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Beyond the Barre: Going to your Edge
You’ve probably heard your instructor tell you to go to your edge during class. But what does that mean beyond the barre? We asked barre3 Fayetteville owner Megan Hurley, and we love her answer. Here’s Megan in her own words!
One of my favorite moments with a new client is the moment she starts to shake for the first time. Her heels lift. Her knees bend. Her hips sink, and her spine grows straight and tall. And then? And then her legs start to shudder, and her eyes get big. She looks concerned. She drops her heels. Did anyone see? She hopes not.
If you’ve ever taken a barre3 class, you know that we celebrate these shakes, but I know what that first-time client is thinking: “I’m so out of shape!” She’s a little embarrassed. It feels like her body has betrayed her.
Before barre3, these shaking moments were something I avoided too, both in my body and my life. I was happy to work hard, but I wanted my life to seem effortless. I did not want to work at my edge. When we avoid that edge, we flex the same old muscles in the same old ways. There is no chaos, no possibility of failure. But when we work at the edge of our capability, we take a risk. We tax small stabilizing muscles we aren’t used to using, or take the time to extend and contract big muscles fully, without momentum, squeezing right against the bone. When we work at our edge, everyone can see us trying.
Our time at the barre gives our bodies a chance to practice the courage we need in the rest of our lives. I have clients who undertake the extraordinary–they adopt children with severe special needs, take small businesses international, reverse the unhealthy habits of a lifetime. When they begin these tasks, they can’t wait until it’s easy. They have to try every day, and they have to do it where everyone can see them.
Some of life’s biggest endeavors require us to live at our edge. When I hugged my little sister just before her wedding ceremony last month, her whole body was trembling. “Those shakes?” I said. “That’s your life changing.”
When we shake, at the barre and away from it, it is easy to see our trembling as a sign of weakness, to belittle ourselves, to feel like we should be able to get it all under control. Learn instead to see your shakes as signs of tremendous strength. Someone who is shaking is brave enough to ask a lot of herself, and to sit with herself as she tries.
You’ve probably heard your instructor tell you to go to your edge during class. But what does that mean beyond the barre? We asked barre3 Fayetteville owner Megan Hurley, and we love her answer. Here’s Megan in her own words!
One of my favorite moments with a new client is the moment she starts to shake for the first time. Her heels lift. Her knees bend. Her hips sink, and her spine grows straight and tall. And then? And then her legs start to shudder, and her eyes get big. She looks concerned. She drops her heels. Did anyone see? She hopes not.
If you’ve ever taken a barre3 class, you know that we celebrate these shakes, but I know what that first-time client is thinking: “I’m so out of shape!” She’s a little embarrassed. It feels like her body has betrayed her.
Before barre3, these shaking moments were something I avoided too, both in my body and my life. I was happy to work hard, but I wanted my life to seem effortless. I did not want to work at my edge. When we avoid that edge, we flex the same old muscles in the same old ways. There is no chaos, no possibility of failure. But when we work at the edge of our capability, we take a risk. We tax small stabilizing muscles we aren’t used to using, or take the time to extend and contract big muscles fully, without momentum, squeezing right against the bone. When we work at our edge, everyone can see us trying.
Our time at the barre gives our bodies a chance to practice the courage we need in the rest of our lives. I have clients who undertake the extraordinary–they adopt children with severe special needs, take small businesses international, reverse the unhealthy habits of a lifetime. When they begin these tasks, they can’t wait until it’s easy. They have to try every day, and they have to do it where everyone can see them.
Some of life’s biggest endeavors require us to live at our edge. When I hugged my little sister just before her wedding ceremony last month, her whole body was trembling. “Those shakes?” I said. “That’s your life changing.”
When we shake, at the barre and away from it, it is easy to see our trembling as a sign of weakness, to belittle ourselves, to feel like we should be able to get it all under control. Learn instead to see your shakes as signs of tremendous strength. Someone who is shaking is brave enough to ask a lot of herself, and to sit with herself as she tries.
