RAISE THE “BARRE”

After my last practice session at Daza Dance I realized I was getting worn out pretty easily, so today I went back to a Core Fusion Extreme Barre Class at Exhale. The last time I took class there the Instructor has just run a marathon and was supposed to give us the "easy" class, but it was so tough I saw my life flash before my eyes!  Today the instructor is different and impresses me right away by being incredibly personal and remembering my name.

As I am gathering equipment for the I am extremely joyful that this class will not include a slippery exercise ball, I will not be hitting an unsuspecting classmate in the head today. Before we start I take few moments and climb one of the ladders on the far side to hang from the stall barre, which is a 20 foot apparatus used to train gymnasts. I used to be incredibly intimidated by it but today I attack it, and even though I am only able to hang for a few moments at time I consider it a victory.

Class begins and we start immediately with several plank series both straight armed and bent, and 5 minutes into class I think I am going to die!  I am able to hang in there – as matter of fact I impress myself only having to stop a couple of times to catch my breath. We move on to the arm exercises with weights which combine dance moves with weight lifting and I take the smallest weights possible. I start to feel fatigued but am encouraged on by the Instructor, whose boundless energy makes me almost forget how hard I was working. Next we do some floor work and the challenge is contort myself into a pretzel and take this long blue stretch band and intertwine it so that when I move my hip I am doing a full body workout. (Help! Hahahahaha!!) I am so confused I can’t take it! Stuff is hurting on me I didn’t know existed, so I just sit still and pray for this section to be over. Next we move to the barre and do some abdominal work. Class moves quickly and by the time we get to the cool down the instructor reminds us to be grateful, and I love that this is the focus of the last few minutes of class. Now I need to keep up the strength training so my endurance will be in top form for the competition!

By: Kamaria George (05/31/2016)