Barre-ly in Pain

I've come to realize that the most important thing to master in college is the art of time management. And I'll be the first to admit that I definitely haven't mastered it yet. After meeting with my academic adviser, and realizing I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing with my life yet, I made my way back to my dorm, soaking in the sun and enjoying the lovely weather. Halfway back, I got a call from my roommate, asking when I planned on getting back and telling me that she was already at the gym. After a moment of confusion, it finally clicked and I remembered that I was planning on going to the Barre Fitness class at 6. After looking at the clock and seeing that it was already 5:55, I picked up the pace and half-speedwalked half-jogged my way back to my dorm. Let the record show that I speedwalked and jogged for you guys, I think that shows my dedication. 

I quickly ran up the three flights of stairs to get to my room, changed, grabbed a water bottle and made my way to the gym. I managed to make it to the class only three minutes late, and jumped right in. Looking around, I noticed that everyone had their shoes off so I took mine off too and joined a blonde girl at her barre. I did my best not to disturb the class, but the girl I was sharing the barre with was definitely not having it, giving me a stink eye and refusing to make room for me at the barre. In response, I just smiled at her whenever we made awkward eye contact, hoping to make her feel uncomfortable. 

Anyways, back to the actual fitness class. We started off with plies and releves at the barre to the remix of a pop song. The instructor said that we should be feeling the exercises in our calves, but my calves were completely fine. I should note that this might be a biased opinion since I used to dance throughout high school. The instructor, whose name I didn't catch-- I'll just call her Berenice, seemed inexperienced, which made the class atmosphere very cold and unpassionate. She was super focused on doing the exercises herself, and her occasional motivational phrases seemed very half-hearted. After the first song ended, Berenice instructed us to pick up a small exercise ball. She then told us to place that small exercise ball between our thighs and continue with the plies. Hearing these instructions made me react a bit like this:

Being in a room full of girls doing plies with exercise balls placed between their thighs was just too much, and I couldn't help but giggle. I also felt ridiculous. In fact, I felt like a hen laying an egg, which is not something I've ever experienced. 

After the weird plies with the exercise balls, we did a sequence of leg exercises. We did leg lifts to the side, and then leg kicks where we started with our toes touching our knee and then flicked our leg out to the side, and finished it off with leg lifts to the back. Berenice had us perform this sequence of leg lifts for one leg and then for the other. This definitely placed a strain on my hip since all my weight was placed on one side for so long. So definitely be wary if you have hip problems. 

After the leg exercises, Berenice switched off with another instructor, Kelly, who led us through some typical arm, ab, and glute exercises. Kelly also seemed inexperienced, once again creating a cold atmosphere as she taught the class. After we finished with the exercises, she led us through some stretching to end the class. She only held each stretch for about 10 seconds, which definitely was not enough time to fully stretch my muscles. 

All in all, I was pretty disappointed with my experience at Barre Fitness. I left the class without a bead of sweat on my body, and with some pain in my hips. As I was leaving, I heard the instructors talking about their training, which explained why they seemed so inexperienced. I would rate this class a 4/10, and suggest that you try it out later in the year, when the instructors are more experienced.