Trying out Barre class at Frame Shoreditch

If you haven’t heard of Frame in Shoreditch by now you are sorely missing out. They offer gym classes with bit of a difference, cardio rave classes or stretch classes inspired by Barbie anyone?

I decided I needed to try one of the classes for myself, so after lots of deliberation, my work colleague and I decided to try out the Frame Signature Barre class, here is what I thought of the class.

First off, the Frame gym itself is very easy to walk past, so be wary of it because the entrance is down the side of the building and if you’re like me and walk around with your head in the clouds it’s very easy to miss the signage, luckily the thumping music is a tell tale sign of Frame’s location.

All the staff are very friendly and explained where everything was, and when we entered the class the instructor, who is was a very lovely lady in amazing shape (I always feel more motivated when the trainer looks like they are in great shape) asked if anyone was new and explained about what would happen in the class.

Image Source

For those of you who don't know about barre classes, it’s a cardio/toning/ballet fusion class that uses weights and the ballet bar, think Pliés with a bicep curl and leg kicks with ankle weights.

Luckily the music isn’t inspired by classical ballet. The tracks are upbeat and current, and you work out a different part of the body to each different track , core, triceps, glutes etc until you have had a whole body workout.

At the end you have a nice slow stretch using the bar. This part I especially enjoyed, I do a lot of classes but thought the use of the bar really helped you to get deep in the stretch and the instructor got us doing some challenging stretches that left me feeling pretty awesome and bendy after the class, so many classes will just end with the half hearted calf stretch and toe touches.

My friend and I really enjoyed barre and have decided to keep it up weekly. It is fun, original and I left afterwards feeling like I had a great workout but I hadn’t overdone myself. It’s also easy to scale it to different level of fitness, just increase or decrease the weights.

I do have a couple of slight niggles though. Whilst the instructor was fantastic and great at explaining everything, at times it was quite hard to hear her over the music. She was going through the moves as we was doing them, but for things like the ab track when you are on the floor with your feet behind the bar against the wall it’s quite hard to know what is going on and I had to pause a few times to turn and check that what I was doing was right.

Probably my biggest complaint is that there wasn’t enough ankle weights for the whole class. Myself and my friend both didn’t have ankle weights and things like that really annoy me. If you are going to have a class you should have enough equipment to cater for everyone who attends, I probably would’ve felt a lot more sore the day after if I was using ankle weights.

These issues aside I can’t recommend this class enough for if you want a great full body workout that is fun and a bit different.
I really like Frame as a gym and can’t wait to try out more of their classes. I’m actually attending a two hour splits workshop this weekend which I am very excited to try! Expect a report of that soon.