Instructor Spotlight – Jessica!

As you know we have started a new series in our blog called Instructor Spotlights! Since many of you spend countless hours at barre n9ne®, we thought you should know a little more about the ladies who stand up in the front of the room counting out pulses, holds, and the like 🙂 This week we bring you Jessica! She has been coming to barre n9ne® May 2010. She is one of the inaugural 60 day challengers and of course an amazing instructor and friend.  Enjoy!

~Tanya

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1 –What are your favorite songs to work out to? 

It’s funny, I now rarely work out to music — I used to ALWAYS run with music but recently made the switch to running ‘free’ (or ‘naked’ as some like to call it!) and I have fallen deeper in love with running because of it. It’s now my time to completely let my mind wander, releasing the stress from the day or the week, and just being present. Which you’d think is weird, right? Who wants to be ‘present’ while running, right?? But seriously, try it sometime  if you’re a runner, it’s totally cleansing, I promise!

Funny side note — when I first started running years ago, my favorite amp-it-up song was “Jessie’s Girl” by Rick Springfield — don’t ask me why but it got me pumped WAY up whenever it would come on my iPod playlist. Random, right?

But anyway, here are some songs I do love to workout to in general, in no particular order: Dignity by Bodyrockers; Pause by Pitbull; Hall of Fame by The Script & will.i.am; Fast Car by Taio Cruz and Pon de Replay by Rhianna.

2 – What’s your favorite food/guilty pleasure?

This is an easy one — my favorite guilty pleasure is by far: wine. I love everything about wine – the taste and the variety of options for sure, but mainly I love the experience that comes with a good glass of wine. My sister (and fellow barre n9ne® instructor Jolene!) and I have been to wine country each year for the past three years and it’s been by far the most incredible vacation we’ve ever taken. Each time we’ve gone out to California (we’re partial to the Dry Creek region in Sonoma County, particularly Healdsburg, CA where we rent a house usually), we’ve had the best time and it’s truly been a different vacation each year. We do our best to find a handful of new, hard-to-find vineyards in the area. It’s just the most memorable vacation either of us take all year long. And, we’ve armed ourselves over the years with some awesome wine club finds (which is hard to do in MA since most vineyards aren’t able to ship to MA still!), which helps us re-live the experience every time a new shipment makes its way to either of our front doors.

Here we are doing our best ‘wine snob’ pose possible at one of our favorite vineyards in Healdsburg: Thumbprint Cellars!

Now if you asked me what my favorite wine of all time was?? That would be tough to answer…I’m partial to red wines (big bold reds like Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon), but my taste varies by season…in the summer I’m a huge fan of a crisp and fruity Sauvignon Blanc or a Rose, yum. So now ya’ll know why we held that wine tasting a few months back — in large part because Jolene and I have been on a mission to turn Tanya and all of YOU into wine lovers like us. Is it working?? 😉

3 – Favorite move to teach? Favorite move to do?

My favorite move by FAR to teach has got to be chair (with or without the blue ball!). LOVE LOVE LOVE it. Every single time I announce that we’re going into chair pose, I get at least one groan from the crowd which just makes me want to teach that move even more! It’s one of my favorite ways to burn out those thighs at the barre, working on long, lean, strong and toned muscles. I mean, that’s what you’re all here for, right?? Might as well make it worth your time afterall. 😉

See? I even loved doing it during the Andover studio grand opening party, as you can see here: 

Favorite move to do….this is a tough one, I love them all! Chair is definitely my favorite barre move to do (sensing a pattern here??), but other moves I dig include plank/side plank because it is THE best core work to do plus it gives the rest of your body a run for its money too, never a bad thing. I also love the side leg series — it’s killer and hurts more (I swear) every single time I do it in class, but it is SO effective for slimming down the thighs. I am now the proud owner of ‘swoop-less’ legs thankyouverymuch!

4 – What’s one thing about you that clients may be surprised to know? 

