The Shake Zone

I’ve been teaching Pure Barre classes for 5 years. There’s a thing we call “the shake zone,” and it happens when your muscles are fatigued to the point that they start shaking. When I take class, it’s usually coupled with a bunch of sweat pouring down my face.

As a teacher, I LOVE when I see a client holding her leg so straight and activated during leg lifts that she is literally shaking from her glutes all the way down to the pointed toes on her foot. She’s barely moving, but every single muscle in her leg is engaged, active, challenged, and shaking. Sounds brutal right? It is, and it’s badass.

At the barre, we aim to get in our shake zone as much as possible, because when you’re shaking, you’re pushing yourself to get stronger—you’re refusing to let yourself take the easier option of the workout. Sure, there are days or moments when your intuition tells you it’s time to rest or to stop so you don’t injure yourself. But on most days, when you start shaking, you can choose to stop and come out of the position, or stay with it, let yourself shake, be challenged, be with the pain. We aim for option B.

If you start a new workout regimen and it’s hard, don’t set your sights on some magical day when it will suddenly feel easy. It’s hard and it stays hard. Every day it takes dedication and gumption to be active and to work through soreness. Once you accept that it’s hard, you’ll start to love that it’s hard.

But, the thing about the shake zone is, it shows up outside of the gym if you let it. You can start with one small shake and build it into a habit of embracing challenges all throughout your life.

Other things that are hard but worth a shake:

• Do or watch something you don’t like because it makes someone else happy that you’re showing interest in them
• Teach yourself a new skill that you admire, especially if you know you won’t be any good at it when you start
• Make a list of five things you’re scared to do, and commit to doing at least one of them before the year is over
• A million more things

I have a theory, and it goes a little something like this:
Embracing challenges creates faster results, stronger bodies, open minds, and happier people.

Photo by: LH Photography, www.lh-photo.com