Dear Off-Topicers,
It’s pouring down, my house is briefly empty, and after a busy few weeks, today I’m doing absolutely nothing, so I thought I’d write and share a few things that are making me happy and which maybe you might like too.
Barre. I fell in love with barre from the moment I came across it a few years ago1. Based on a series of moves inspired by ballet, it’s my ideal exercise - it needs no special clothing; is not hot or sweaty, so doesn’t require post-workout hair-washing; it’s virtually silent, so can be done at any time; and all those tiny, repetitive movements give me space to think and recalibrate. It’s actually very like meditation, as it’s most effective when you focus intensely on whatever muscles you’re engaging. I try to do between ten and forty-five minutes every day, although recently, that’s been more intermittent and I’ve felt the loss of it… (last night, I ended up doing a few workouts back to back and was reminded of why it’s always worth making time for - it was glorious).
It should be said that the photo above is not representative of my usual barre attire - I took this about a year ago on one of the few occasions I’ve worn leggings for it. I remember sitting there looking down at my legs and thinking: Oh wow, you look like a PROPER exercise person! You should totally capture this on camera!2 In reality, I am more likely to be wearing pyjamaish-looking shorts and a tank top bought specifically for their softness and the ability to change into barre clothes in 10 seconds max (also because putting on leggings sometimes feels like having leeches suctioned onto my legs…but maybe that’s just me).
If you’d like to try it for yourself (the barre, not the leeches)3, here are some of my favourite YouTube videos, all by the utterly wonderful Amy4: a ten minute inner thigh workout; a ten minute video that Amy very kindly made after I’d requested a quick standing one with super-high reps (the second set of exercises in this are especially excellent); a twelve minute workout on the mat, featuring only two exercises, both with high-reps; a simple fifteen minutes standing barre workout; an intense twenty minute standing barre workout; a twenty-five minute workout filmed outdoors, complete with appearance from motorcycle man; a thirty minute workout with five second holds, which adds excellent intensity; a wonderful forty minute workout for days when you have more time; forty-five minutes with a pilates ball - one of these balls only costs a few pounds and is such a brilliant addition - it seems to add an extra challenge as well as helping me focus on form. Oh, and I also really like Whitney’s barre classes, too - here’s a particularly good 15 minute one from her. Because I do barre in my sewing room, I just use my ironing board (with the iron removed) as my barre - it doesn’t really matter that it’s not very stable as you’re mostly just resting fingertips on it anyway. The unexpected benefit of this arrangement is that, desk aside (which regularly looks like it’s exploded), for the last few years, this room has rarely been messy, as I’m much better at tidying-as-I-go when the consequence would be missing out on barre.
An Excellent Book. When a favourite author has a new book coming out, I’ll often mark the release date on my calendar - these dates then sit gleaming on the horizon like a holiday or a birthday party, making me happy every time I flip through and see one getting nearer. Mary Beth Keane is one of those authors - she just creates the most brilliant characters, and her writing is flawless in that same unshowy way Ann Patchett’s is. Mary Beth’s previous novel, Ask Again, Yes is totally wonderful, and I think her latest, The Half Moon, is just as good, if not better. The Half Moon is about the breakdown of a marriage, and I found I really liked the husband and the wife, and very much felt their pain, but also their hope. There are some twisty-turny sub-plots that make the pages turn quickly, although I don’t actually think the story actually needed these as the characters feel real enough to be compelling all on their own. The audiobook version is excellent, although I’m now minding a little about not having a copy on my shelf.
Another Excellent Book. The Half Moon reminded me of a novel I read a few years ago by Anna Bruno, called Ordinary Hazards, which is also set around a bar and a crumbling marriage. The Half Moon isn’t at all derivative, but they do feel like a brilliant pairing - if you like one, I think you’ll also enjoy the other.
I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend whatever you’re up to.
With love,
Florence x
Because barre requires such tiny movements, it’s one of the few physical things I did in the eight months I had long covid. I cannot tell you how glorious it felt to at least have really strong arm and leg muscles during that time, even if I didn’t have much energy to use them.
When I talk to myself in my head, I seem to use far more exclamation marks than I do anywhere else. Alarming.
If you try any of these, note that one of the key things with barre is that you keep your pelvis tilted up/tailbone heavy, as adopting this position makes your leg and glute muscles work harder - Amy explains this in quite a few of the videos, but in some she assumes a degree of prior-knowledge, so worth mentioning here.
I have approximately nine million videos saved, but these ones exist in a folder I’ve labelled Especially Excellent and which I return to regularly. Amy has ended up being my go-to woman for barre, because I prefer videos with no background music, and incredibly slow and focused movements that are counted, so I don’t always have to look at the screen to stay in sync. The title is also really important to me - on a tired day, an otherwise wonderful workout can suddenly feel more like self-inflicted punishment than a welcome challenge if it’s called something like Blast Belly Fat Fast! Amy never uses language like this and I love her for it (this is weirdly common even amongst pilates and yoga instructors on YouTube).
On the barre front, it’s worth saying that friends with painful knees have reported enjoying barre considerably less than me (mine are uncomfortable if I’m walking down a really steep hill, but I now realise, probably otherwise pretty good).
Thank you for the barre recs! I used to go to barre class pre-pandemic at quite a snooty gym where the class was half former ballerinas and half ungainly people who were just trying to keep up. I was bottom of the 'trying to keep up' team and found it unintentionally hilarious, but it was such a great workout and also seemed to whiz by. Intrigued to try it at home.