Today was a rainy holiday (thank you, Quezon City day!) spent working (a bit) from home to catch up on mail and doing other house-related work. Since it's not often I get a holiday while J has to go to work, I figured now's a good time as any to try out The Spa's barre3 class and use my voucher before it expires.
My class was at 1:30 PM and, being told to be 15 minutes early, I arrived at 1:20 (the elevators were slow), to find 3 other ladies waiting in the spacious, well-appointed studio.
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| Compact locker area and water station as you walk in |
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| The Eastwood studio, photos courtesy of barre3 |
Before my class, I made sure to research what to expect (and what to wear!), since this was going to be my first time. According to the website:
The 3 in barre3 symbolizes balance, practice and life. Our classes are designed to transform the body to one of equal balance, strength and flexibility.
barre3 is a revolutionary class that combines the grace of the ballet barre, the wisdom of yoga and the strength of Pilates. Set to music, this transformative 60-minute ballet barre workout improves balance, increases flexibility and enhances strength. Every second in this workout counts for fast body shaping results and long term postural benefits.
Benefits:
Builds longer, leaner muscles and a strong core.
Energizes and increases stamina.
Develops muscle balance leading to a well-proportioned body with less risk for injury.
Increases flexibility and creates a natural flow to the body.
Precise instruction for each client improves results (without the cost of a personal trainer).
Motivating group environment builds connections and community, both important in making exercise a regular part of life.
Connects mind, body and breath and relieves stress.
I've never tried an instructor-led yoga class, any Pilates classes, nor have I taken ballet lessons even as a child, so I assumed everything was going to be a new experience. After making sure to grab a set of dumbbells and a ball, our instructor, a pleasant lady named Celine, started us off with push-ups against the bar (barre?) and talked us through a series of very precise movements that got me sweating in no time! Admittedly, I have no upper body strength to speak of, but with my recent attempts to improve that (thanks, J!), I think I did pretty well, i.e. no collapsing and smashing my front teeth on the bar! We then moved on to some back and leg stretches, with Celine emphasizing alignment and specific muscle actions - lifting heels and pressing them together as though keeping a coin from falling, for example. Boy, were the moves challenging! My legs and thighs were shaking uncontrollably like a granny, I did everything I could to stop from laughing.
We moved on to arm exercises with our dumbbells and transferred the pain burn to our triceps and biceps. Precision was still key, with instructions like pretend to squeeze a pencil in between your shoulder blades.
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| Those 2-lb dumbbells felt like a ton after a while! |
The last part of the session was floor work so mats were distributed. We proceeded to murder our thigh fats and do abdominal (torture) exercises. What made it super challenging for me was the focus on performing slow movements, as opposed to powering through the workout using momentum (hehe, cheater). I obviously need to work on building my strength and increasing my stamina. At one point, I just wanted to do this:
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| Mat so comfy |
barre3 was a good experience for me, challenging muscles I never knew existed!
Extra Nuggets, Please:
- Finally able to doodle again, thanks to Troy lending J his PS3 - I get to borrow his phone while he blasts zombies playing The Last of Us
- Tropical storm Maring in the Philippines now, with lots of news on flooding :-(
- It's gonna be so hard going to work this week, with holidays on Monday and Wednesday, AND the following Monday after that! As the Italians say: Ahh, dolce far niente! The sweetness of doing nothing :-D
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