Friday happy hours now include putting my endurance to the test at Barry’s Boot Camp with my best friend. I’ve been curious about it for a long time now, but at the same time have been avoiding it like the plague, because anything with “boot camp” in the title doesn’t sound fun. But hey, it's Memorial Day Weekend and thing just need to get a little... tighter! Here's the real deal about Barry's.

We jumped into Chris H’s class in Noho and I quickly learned that we’d be doing intervals on the treadmill followed by a weighted cardio series on the floor twice each. If you were to go, I’d highly recommend requesting to start on the treadmill, because it is dreadful and I couldn’t imagine doing a floor series first, knowing that I still had to run twice. The room was dark, but lit with those sexy red lights that make everyone look that much more toned in the mirrors. Mirrored all the way around, treadmills lined the back wall and steps were strategically placed in front of them.

The running really tested my endurance. As someone who practices sprint training, I was pushed to keep going… and going. It wasn’t the time as much as it was messing around with the speed and incline that had me winded. The music is what got me through it. Pounding the treadmill with every beat, I just kept focusing on the music. The weighted series I did was total body, but they have classes that focus on just upper and lower, too. It was fast, so you need to pay attention to your form and realize that you’d rather slow down and do the moves right, than get 20 reps in per minute. As I looked around I saw almost everyone was paying attention to their form. These were people who are in shape and know how to workout. I had a love/hate relationship with the class, but realized it’s exactly the type of *ss kicking I need and can’t wait to go back.