Weight Off My Shoulders

On Wednesday, my contest winner Heather was able to join me for Jess' 5:20pm Pure Barre class.

I wasn't totally sure how to prep her for the experience. I made sure she read up on all my blog posts about my previous Pure Barre classes and that she brought socks. :)

Heather, our winner, also happens to be a fellow Weight Watchers Leader in Boston - who lost over 75 lbs with the program.

"I took my first pure barre class and LOVED it!!" - Heather

She is always open to try new classes at the gym so I knew she would be a perfect newbie for Pure Barre!

We got to class early and I made sure she was all set up. I grabbed my normal 3 lb weights, while Heather went big with 5 lb weights for the opening arm workout.

The class was full, but I was able to grab us a spot together in the back. ;)

Class started right on time and we were off. It kicked off by warming up the legs, abs and arms.

I love a good plank as many of you may know. I actually take part of the #plankaday challenge so one of my favorite parts of the abs warmup at Pure Barre is the 90 second varied plank - which includes a front forearm plank with leg lifts, straightarm plank, left side straightarm plank, right side straightarm plank then right into pushups (real and modified) and tricep pushups.

And wow are my arms burning by the end of that.

Then we lead right into arms - biceps, triceps and shoulders - which is a true burn. I am happy that I can now make it through the whole arm portion without putting down my 3lb weights (yay!). So as I looked over Heather was rocking the 5 lb weights, but taking the breaks when she needed to.

"Within the first few min my arm's were on fire.. and that was just the warm up!!" - Heather

I tried to let Heather know that the shaking in the muscles was normal and about to ramp up as we headed to thigh work... ;)

Jess was ready to kick our Pure Barre ledges (the area between your butt and your upper thigh area) and I could tell that Heather was loving these exercises. She was smiling, which is all that matters.

All of a sudden it was time for seven minutes of abs and the final 2.5 minutes of class, which is all squeezing and tucking while in a bridge. The lights are off during this time and the music gets nice and low. A perfect way to end the class.

As we were cleaning up, Heather let me know that she loved the experience so much that she would be back. She and a couple other Weight Watchers employees were looking for a way to celebrate the Holiday in a new way - instead of just going out to dinner - and she was going to suggest taking a Pure Barre Burlington class together.

YAY! Another Pure Barre convert... ;)

"This work out truly works your WHOLE body!! Not sure how much I will love it tomorrow when I can't hold my toothbrush..." - Heather