Another toughie — I’ll answer this two ways: one thing NEW clients may be surprised to know and one thing ALL clients may be surprised to know.

New clients: my sister and I were the inaugural 60-day challengers last May. Yes, we were right where so many of you are today: working hard to get into the best, fittest, happiest shapes of your lives. It was that experience almost two years ago that changed me forever. I used to battle food, battle self-image issues, and confidence was fleeting. My own 60-day challenge proved to me that I was NOT giving myself nearly enough credit: I am strong, I am determined, and I am capable of far more than I ever imagined. So to be an instructor at barre n9ne®, a role I adore more than anything, it’s an honor — I’m loving that I can pay it forward this way. All that I’ve learned and experienced personally I try very hard to infuse into my classes and my own style of teaching.

Here’s my one-year (May 2011-May 2012) before/after: 

All clients: I used to teach kickboxing classes. Complete with the super baggy pants, wraps for my arms (to look super ‘badass’…or something like that, ha) and a bandanna for my hair. Talk about a VAST difference from teaching at barre n9ne® huh? Not just in style but in type of class — I would never go back to that style now, barre n9ne® is my passion. It just works. End of story. #b94lyf 😉

5 – What do you love the most about teaching at barre n9ne®?

Honestly? I love every single thing about it. The energy in the classes – no matter how big or small the class is — the energy is palpable. Everyone is there to work…and to work hard. I love nothing more than to see a client finally embrace the shake at the barre, or sticking out that plank for just 10 more seconds. Seeing them all transform into stronger women by the day is just awesome and so rewarding. I talk about barre n9ne® so much now that I swear half of my friends and family think I’m nuts…and the other half are now faithful barre n9ne clients too! Probably my favorite part of class is just before clients arrive, the studio is quiet, I’m by myself setting up the mats and equipment, running through my class in my head and I’m constantly struck by how lucky I am to have found my passion in teaching — and to be lucky enough to teach as much as I do. And to LOVE it as much as I do.

It’s also during this time you’ll probably see me posting on instagram my latest cute workout gear — these shots are usually taken before I teach the 6am classes, nice and quiet, nobody there to catch me snapping a selfie 😉

But seriously — teaching at barre n9ne®, with an incredible and FUN crew of instructors: dream come true.
…I love every minute of it. No matter what. 

What focus does.

Today we bring you a guest post by Jessica Sutera, one of our awesome instructors at barre n9ne®. If you haven’t taken a class with Jess yet, well what the heck are you waiting for 🙂 I think it should be your personal mission to get to a class with Jess, and on that note, to try a class with each and every instructor at least once, even if the time(s) they teach at don’t typically work for your schedule. One client told me during her 60 day challenge she made it a point to take each class at least once and to try out every instructor. I think that is a fabulous idea! 

We are always trying to make your workouts that much more effective and I think Jess has pretty much summed it all up here 🙂 Enjoy!

A few months ago, I read this FitSugar article on the most often-made mistakes at the barre. We circulated it around the studio a bit and we pretty much all came to the same conclusion: Focus is the name of the game. 

What focus does: 

• It keeps you centered: on your movements, your muscles, your shaking. Not your barre-neighbors movements, muscles and shaking. Feeling centered helps me to push harder, longer and farther into a set, it allows me to get to that all important shake at the barre. I’d never get that shot if I was too busy looking around the room, or worse — staring off into space, ‘phoning in’ the workout entirely.
• It helps you work that muscle to utter fatigue. Literally, just thinking about the muscle you’re working makes a world of a difference. Try it next time you’re working on that last set of tricep lifts and, as you notice your arm start to falter, your elbow start to bend: focus. Bring that arm out to straight, lift it a little bit higher above your hip and *think* about that muscle running along the backside of your arm. Somehow just making that mind/body connection makes an incredible difference.
• It can be very cleansing. Speaking of that mind/body connection — one of the main reasons I adore barre classes is that it gives me one hour where I can focus on me. On what my muscles are doing (screaming at me, most likely), on how strong I’m becoming and, quite simply — it gives me an excuse to focus on me for that hour. Such a refreshing and oftentimes cleansing feeling in what is often a very rushed, chaotic, jam-packed day. That hour in the studio though? It’s mine. So to do anything less than give it my utmost attention would be doing myself a serious disservice.

