to work out barefoot. It was also summer.

Now it's winter and I hate being cold. I'm starting to see the appeal of working out in socks.

I bought a pair of Pure Barre socks. It was kind of the lemming effect. Everyone in the class wears them and I didn't want to stick out. AND they were black and pink. My favorite color combination. So I spent $12.84 and worked out in Pure Barre socks.

They are pretty much the best socks ever. They are soft and warm. And if I work out in the morning I wear them all day. I quickly bought a second pair (in black and turquoise.) And then I wondered how many socks should I have to do Pure Barre?  Do people that go 5 times a week have 5 pairs so they only have to wash them once a week? I have some other grippy socks for other classes and I've been thinking about getting a few more pairs. I'd like the black in green, black and purple or black and white.

But I haven't been the only one mildly addicted. The stock of socks have been really low. A few days ago, there was just bright blue and yellow left. Last night when I went there were no socks left at all. The performance socks, which are $15, had been replenished, but I haven't actually asked what the difference in those socks are.

I do tend to slip on the socks when holding plank, so if they're stickier I might consider.

And apparently the socks are really a thing. You can tell the older members because they have colors not available anymore. Also, apparently when you finish 100 classes you get socks with red grips. You have to earn the red socks.

Also, the socks are so thick they take extra time to dry. Seriously, I had them in a load of laundry and everything was dry but my socks. I had to take all the laundry out of the dryer and just stick the socks in so they'd be dry enough in time for class.

The other downside: toe lint. These socks are so fluffy there's always lint on my toes afterwards.

New Year's Resolutions

I'd say 2014 was a fairly successful year fitness-wise. I learned how to flip! I got my front bounder (like a handspring but you jump two-footed into it instead of lunge jump), my right and center split, can climb a rope all the way to the top. Heck I even got the hang of battle ropes.  I started taking Matt to go climbing. I started going to tumbling. I took a few acro and handstand classes and tried a lot of new classes. I definitely want to carry that momentum into 2015.

I'm not great at making quantifiable goals. I'm not making a goal to get down to 125 pounds or run a 7 minute mile. But I'm decent at making To Do lists, so here are some of my goals and aspirations for the coming year:

1) Get my left split
2) Front tuck on the floor (with a spring board is acceptable)
3) Climb once a month
4) Keep trying new classes (once a month if I can find something new)
5) Take a class at Leap Flying Trapeze school
6) Try the 6 a.m. Pure Barre class
7) The the vertical pole class at Canopy
8) Hold a handstand for at least 5 or 10 second
9) Buy something from Lululemon. (Maybe a cute top for my birthday)
10) Keep working on 6-pack abs. (One day!)

2014 Fitness year in review

1. I finished physical therapy for my ankle. Didn't resprain it. Ankle (knock on wood) is as good as new now. I wear high heels less now though.

2. Got into indoor rock climbing. Went several times. (Tried Active Climbing in Athens, Adreanaline climbing in Suwannee and Stone Summit in Atlanta)

3. Started taking adult tumbling classes in the summer. It's my favorite class of the week and what I look forward to most. (Worked on bridge kick over, flips, hand stands and more)

4. Learned to climb a rope.

5. Tried a yoga class (I am too ADD for yoga)

6. Tried an acro yoga class. Pretty fun.

7. Tweaked my knee this summer. Apparently my hip flexors needed strengthening or something.

8. Took a trapeze class. Wasn't very good at it.

9. Took a flexibility class and a few handstand class as a new acro yoga studio.

10. Got my front flip.

11. Got a front bounder.

12. Got my right split.

13. Tried classes at the Exhale spa in Atlanta when I was there in Decemeber

14. Aerofit closed in December. I took up Pure Barre.

15. Got my center split at my second Pure Barre class.

Classes taken over the year: Aerofit cardio, tumbling and TRX; Pure Barre, yoga, acro yoga, Canopy beginners trapeze, Exhale Barre, Exhale Fusion, Revolution spin class.

I'd say it was a pretty healthy year. I only took one sick day. It was an asthma day and I just needed to sleep. My size and weight stayed the same, despite my two-hour a day workouts. My story is that I put on a lot of muscle.

Spin Class

I tried my first ever spin class today.

Sadly, no spinning wheels or faeries were involved. Just stationary exercise bikes, girls wearing Lululemon and clip in bike shoes. (Doesn't spinning sound more magical than sweating on an exercise bike?)

It was a free class at Revolution offered through Lululemon. I did not know what to expect at all. But I decided to try something new.

You go in and sign in with which bike you want. Huh? I asked the front desk girl where to go. She told me to go to the center, so I picked second row center. She then handed me some black shoes that clip into the pedals.

