Hailing from the US, Miranda Vasquez is our resident ray of sunshine, but don’t be fooled by the smile, her workouts pack a serious punch!
Read about how she ended up on our Emerald Isle and how she first fell in love with barre and Pilates.
When my husband and I first learned that we would be moving from Boston to Cork on work assignment, the immediate response from all of our friends and family was 1. Wow! That is such an awesome opportunity for you both – how exciting! and 2. But what are you going to do about barre?! To say that I am quite passionate about health, nutrition, and fitness in general would be an understatement, but seriously there are very few things that I love more than my daily session shaking on my highest heels at the barre.
I began taking Pure Barre classes in the States at the beginning of 2014 and after less than a week, I was completely hooked. I made a decision to take my first 100 classes within my first 100 days which proved to be quite a feat. I managed to achieve my goal, although in the last week I actually took four classes in one day to make up for lost time (yes, this is completely crazy and I would never recommend that anyone do this! 🙂 ). But from that point on, the days that I missed a class were few and far between and my addiction continued to grow. As we packed our bags for Ireland with almost 600 classes behind me, I began the search for a new studio, but brought with me a barre, equipment and all the DVDs I could find just in case. Thankfully, my prayers were answered when I learned about Flex in the City which had just opened at the start of the year. That was early 2016 and since then, I have had the pleasure of shaking for hundreds of hours at the barre with you Flexers.
I love barre because it is one hour of each day to completely tune out all other distractions and be totally present. The movements require a lot of concentration and mind-body connection which requires me to focus and forget about all the pressures and demands outside of the studio. Also, as I have grown stronger and gained better understanding of the technique, I have been amazed to find how many new ways there are to challenge myself mentally and physically in each and every exercise. Barre is truly the perfect workout for everyone because there are always modifications that you can choose to make based upon your current abilities whether a beginner or seasoned veteran. I love that barre is something that I can never outgrow, because although I continue to get stronger, I can always lift my heels higher, sink that one inch lower, or make my leg just that little bit straighter. Lastly, I am grateful for the relationships I have formed along the way in the barre community, with my instructors who have provided endless feedback and encouragement and my classmates who I have bonded with over new brightly coloured barre attire, that nearly impossible exercise we just crushed, or our general barre obsession!
I am so honored to have the privilege of sharing my passion for barre by teaching at Flex in the City and I hope that to see you in a class soon!
Miranda teaches barre and reformer Pilates in our Penrose Wharf studio and also leads lots of our online workouts.
