ClassPass Trial Week 1

I haven't been loving running as much as I did in my pre-baby days so I've been exploring other fitness options. Several of my friends do ClassPass and rave about it, so I emailed to inquire about trial promotions and they gave me two weeks free - perfect! Basically you pay $99/month and have access to a ton of gyms and boutique studios. There are currently 184 participating locations in the DC area. Within each month you can visit each studio (or chain) up to 3 times. My goal over the next two weeks is to try as many places as my schedule allows!

I signed up Sunday night and since then have visited four locations:

Pure Barre was my first stop on Monday! I loved the high energy, music and total body workout. The instructor spent some time with me prior to the class since it was my first time, which was great. The tough part was that the instructor doesn't do the whole class with you and there were close to 20 people so I ended up watching and following other students and probably could have used more help with technique. Anyway, it was a great workout and so fun!

On Tuesday I was still sore from my Barre class, so I decided to just go to a gym and hit the treadmill. Balance Gym at Foggy Bottom is right by my office so that worked out well.  This gym is actually located in the Fairmont Hotel so I didn't have high expectations but this gym is great and not a typical hotel gym. They have a ton of classes, equipment and a saltwater pool. I also liked that they had a massive locker room with showers and hairdryers. I could conveniently workout pre-work or over a long lunch on days I'm in the office - love that!

Thursday I checked out Barre: 60 at Barre Tech and I liked this better than Pure Barre. There were only 3 people in the class so I got lots of help with technique throughout and the instructor did the majority of the class with us. I also felt like there were more ballet movements and use of the actual barre. I also bought some "sticky socks" so I'm a legit Barre student now!

Today I checked out Body Ride at Revolve -what a great workout! The instructor focuses on formation first, pace second and resistance third, so it was really easy to jump in as a newbie. I was happily surprised that there were weight and stretching components to the class. I also liked that it was in the dark with great music and it was easy to zone out and forget that everyone was there except the instructor who was cheering you on via her headset. I was sweating up a storm but couldn't stop smiling through the whole class and all I could think of was Elle Woods, "Exercise gives you endorphins.  Endorphins make you happy."

Great workouts this week and after years of running alone it was nice to have all the encouragement from instructors! Pending the success of trial week 2 I'm leaning towards purchasing ClassPass!