Gym: Pure Barre, 3245 N Ashland Ave Unit 1

Other Chicago Locations: Coming soon in River North 1 E. Huron Street, 2nd Floor

Class Focus: A muscle-shaking, body toning, head-to-toe, leaning barre work

Cost per workout: $23

Money saving offers:

• $100: New client one-month unlimited

The Fab Fit take:

I’ve tried the Pure Barre workout on a trip home to Minnesota, dragging my mom to barre and brunch. After the core-killing workout, I’ve been patiently waiting for studios to open their doors in Chicago. This Saturday, Pure Barre introduced the ladies of Lakeview to the stop-wishing-you-had-a-ballerina’s-body-and-do-something workout.

What makes this workout special? It’s total body with a big emphasis on your core. We started with a 90 second plank hold. When’s the last time you heard an instructor say, “OK, 90 seconds starting now,” after putting you in a plank? That was a first for me, but I was into it.

Arms were not left wanting with pushups, triceps dips, and a light weighted section. The arm section was quick, but the movements were efficient and my muscles were completely burned out by the end. Part of the pattern of exercises was full reps followed by pulses and isometric holds, so each exercise changes as you do it, allowing you to keep doing the meticulous exercises until you can take no more.

Props made an appearance in most exercises, from planks to thighs to seat to abs. The rubber ball was a favorite to enhance exercises, adding something to squeeze for thighs or something to prop you up in c-curve abs. The tube was used mostly for stretching in my class, but it could definitely be turned into a thigh or an arm torture device.

The studio is spacious and allowed plenty of room for everyone to pull up a piece of the barre for the thigh section, which targeted quads, inner thighs and hamstrings with two barre class favorites and a move that was new to me: pencil, plie squats and a straight-legged pulse with one foot lifted to about the height of the other knee and the lifted foot turned out. That was a serious leg-shaker.

To finish off the class, we gave ourselves one more kick in the core with a lengthy c-curve ab section followed by some back dancing. Not a muscle was missed in the hour-long routine!

Get in and try the classes and watch for specials on the studio’s Facebook page.