I love our Tuesday and Thursday workouts at Inova, but other than sporadic elliptical workouts at home, I have been struggling to exercise consistently on the off days. So I decided to try a Barre Dance Fitness class on the weekends (because classes force me to commit to a set schedule). I had never heard of Barre and did not know what to expect when I walked in. I selected the class based solely on the schedule and the following description on the website of the company that was offering it:

"Barre is the newest dance fitness sensation!
Expertly designed to give you both weight loss and flexibility benefits, the class will lead you through high-energy, low-impact, fat-burning cardio movements, interspersed with stretching exercises that will strengthen, elongate and tone your muscles. The class will further focus on intensive isometric movements that sculpt the thighs, firm the gluteus, flatten the abs, and define the arms and back."

The web description definitely lived up to the hype. The instructor for the class was awesome and she put us through a great 45 minute low-impact, high-energy workout. Thanks to the support and guidance from our Inova exercise instructors, Samantha, James, Veronica and Nick, I was able to do a lot of the exercises move effectively and for a lot longer than many of my much smaller classmates. (The ab workout at the end kicked my you-know-what but that's a story for another time.)

I enjoyed this class so much that I plan to sign up for the 11-week fall session that begins in September. If you want more information just let me know.