Today we bring to you Jolene! She started her journey with barre n9ne® as one of the Inaugural 60 Day Challengers along with her sister Jessica. Post 60 day challenge, Jolene and Jessica began actively helping to launch the first studio-wide challenge in August 2011. After I saw how receptive the barre n9ne® community was to Jolene and Jessica, their caring, kind, and compassionate connection they had with our clients, it was a no brainer to have them train to be instructors! Still to this day we have clients who can’t tell them apart, which is always really fun! barre n9ne® would not be what it is now without Jolene (and Jessica)!
Enjoy reading all about Jolene!
~Tanya
1 – What are your favorite songs to work out to?
In addition to all things barre n9ne®, I love to run, but when I do, I don’t normally listen to music, except sometimes on the treadmill, because let’s face it, how on earth does one get through a ‘dreadmill’ workout without some tunes of some kind? I know I will probably get some laughs for this, but to this day, I still love me some Britney Spears, with a dash of NSync, for good measure. And I always always ALWAYS need to have some Pitbull, Black Eyed Peas, Swedish House Mafia, Bodyrockers and anything Taio Cruz in there!
Favorite songs generally (okay, I am adding this one in, wasn’t part of the question!) come from Ray Lamontagne (yes, I am also admitting I LOVE his rendition of ‘Jolene’ even though I feel weird listening to it, for obvious reason, hehe), Alicia Keys, and Matchbox Twenty, my all-time favorite.
2 – What’s your favorite food/guilty pleasure?
This one is far too easy. Wine. I absolutely adore wine, and like my sister said in her instructor spotlight post, we have been going to Healdsburg, in Sonoma County, for the past four years, and that place just never.gets.old. It’s a breathtakingly beautiful place, with sprawling vineyards left and right, and some of the best wines you will ever taste, and the sense of serenity and slower pace of life in that region is just the most calming feeling ever. As for the wine itself, I love that I can enjoy a glass – just one – as ‘dessert’ and it feels utterly satisfying, or I can plan ahead and have a few glasses and enjoy every last sip knowing that a) it really does have some lasting health benefits and b) I know what’s in it, from calories to ingredients, and it isn’t an unknown as say, a baked good might be, or a cookie from a box (gasp, not homemade!?).
It’s funny…I used to say baked cheetos were my favorite food or guilty pleasure, but after going through the 60 day challenge as the inaugural challengers more than a year and a half ago, but now? I haven’t touched them since the first day I walked into barre n9ne®. There’s nothing satisfying about filler foods that become my trigger. But wine? 100% satisfying. *end long response to a short question*
3 – Favorite move to teach? Favorite move to do?
This is a toughie. I truly do love teaching them all, but I think I will have to say any and all barre-based move is my absolute favorite. I love seeing clients’ determined faces, pushing through, holding longer, going lower, pulsing longer…and then pushing them to do one.more.pulse. Seeing the shake activate in their legs and faces full of focus is so rewarding and inspiring and it truly makes ME work harder at the barre the next time I am in class. And it reminds me how much focus really plays into each and every barre n9ne move we do!
As for me, my FAVORITE move to do has to be side leg. Yep, I’ll admit it. I LOVE doing side leg because it never.ever.ever.ever.EVER.gets.easier. EVER. And it hurts so good!
4 – What’s one thing about you that clients may be surprised to know?
Some may know this, some may not, but a huge catalyst towards my own fitness journey and stepping foot into barre n9ne in the first place, is my divorce. Though I am just about four years past that time now, it was that time in my life that propelled me to step out of my comfort zone and finally do for me what I never did before. Put myself first. Shape who I want to be. And I have never looked back.
From starting to run, to testing my instructor chops teaching a group kickboxing class (suuuuch a departure from barre n9ne, as my sister notes, our ‘getups’ used to be loose and baggy, bandanas and hand wraps – hard core, much?!) and finally, coming to barre n9ne and feeling like I was finally home. Reshaping my body, continuing to build my confidence and finally, 100% stepping out of my former shell of myself, to the person that I am today.
5 – What do you love the most about teaching at barre n9ne?
I love this community of clients at barre n9ne and how it continues to grow by the day. I love seeing clients motivate each other, become friends, plan walk and run dates, compare grocery stores for the latest in Chobani, oatmeal or PB2 finds, and I love helping ‘behind the scenes’ on all things marketing and PR. barre n9ne runs through my veins, I am pretty convinced, and there is no workout or lifestyle that has ever felt this natural (and believe me, I have tried a LOT of different workouts!), or – FUN.
barre n9ne has made my life so good in so many ways, in being such a part of it, both as a ‘student,’ and an instructor, that teaching classes, tweaking, changing, and switching things up, is my way of feeling like I am ‘paying it forward’ to someone that may need that extra little boost, that motivation, and that ‘switch’ to flip, and if I can be a small part of that? Well, that’s just a beautiful thing.
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