Pure Barre Review, a New Book, and Happy Mother’s Day!

Pure Barre

I really hesitated to post this on Mother’s Day, but why not? My next new recipe is not a great one for Mother’s Day so didn’t want to post it this weekend, but I was glad to get all my Tex-Mex/Mexican recipes compiled for you earlier this week for Cinco de Mayo.

So. Many of you know I injured my back about a month ago. After many physical therapy and chiropractic appointments, I was finally cleared by the doctors to start exercising.

I learned about the Pure Barre exercise class from a fellow blogger The Food and Wine Hedonist, who shares their playlists of sorts with us, such as this one: Workout Music Recycled: Pure Barre. He also got me hooked on the TV reality show Top Chef. Thanks dude.

Then I also received a new Indie book this week from fellow blogger djmatticus aka the blog The Matticus Kingdom aka in real life as Matthew Blashill. He gifted me a signed copy of his book The Erratic Sun, co-authored with Micheal Hanson. I am looking forward to plopping into bed soon to start reading this novel and to leave a glowing review for them both on Amazon. I wanted to read it earlier today, but I could not drag myself out of bed until I had to get ready for Mother’s Day brunch, which turned into many wine glasses later and here I am now.

Now on to Pure Barre. This is an exercise class, and you are fully clothed. It is not Pure Bare, lol, as one friend missed the double R and thought it was a pure naked exercise class. How funny it that?

This is an intense 55-minute-packed class that goes by quickly, but it’s all low impact, concentrating on small isometric movements. The crux of the class is “The Tuck.” Tuck actually has two different meanings in this class. The first is the actual “tuck” position, which is tucking in your pelvis for a spine “neutral” position. The next meaning is “tucking” in your abdomen so that any movement from your body is achieved from tucking in your abdomen/spine from the “core” of your body. So if you are against the wall, and they say lift your legs an inch using the “tuck,” you are actually lifting your leg using your abdomen muscles to contract your legs so much, they move up an inch or so, without using your leg muscles. Crazy, right??? But it works!

And then you get the “burn” and then the uncontrollable “shaking.” There I was, with a round nerf-ball-like ball, on my back with my legs straight in the air above me, clinching the ball between my shins. “Just squeeze the ball with your legs, and hold, then tuck and hold, then tuck, and hold.” 90 seconds of that. OMG. My legs starting shaking so bad I thought I had the tremors. Thankfully the instructor told me if you start shaking like that, then you are doing it right, as that means you are using your “core.” I thought I just was too out of shape.

Anyways, after the class ended, we all clapped, and then I got out and signed up for 5 more weeks of unlimited classes. I felt so good after the class I was enthusiastic to continue the course to getting fit and healthy. I wonder if they have a buyer’s remorse 3-day policy? I could hardly get out of bed today. HOWEVER, I am still committed to this, as the pain I’m having is not the severe back injury pain, but that lovely “no pain no gain” muscle pain that I know will achieve only wonderful results to get this 53-something year old body back into shape. If you got this far in the post, thanks for hanging in there! Happy late Mother’s Day to all! 🙂