New Year, New You: Bar Method

Yes, most women at Bar Method look like this—but so will you if you keep it up! PHOTO CREDIT: Kirk Mastin

It’s still new in the New Year, there’s time to re-up your follow through on your resolutions in case you feel yourself slipping. In that spirit, I’ll be posting about a different aspect of clean living each day this week—as much for myself as for you.

This week: Bar Method

While there may be other places in town that use a ballet barre-based workout in their exercise classes, the Bar Method, with locations in South Lake Union and Redmond, was the first to bring this particular discipline to the area. Co-owners Luke and Bev Currier and Maika Manring’s studios are state-of-the-art, meticulously sanitized and, believe it or not, super welcoming.

The exercise itself is a combination of fat burning, isometrics, stretching, free weights, push-ups, floor work, exhausted muscular shaking, pure torture and a sublime sense of accomplishment. A kind of ballet conditioning, yoga and Pilates mash-up that demands your focus, concentration and very soul.

Devotees, who tend to take three classes a week, report weight loss, elongated muscles, firm butts and, more importantly, the self-confidence that comes from triumphing over something so darn challenging.

I’ve taken two classes, including one at 6 a.m. in the morning since that’s often the only time I get to myself in my busy, child-and-work loaded life, and at this point, I’m determined to go back for more. Talk to me as I’m huffing and lumbering like a beached whale at 6:05 a.m., just five minutes into it, and I may be singing a different song. 

The Bar Method offers some pretty stellar deals for clients, including a month of unlimited classes for $99 for new clients; a Bridal Package for $150 a month for unlimited classes for six months; and a New Mom’s Special for moms who have had a baby within the last nine months that offers unlimited classes for $150 a month for three consecutive months.

The time for change is now —even if it is 6 a.m.