The shoes might have been the hardest part of the class. It was hard to clip them in and out. That will take some getting used to.

It was slightly dark in the room, and a handful of girls (maybe 8) trickled into the class. (It was the day of the football game. That's where everyone was).

The instructor came in and we started pedaling away. We pedaled, and sat up off the seat, we cranked the resistance up and down, we used the weights and did some arm work. I was wary about cranking up the resistance, so I did cheat a little. It was my first class and I just wanted to make it through the hour. (I only do 20-30 minutes on my exercise bike at home. I've never tried an hour.) We pedaled so fast the metal on the shoes burned my feet and I was worried about spinning off the bike….or really just slowing down without injuring myself.

I do exercise bike at home and thought I was really on to something doing weights. Apparently they do it in spin class too ;)

There was a lot of yelling in the class. Possibly because I was about six feet away from the instructor. I think it was supposed to be encouraging, but it was a tad too boot camp for me. Also, cleavage. If you go to spin class, don't wear a tank top. Most of the class is leaning over the bike and you'll show your cleavage. I saw a lot of instructor cleavage and it was just distracting/ not what I wanted to see.

I asked a girl next to me why the class was dark. She smiled and said she liked to listen to the music and just zone out. And we did a lot of that. I'm not sure I liked dark classes.

Verdict: An okay class. I would have preferred a different instructor and the lights on. I'm actually not crazy about cycling. (I don't want to get those saddle bag thighs I've seen on some women cyclists). The studio was clean and nice and if spinning is your jam, then this is the place. I think I just like being upside down more.

Scorpion pose

This is my trick of the night: Scorpion pose against the wall

I went to open gym and one of the girls was practicing this. I thought it looked cool and tried it.

To do it:

1) It starts off a little like a headstand. Put your arms in sphinx, maybe a foot away from the way.
2) Kick up into a headstand, and you can try and touch your feet on the wall
3) Make sure to really push your hips out (away from the wall)
4) Walk your feet down towards you head
5) Try to put your knees against the wall

And you're done. You can kick out of it. Or I think I just splatted out of it.

It's fairly easy if you have a flexible back. I'm feeling it today though.

Part-time Lululemon model

I feel slightly like a Lululemon shoulder model in this picture. :) 

Today I discovered Lulelemon. They had a free pure barre class at their studio so I decided to go and the result is this picture and some sore glutes.

Lululemon has been on my radar for awhile—$100 yoga pants that are see-through. That whole scandal alerted me to the fact that yoga pants could cost $100. (I thought Victoria's Secret $50 pants were expensive.) But I was curious why people would pay that much and what the big deal was. Was there something more than the lemming effect that led college students in my day to wear Chacos (so comfy) and North Face jackets?

Lululemon opened up a showroom in my town and I drive past it all the time. I liked them on Facebook and they offer free classes all of the time (yoga, cycling, juicing classes), but this week I decided I was going to go to the Pure Barre class (because I can't really afford the class, but would love to go. And I think I'm taking some barre classes later this week in Atlanta.) I convinced a gym friend to go with me (I did ask several people) and we went out there. (She said she only hates me a little bit now).

1) If you do a class a Lululemon, bring your yoga mat. I forgot mine, but they have a few you can borrow. Their mat felt great under my feet. I was a fan.

2) The Pure Barre class was crazy intense. I forgot how bad at it I am. It's nonstop directions. Tuck and pulse and then once you've figured it out, you're on to the next movement. I think I'd get better at it if I took more classes, but their normal rate is $195 a month. Ouch! I do think it's something I should work on, so I'm holding out hope for a groupon or sale, but given how many of their classes are full, I'm not sure that's going to happen.

I survived the class (with only three corrections from the owner :) And then I decided to look around. The clothes are so stinking cute. They had a cute long sleeve purple top ($68) that I was eyeing. I wanted to try a headband ($12) because I bet theirs would stay on. I ended up getting a sports bra, because I really wanted a strappy one. I also got a $59 sweater. It was on sale (and their sale is final sale). It was a really nicely made wool sweater with thumb holes and kangaroo pockets. I think it would cost that much anywhere else. I plan to wear it to my conference this coming week. So I guess they got their money's worth out of their free class—a lot of people bought stuff.

And while I didn't buy any $100 see-through yoga pants, I am a fan. Their stuff is cute and made well. Now, I just have to wait for a sale. (Do those ever happen?)

PS) When class was over, the retired university gymnastics coach (a local celebrity) came in and shopped a bit. Since I blogged about gymnastics recently (and she was at the sneak peek) I thought that was a nice tie-in.