Boutique Fitness Classes in New York City
I Worked Out Every Day For a Week, and This Is What I Learned
Barry's Bootcamp
Barry's Bootcamp has been around for a while now, and is famed for its tough, circuit-style training. Ellie Goulding is a vocal fan! The studio feels like serious business. People who go to Barry's are there to do WORK. The studio is dark, and, I don't want to say scary but maybe a little intimidating if you aren't a superfit person.
A row of treadmills lines one wall, and step boxes are placed around the floor. You either begin your workout on the treadmill or the floor and then switch for a varying number of rounds. The instructor yells out what to do to both groups. No surprises here — I don't love running, but that part actually didn't bother me too much. Even though the instructor suggests high speeds and inclines, you can take it at your own pace if you want. At one point, the instructor yelled out the speeds she was seeing on the treadmills next to me — and they were high! ("Wow, level 10, level 11, 10.5 . . . ") She stopped when she got to my measly 6.0 speed and declined to yell it out — I only slightly cringed. I'm never going to be Usain Bolt, and I came to terms with that a long time ago.
When we switched onto the floor, we got a set of weights and a resistance band. Different days of the week are focused on different parts of the body. I opted to go to the "full-body workout" day. We went through different exercises with the weights, working out the entire body. I definitely had to modify or opt out of some of the parts because they were so intense.
Combined with the running, I was totally demolished at the end of class. Like wiped out for the rest of the day demolished. Barry's doesn't play! The great thing about Barry's is that if you, like me, are intimidated by the weights section of the gym, you can ease into using handheld weights and actually learn moves that you can practice on your own. Just make sure you don't overdo it on the weight limit or push yourself too hard on the treadmill — with all the shouting, it's easy to get caught up!
