It’s after work on a bitterly cold Friday night when I find myself walking into a dark room just off Spinningfields. Illuminated only by red lights and decked out with mirrors at every turn, dance music pumps through the sound system, and I’m surrounded by a sea of muscles and midriffs jostling past one another, beads of sweat soaking the floor beneath us.
It may sound like I’ve accidentally wandered into a dingy underground nightclub, but I’m actually at Barry’s - the ‘boutique’ fitness brand with studios all around the world, loved by celebrities including Kim Kardashian and the Beckhams. The 60-minute class, which combines high-intensity training (HIIT), running and strength exercises, aims to tone muscles and maximise fat loss - all while pushing you to your limit.
Described as one of the hardest workout routines in the world, I decided that if anything was going to get me back into exercise, it would be this. Over the course of four weeks I committed to 12 classes ranging from full-body and leg workouts to routines that focused specifically on arms, chest, back and abs, over at Barry’s Manchester studio on Lower Byrom Street.
Read more: The 12 best gyms in Manchester city centre in 2023 - and how much they cost
Before going, I book my three classes for the week and while I consider myself an early bird, the morning classes, scheduled between 6am and 8am, cut it too fine for getting to work, meaning I end up on the last session of the day and become part of what the instructors affectionately call the 6.40 crew - but that’s where the fluffy niceness stops.
I’m not new to the gym, but the way I navigate my first class makes me look like a complete novice - within minutes of being told my treadmill number - or dreadmill as I like to call it in my head - I’ve instantly forgotten, while in the rather luxurious changing rooms, I assume the coat rack full of North Face and Canada Goose parkas are to rent when actually everyone here just has the same coat.
Undeterred, over the course of four weeks, I find my confidence growing as I step over the threshold of the red room, fully throwing myself into this very intense workout.
At first, I find the high fiving and fist pumping with the mic’d up instructors a bit much, but by the end I find myself motivated by their encouraging words - from the thought-provoking ‘remember your why’ to the more capitalist-minded, ‘you paid for an hour, so get an hour’, which reminds me of the Safetyle ‘you buy one, you get on free’ advert.
What awaits is a wall lined with treadmills and mirrors, and a series of weight racks, baskets full of resistance bands and individual workstations with a mat and bench on the floor. As this is an interval-based workout you either start on the floor or the treadmill and swap over every ten or fifteen minutes depending on how the instructor has planned the class.
I hate to say this but having trained for marathons before I assumed the ‘tread’ as they like to call it, would be a walk in the park, but after three, ten minute intervals I’m drenched in sweat - my bleached blonde hair now a dark shade of brown and the mirror in front of me brutally reminding me just how pink I go when I run.
When you’re running the instructor will call out specific speed ranges to run at depending on your ability, which sometimes feels like a cruel joke. I find myself sneaking a look at my fellow classmates in the mirror, hopeful they’ll be shaking their heads in disbelief too, but instead I find them mid-sprint, a look of steely determination in their eyes.
The intermediate or ‘regular’ running speed is around seven miles per hour, which works out as an eight-and-a-half minute mile, while the lower-end sprints range from 8.5 to 12 miles per hour. Despite having done a lot of interval training in my former life as a fitness fanatic, I really struggled for the first few weeks to get past an eight as my top speed.
In fact, I would describe the first few runs as hellish, all tight-chested, muscle cramping and a metallic taste in my mouth - I guess we all have to start somewhere. Despite the tough start though, I persevered and after a few sessions I got into my stride, slowly pushing up the speed during the timed sprints.
One tip, Barry’s doesn’t really build warm-ups into the hour, so if you’re like me and need a few minutes to both mentally and physically prepare, make sure to get some stretches in before you head into the red room. The cool down by contrast is a swift and effective two to three minutes.
Meanwhile, the floor component I find a lot easier. Sometimes, it's a series of press-ups, mountain climbers and burpees, which, thanks to Joe Wicks lockdown routines, I find fairly straightforward, while other times we grab medium weights and resistance bands for targeted arm, core and leg exercises.
It’s not always easy though and after a few running sessions, I find my legs and arms buckling as the fatigue sets in, praying for the instructor to shout out “recover” for a very brief moment of respite as we move onto the next exercise.
If you’re anything like me, a workout isn’t effective if you don’t leave the gym - or red room in this case - red faced, drenched in sweat and legs uncontrollably shaking. That’s an accurate picture of how I walked out of most sessions, even as my stamina increased.
The last time I pushed myself this hard was training for a marathon a few years ago, and ever since then I’ve struggled to find my motivation. I can gladly say Barry’s has helped me to recapture a part of the old me, even if I did feel exhausted after every workout. Turns out dance music blaring out of the speakers, a room full of highly motivated individuals and a group of encouraging instructors can do wonders for your motivation and self-confidence.
A quick word on the rest of Barry's experience too. The changing rooms put my own bathroom to shame. Hot showers, GHD straighteners, deodorant, hair bobbles and products plus motivational slogans at every turn, it’s a nice base to return to after a gruelling hour-long workout. There’s also a fuel bar on your way out where you can pick up a post-workout protein shake - a much-needed sugar hit to stop the leg shakes.
Price wise, I would advise buying in bulk if you can as it works out to be a lot cheaper. A single class will set you back £20, while a pack of three classes comes in at £55, ten at £157 and twenty at £293. There's also a Manchester Newbie pass available at £42 for three classes. Yes, it's not cheap but if you're after a class that will push you much harder than a YouTube HIIT workout and leave you feeling motivated and confident, it's probably worth the investment.
Read more:
- New food market set to open on Bury New Road
- Manchester cocktail bar named in the top five in the UK
- Plans for 'deep south style dive bar' in the NQ
-
Withington pub The Libertine closes temporarily over rocketing energy costs just months after opening
'I tried the Michelin-recommended restaurant hidden in a Manchester railway arch'
