As a SoulCycle devotee, I’m not one to stray away from my favorite grapefruit-scented boutique fitness class, but when the friend who introduced me to Soul said she found a new class that she wanted me to try I just had to go.
As soon as I walked into the Venice location, I was happily greeted by two muscular employees who helped me check in and gave me a tour of the studio.
After check-in, I walked into the locker room to get ready for class and put my stuff away. The locker room was pretty standard for a boutique class, complete with toiletries, hot tools, and towels.
As I stood outside waiting for the studio to open, my instructor came up, introduced himself, and walked me through the contents of the class, which helped me feel a little less nervous about what was about to happen.
Barry’s classes are divided into two sections: tread and floor. The 50-minute class is also divided into 4 rounds, 2 rounds each of running and weight training.
Tread:
I started off on the treadmill. As someone who isn’t a big fan of running, I thought I would get it out of the way first. We started it out easy enough, walking, trying to get used to the treadmill. Suddenly, we started running and sprinting at insane speeds. What most people consider a run is considered a “jog” at Barry’s. After my first round of running I thought I would be prepared for round two. Getting back on the treadmill after my first round of floor training, we added incline to the already crazy speeds. The 25 minutes I spent on the Barry’s treadmill were definitely the longest of my life, but I have never felt so accomplished after running before.
Floor:
The floor section of the class was a pretty standard weight training class. We all picked our own weights and went straight to our benches. I took an ab-focused class so the exercises included Russian twists, crunches, and planks. The running was so intense, the floor section was a welcomed break, but don’t let that fool you. I was sore for days afterward.
My favorite amenity of the studio was the upstairs loft complete with foam rollers and mats to stretch after class, which in this case, was very, very necessary.
Overall, Barry’s was a pretty incredible workout and I’ll definitely be back, but SoulCycle will always be my go-to.