You’ll often hear us at the studio talk about focus, always, but also intention — a word, which to me, holds such deep meaning. It’s about moving with intention while in class, never going through the motions and always working a little bit harder each time you set foot in the studio. Working with intention, when paired with the types of classes we are proud to offer at barre n9ne®, means you will always be working to your full potential in class. Working to your full potential means never hitting that wall or plateau. Goodbye plateau — hello results. I like the sounds of that.

So next time you hear me or any of the other instructors at the studio talk about focusing on that muscle, lifting that weight with intention and purpose, give it a second thought. And then give it a try. Because that is what focus does.

Source: onthebanksofsquawcreek.blogspot.com via Jess on Pinterest

60 days, experienced. By Jessica Sutera

60 days…all done?

…not so fast. Sure, the official barre n9ne 60 day challenge is over in terms of how the challenge was defined at the outset.

But for me? The past 60 days has been nothing short of an experience. One that I’m actually having a hard time putting into words because I feel both utterly blessed to have experienced the challenge but also because it’s turned into more than “just* a 60-day challenge with a definitive start and end date – it’s become a journey. Not a destination.

So that’s how I’d sum up the challenge, for me, in a nutshell – a journey versus a destination. The hardest part for me is truly showcasing here just how profound an impact this challenge has had both on my life but also on my sister’s life (who I’m so lucky to have experienced this challenge with). I’ll try to do it justice here but just know this: It has been life-changing.

What I’ve learned:
Finding a style of fitness that you love and that works for your body? It’s like hitting the lottery. Barre n9ne – with it’s focus on small but effective moves, light weights with a boatload of repetitions, and lengthening with strengthening techniques works for me. It is the only style of exercise (when balanced with cardio) that has truly transformed my body. As I said in my own blog post last week, it’s as if someone took a paintbrush and gently brushed my body into a leaner, more refined me.

Discovering a healthy relationship with food has changed me. I’m not going to lie, I love food. I love the textures, the flavors, the variety, the experience. Going into this challenge, I knew that I probably loved food just a wee bit too much but it wasn’t until I started jotting it all down in a food log did I realize something: I know how to eat healthfully, but it was this challenge that taught me how to eat for fuel. Now don’t get me wrong, I still love to eat. I still love a good glass of wine (and trust me, plenty of wine was consumed during this challenge) but I appreciate it all much, much more. There is no more mindless eating. And these tweaks to my approach to food, coupled with barre n9ne classes and I have been more than ready to say goodbye to all ELEVEN inches I lost during this challenge.

Uncovering a newfound appreciation for my body is something I can never, ever repay barre n9ne (and Tanya!) for. This is the first time in my 31 years on this planet that I feel entirely comfortable in my own skin. I appreciate the strength in my legs (that can carry me through endless plies at that barre); the curve of my waist, the lean and mean arms that I can proudly say make it through the entire upper body work in barre n9ne method! I am stunned by the changes in my body I’ve seen, the refined “me” that has emerged through this challenge. And I am grateful.

The past 60 days has been nothing short of an experience, and one that is not ending just because we made it out on the other side of this challenge as “transformed” women. This challenge truly has no beginning or end – it is a journey. One that I’m so, so excited to see continue, not just for me, but for the next round of women who are ready to take the barre n9ne challenge on in August. I cannot wait to cheer them on, motivate them throughout, and see them each emerge. As refined, redefined, renewed. All thanks to the amazing group of women that make up the barre n9ne studio team. They are inspired, beautiful, strong, and kind. A group of women I feel blessed to call friends. So thank you Tanya. Thank you, Julianna. Thank you, Stefanie. You are fabulous.