Pure Barre

Photos by OHventures

Pure Barre Columbus
960 West Fifth Avenue
Columbus, OH 43212

Keeping your workout fun and interesting helps you to stick with your fitness regimen, so I am always looking to uncover unique ways to exercise and get in shape. Pure Barre is the "workout that is sweeping the nation," but I had originally thought it was only for women. But one visit to a special Valentine's Day co-ed session of Pure Barre, and I was quickly proven wrong!

While Pure Barre is certainly is more popular with women (the company itself was founded by choreographer and dancer Carrie Rezabek Dorr), any and everyone can benefit from the uber-intense workouts offered at their various venues across the country. This became painfully evident to me as I found myself shaking as I pushed myself to complete the 55-minute session.

Each class incorporates ballet bars (hence the name Pure Barre), weights, bands, and small medicine balls in a series of isometric movements, which, thanks to my trusty dictionary, are muscular actions in which tension is developed without contraction of the muscle (think very small - yet effective - movements). The motions are set to fun, upbeat music (think pop & rock jams from LMFAO or, yes, Justin Bieber) and instructors help guide you by giving demonstrations and thorough instructions on how to perform the moves correctly.

The Pure Barre classes are very fast-paced (much to my liking), and keep you moving and sweating it out the entire time (which must be how they came up with the name of the co-ed event, "Sweatin' With Your Sweetie"). I was surprised with how difficult such seemingly simple exercises turned out to be and just how much tiny little movements could do for your body.

There is a perfect combination of using the ballet barre, performing yoga stretches, and performing core-strength exercises that does wonders for your thighs, abs, arms, and - ahem - your "seat."

These are areas of the body that may be important to women, but are in reality important to men too. Guys (like myself) just need to put down the dumbbells and step away from the bench press every now and then to workout more neglected areas of the body. It definitly was a fun sight to see the women putting all of us guys to shame - and it certainly was a great idea for Pure Barre to make classes like this that are more appealing to both genders - cuz it's one hell of a workout that could rank up there with P90X in terms of difficulty!

You are welcome to come to one class for about $20, or buy a number of packages! Classes are 7 days a week, at varying times as early as 5:45 AM and as late as 7 PM.

Ohio is lucky to be home to FOUR Pure Barre locations, so you can cross it off of your Buckeye Bucket List in no time! Southwestern and Central Ohio OHventurers can check out the following spots (in addition to the Columbus location listed above):

Pure Barre Mason
5939 Deerfield Blvd #2103
Mason, OH 45040

Pure Barre Cincinnati
3083 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45209
Pure Barre Dublin
3650 Dublin Granville Rd
Suite 19
Columbus, OH 43017