Barre again?!? I know, I know– this challenge is supposed to be about stepping outside of my comfort zone, switching things up, and trying new exercise classes. Trust me, I didn’t do two barre classes in a row on purpose. Honestly, I accidentally signed up for this class. I clicked the register button on the Pure Barre website so I could look at the available sign-up options, and then I had to choose my free class that week. I think. Maybe I just panicked and booked it.
I’ll definitely be switching it up next week, but for now, this is a Barre Blog. Take it or leave it.
I took this class back on Thursday, and today is Monday, so it’s been a minute. You can’t be mad at me because it was my birthday this weekend (wish me happy birthday in the comments if you want me to keep posting <3). But I can’t wait to tell you about this experience! Pure Barre was so different than barre3, but also very similar. If you want to read my barre3 post, click here >>> Week One: free class at barre3 !
If you’ve made it this far and find yourself asking “what’s going on?”, “what’s this challenge?”, or “who are you?”, check out my Week Zero: Free Group Fitness Challenge post that explains everything and my About page to get to know me!
Before class
I was actually super excited to go to class on Thursday. I was having a long day at work, and my brain was sort of fried from all the meetings I had. I wasn’t nervous like last week, and I felt prepared, even though my mom wasn’t here to join me this time.
Pure Barre had called me the day after I booked to confirm my booking and to tell me what to bring for class. Special socks and long pants (below the knee) are required at Pure Barre. The day before my class, I also got a call reminding me with the same information.
I showed up about 15 minutes early and was greeted by a girl at the front desk. She gave me a quick run-down of what I should be expecting going in to the class. She asked if I had brought grippy socks, as they are required for class. Don’t worry– if you forget your grippy socks, you can buy them at Pure Barre for the low, low price of twenty dollars!! Seriously? Twenty bucks? One of the girls in my class forgot to bring some, so she had to pay. Honestly, I would walk out and come back. I’m here for free, not to pay for overpriced Halloween sticky socks I might never wear again if I don’t come back!
One of the neat things I learned from Olivia at the front desk was that the owner of the specific facility I was at in Wheaton, IL also owned a Pure Barre location in Geneva, IL. Getting a membership at either location gives you access to the other location, so you can pick and choose between classes at each location if you prefer different instructors, formats, or times.
Pure Barre Facility
I was given a quick tour of the facility and studio before class started. First, we walked through the studio room. This room has a bar on both walls, carpeted floor mats, a full length mirror spanning the entire wall on one side, and hooks for equipment at each spot along the barres. The instructor, Stacy, had already set up balls and resistance loops at each of our stations.
Walking straight through the studio leads to the equipment room– this is also where people can store their stuff in cubbies or lockers before class. There is lots of different equipment, including dumbells (3 – 15 lbs), mats, resistance bands, steps, and more. For our class, we were instructed to grab a heavier weight, either 8 or 10 lbs. I went with the 10lbs weights since I was feeling brave.
Here’s me waiting for class to start!
Class – Pure Barre Engage
The free intro class that Pure Barre offers is called their “Engage” class, which is specifically meant for first timers to learn about the other classes the studio has to offer. This class was only 30 minutes, and since it’s only for beginners, there were only 2 other people joining the class. Of the three of us, I could tell I was definitely the least athletic, which is not exactly a great feeling to have going into a class.
Stacy began class by giving us a quick rundown of what to expect, and also going over her personal training style. Stacy likes to focus on how everything feels; the exercises should burn, but not hurt. She said that her goal was to help us find ways to adjust so that we are always working our body.
We started off with some arm workouts to give us a taste of what the Pure Barre strength classes would feel like. I could definitely feel my arms burning since I had grabbed the 10 lbs weights and we were doing a lot of flies. Honestly, had I known how many flappy bird wings (I dont know what the actual exercise is called) I was going to have to do, I would NOT have picked the 10 lb weights. My form started to falter, and Stacy came over to me a few times to correct it. We did arms with some legs mixed in for about 10 minutes.
Next we moved on to legs to show what a Pure Barre Classic class would feel like, and Stacy turned my thighs into actual jello. If jello felt like lava. Fire and lava. This was a great workout, and I can’t believe how much we were able to accomplish with such small movements in just 10 minutes. I was glad when this one was over and Stacy brought out the mats. Again, since my legs were jello, I started going a little easier towards then end of this 10 minutes, but Stacy kept encouraging me to go deeper. Maybe she was encouraging everyone, but I really felt like she was talking to me mostly– either because my form was bad compared to the two athletes/goddesses/superwomen next to me, or I just felt a bit self-conscious being one of 3 people in the class.
