Having heard so much about barrecore, I could not wait to go and check it out. Barrecore is one of the hottest exercise classes to hit London. Barrecore uses ballet style exercises which promises to tone and create a long & lean body shape by stretching every muscle group in the body
There are two locations, one in Chelsea and the other in Mayfair. I went to the Mayfair branch which is just off Oxford Street. The studio is in the basement of 6 Cavendish Square. As you enter the studio you are given a tour of the studio, there are two studios and a private room with a Pilates reformer machine. There are showers, changing rooms & free lockers. The only thing they ask you to provide is non slip socks, and if you don’t have them you can buy them for £10. They also sell an amazing range of healthy snacks, such as eatloveraw bars, sun warrior protein powder, activated nuts and a great range of workout clothes.
Louisa Drake was our instructor, she came into the reception area to greet us and I instantly loved her. Louisa explained the class and what to expect. She explained the terminology that she will use in the class. She took us into the studio and Louisa told me to go to the front of the class, so I could clearly see her and follow the moves. The class definitely lived up to the hype. It was fast paced from start to finish, it is a total work out for the body.
Louisa Drake
So lets start at the beginning. Each studio has a long ballet barre along each wall, and you are given weights, a pilates strap and a mat. You start on the floor warming up your muscles, however this is not a gentle warm up, you will be sweating. A lot of the exercises are isometric based, where you hold a position whilst performing small pulsing movements. To start with this was moves such as a one legged side plank, plie squats & press ups. We then moved on to the barre exercises. The barre acts as an aid to perform a range of isometric moves for the legs. My legs have never shaked like that before. Louisa was great at explaining positioning of the body, and throughout the class she would go around and correct people’s stance.
The Studio
We then moved on to abs. We wrapped the pilates straps around the barre this then acted as a resistance whilst performing leg raises. We placed yoga blocks under our mats and the block acted like a support, whilst performing stomach crunching moves.
We finished by performing stretches which really relieve stress and tension from your muscles, they needed it, they worked really hard! You leave feeling amazing. The positivity and high energy of Louisa stayed with me throughout the day.
I would recommend this class to all, whether you have low or high fitness levels. Louisa gave us options to make the moves easier or harder.
Barrecore is addictive, and I am going back…
fuelfresh 