Wednesday evening, I had the opportunity to enjoy Pure Yoga West’s newest class addition, Figure 4. The class is an exclusive new program designed by Kate Albarelli, an alum of both Physique 57 and Exhale. I was excited to try the class based on Dori’s review she posted a few weeks ago and all the wonderful things I’ve heard about the instructor.

Well+Good NYC has offered some amazing class opportunities in their year of existence and therefore I new this would be a wonderful experience. In addition, the Pure Yoga experience is beautiful and a spa event just based on the atmosphere and space. Every corner, even the locker rooms, have a warm glow greeting the clients. Even the rain boots and wet umbrellas couldn’t take away from the peaceful and welcoming atmosphere!

The event was even more fun as I met some of my friendliest readers before the class started. Ellen, who also happened to be my guest post on Wednesday, was taking the class as well and it was great meeting and chatting with she and Melissa before the class started.

Since I was expecting this class to be an exact clone of other bar classes, I was surprised to see in the welcome email that we didn’t need socks. In addition, as soon as we walked in the classroom, we were greeted by different tools than normal.

Each of the 30 mat setups included a mat, pilates ring, square foam cushion, and three weights, two heavier weights of either 3 or 4 pounds, and one lighter weight.

I was excited to see we were going to use new tools and my interest was immediately piqued as I now knew that this class would be unique and different.

As soon as our gorgeous and vivacious red headed host entered the room, the energy rose! Her energy was contagious as was her huge smile. She welcomed us whole-heartedly and reinforced the primary reason we were there; to sweat and work our muscles in a new way. She then explained that unlike most bar classes we’d start at the bar, working our leg muscles, since they are the largest muscle group. Starting the workout with the legs gets the metabolism revved up and ready to go.

The leg work included lots of squats, plies, and calf raises each of which left me panting and legs burning. The biggest change was that they started slowly and then were rapid fire towards the end of each set.

My legs were killing me by the end especially due to the race the night before and my morning personal training session.

The next part was arms, back at the mat. This is where I saw the biggest improvement based on my personal training. I used 4 pound weights the entire arm section and never felt too much pain. We did lots of lateral raises, hammer curls, and tricep work combined with squats and lunges which worked both body parts.

The best part was that Kate wouldn’t let any of us slack off by not going low enough or staying in the comfortable position where “we could stay all day.”

The next section was the biggest variation from Exhale or Physique 57. We spent a few painful minutes down on the mat with the pilates ring. HOLY HELL! Clearly my inner thighs are a weak area because this exercise brought tears to my eyes.

After fun with the ring we finished with some tricep dip pushups before heading back to the bar for more seat work followed by a final ab sequence on the mat.

I really can’t describe my love for this class! Her energy and music choices truly made the class, which led me to actually request her class playlist after the workout.

It is a great addition to New York City’s bar classes, incorporating great thigh and leg work with a more challenging arm and ab routine than other classes. In addition, the Pure Yoga space is the nicest yoga and workout space I’ve experienced in New York. The warm walls, helpful and considerate staff, and gorgeous class rooms make for a wonderful, sweaty experience!

Thank you Well+Good and Pure Yoga for a wonderful experience! I will definitely be back soon Kate for more of your torture treatment served with a smile and great music!