Then we moved onto the mat for some core work, which mostly involved a lot of crunches. Once again, Stacy came over and tried to fix my form. Since the music was loud and I was tired, I got confused with what she was trying to say to me. I think my form got even worse because she wasn’t making sense to me.
Finally, we moved onto flexibility and stretching. The stretches were pretty light, but focused on the areas that we worked during class. Stacy turned off the lights for this part, which was nice and calming.
After class was over, I pulled Stacy aside and asked her to please tell me what she was trying to say about my form during the ab workout. She gladly sat down with me and showed me what she was trying to say. I’m definitely a visual learner, and her showing me made it all make sense. In hindsight, I realized that all the exercises I was being corrected on were the ones where we were turned away from the mirror and I couldn’t see myself to self-correct.
Pure Barre Pricing
After class, we were brought back up to the front desk, where Olivia went over pricing plans. There is a lot of fine print to the class packs/plans, but I’ll try to relay it to you guys best I can. Here’s Pure Barre’s pricing chart:
| Option | Price | Rate |
| Single Class | $30 | $30 / class |
| 4 Class Membership | $89 / month*^ | $23 /class |
| 8 Class Membership | $139 / month*^ | $18 / class |
| Unlimited Membership | $179 / month*^ | <$15 / class |
I definitely want to point out the fine print here. The $60 initiation fee is required for any of the membership options, and it does not act as a credit towards future purchases. However, the nice ladies at Pure Barre Wheaton told me that they can waive that fee if we purchase the membership in person at the studio. The purchase does not need to be made right after the trial class, either. The other fine print item is the 3-month minimum. That minimum can not be cancelled or pushed out, but it can be suspended. However, suspending a month of your membership can not be undone halfway through, and can only be done for an entire month of billing.
Final Thoughts and Scorecard
After class, I was definitely feeling sore in my thighs, but I wasn’t feeling super sweaty since we hadn’t spent too much time on any one exercise. I personally would have preferred if I was able to do the free class as one of the regularly scheduled classes with regular barre-goers to get a real feeling of class. Having the Engage case with only 3 of us was great in some ways, and not so great in others. I liked being able to get 1:1 feedback from the instructor, but at times I felt like I was getting more attention than I needed.
Compared to barre3, I was definitely a lot less sore the next day, only really feeling a little soreness in my thighs. My arms felt a little sore but only if I really thought about it. Here’s my silly little diagram because I don’t know how to describe my muscles with words!
Finally, here’s my scorecard for Pure Barre. This is all subjective!
| Category | Grade | Notes |
| Instructor vibe/energy | B+ | Great besides giving me too much attention lol |
| Class difficulty | B- | Mostly due to to class length being short |
| Cleanliness of space | A | Everything felt clean! |
| Music quality/volume | A | — |
| Class size / crowding | D | Class was way too small! |
| Variety of classes offered / schedule convenience | C+ | It’s pretty much just barre, but you always get a full body workout |
| Price after trial | B- | Good prices at first glance but all the fees and restrictions bring down the score |
| How my body felt after | C | Not as sore as I wish I was, but I’m sure I’d feel different trying a regular class |
| Sweat factor | B+ | I didn’t get too sweaty! |
| Fun factor | B+ | This was fun! |
| Number of people wearing coordinated outfits | — | only the instructor! |
| Number of people who said Hi | — | one (1) other trial-tryer but I also initiated first contact so idk if this counts… |
Top 3 Pros and Cons
| PROS | CONS |
| Good temperature in the studio! | They made that girl buy $20 socks! |
| Higher weight options than barre3 | Trial class likely doesn’t give you a realistic feel of any full class |
| Access to multiple locations! | Membership options feel a little restrictive |
In all honestly, I’m not sure if barre is for me. I’d love to try some other gym that has a wider variety of fitness options. Overall, I think Pure Barre is a great option if you’re interested in trying barre and you love leg workouts. It was similar to barre3 with a lot of the muscles I felt activating, but the equipment and techniques differed between the studios.
Final grade for Pure Barre: B
In other news…
Here’s some pics from my birthday this weekend! We went to an apple orchard, dressed up for Halloween, and went to see the Rocky Horror Picture Show in Milwaukee.
I really want to switch things up for Week 3! Any recommendations?
ttyl, Cait!
Leave a Reply to Eleni GeorgeCancel reply