Meet You at the Barre

Xtend Barre is described as 'the premier ballet barre workout…Dance and Pilates Amplified'. Before heading into the class, I had no idea what to expect. My puny little brain entered the room, took one look at the 0.5kg weights and said 'oh, I'll be able to do this workout in my sleep. In zero gravity.' Wrong.
Firstly you are given little grippy ankle socks before you enter the room. The room has mirrors on two sides, and a dance bar? Ballet bar? (my knowledge of dance is limited to Glee and the 2000 film Center Stage). As always, with the first time I participate in a class, my pre-exercise nerves flared. What if I did the whole thing wrong? Am I supposed to get a mat? What about these rubber band things? Are my shorts too short? Why is that woman with the pink headband staring at me with such intense hatred?

The instructor came in and started the workout - invited us to sit in the middle of the room and we began a sequence of what I can only describe as pilates mixed with ballet. Plies and arabesques were combined with pulsing and standard pilates moves with 05.kg weights. I died. The class moved on to some work with the bars, which was similar to TRX but more graceful and then some floor ab work.

It was set to a really high-tempo dance soundtrack with the likes of Brit Spears, and it was unrelentless. In the process of attempting to gracefully kick my legs up into the air and lower it back to the floor multiple times in a row, I fell. Multiple times. I felt like a graceful gazelle, yet the mirror told me otherwise.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. And so much harder than I could possibly have conceived. It didn't help that the night before I did a full triceps and chest workout…you know it's a good workout when you're 5 minutes to the end and your muscles grow little mouths and start screaming "LET'S JUST LEAVE. I'M OUT." And that is exactly what Xtend Barre did. The atmosphere and the music were fun, upbeat and the instructor was both encouraging and energetic.
I went to: Xtend Barre York St Studio Starting from $29 for an individual class 4/73 York Street, Sydney, 2000 02 8065 1707