26 May Pure Barr workout coming to Waterfront!

Carrie Rengers  MAY 26, 2015

Pure Barre workout coming to Waterfront

Colorado native Courtney Somes has long been an avid skier, mountain biker and runner.

After back and knee injuries, though, her doctor told her she’d have to give up those sports.

“And I told him he was crazy,” Somes.

He suggested a Pure Barre workout, which utilizes a ballet bar for strength building and toning, instead.

“I was like, ‘What is that? Please don’t make me do that,’” Somes says.

She tried it, though, and she says, “I fell in love.”

Somes says within four weeks, she felt a difference.

“And I was addicted.”

She checked into a Pure Barre franchise and found that one was available in Wichita.

“I am looking forward to bringing it to Wichita, my family’s hometown, and just creating a fun community,” Somes says. “It’s a very fun and uplifting environment.”

The business will open late this summer one door down from Whole Foods at the Waterfront.

“It’s a total body workout that isolates each muscle group,” Somes says.

“It utilizes the ballet bar to … perform small movements,” she says. “Using these small movements, it helps to sculpt the muscles and create that long, lean muscle that every woman wants.”

Somes says the classes focus on arms, thighs, posterior and abs to build strength. She says it’s a fast and safe way to change your body.

“It’s very unimpactful.”

Much of the group classes are performed in the middle of a room, with the bar for stabilization only “so you don’t fall over,” Somes says. “It you can hold onto a bar, anybody can do it.”

Guests can pay by the class or buy a membership for unlimited visits. Somes says she hasn’t set her prices yet.

Though Somes will focus on advertising to women, men will be invited for date nights called “Bring on the Men.”

Somes says she wants to make a point to be involved in the community, such as with local races.

Her parents are from here and her grandparents live here.

“Everybody is very excited,” she says of her opening a business here.

It’s unexpected, though.

Somes comes from a long line of University of Kansas graduates, except she didn’t go there.

“I’m the only one of, like, 26 people who did not go there,” she says.

“So for me to be back in Wichita … it’s quite the laughable subject in our family,” Somes says. “It’s very comical.”

She says she’s embracing it, though.

“From the mountains to the prairies. That’s been my slogan lately.”