After 500 Orangetheory classes, I thought I was in great shape — until I took a Barry’s class

Orangetheory veteran – After surpassing 550 Orangetheory classes, the writer expected Barry’s to feel like a natural next step. In the Red Room of Barry’s fitness studio in Washington, DC’s Navy Yard neighborhood, treadmill speeds and floor work moved faster than anything they were

When she walked out of Barry’s fitness studio in the Navy Yard neighborhood of Washington, DC, she didn’t soften it for a friend.

“They are training for war in there.”

The text went out after her first Barry’s class, and weeks later she still stands by it. She trains five to six times a week in group fitness settings, and she said this format—more intense, higher-energy, and more adrenaline-boosting than anything else she’d tried—hit harder than she expected.

She’d recently surpassed 550 Orangetheory classes, and figured Barry’s would be the next logical step. It wasn’t. She went in confident that one workout was enough to translate into readiness for another. She was wrong, and she felt it almost immediately.

Barry’s, originally Barry’s Bootcamp, started in West Hollywood in 1998. The brand built its following by pairing treadmill-based intervals with floor-based strength work. keeping the lights turned down low and the music turned up loud inside its trademark “Red Room.” Today. Barry’s has 89 studios across 15 countries.

Orangetheory also splits class time between treadmill work and the floor. but it adds rowers to its cardio split and centers everything around your heart rate. Every member can opt to wear a monitor—at an additional fee—and their stats appear in real time on screens around the studio. Coaches encourage participants to spend at least 12 minutes in the “orange zone,” roughly 84–91% of maximum heart rate. Hitting that target each class is part of what the brand describes as the “afterburn” effect—burning calories long after the workout ends. Coaches cue “base. ” “push. ” and “all out” paces. and each person runs at whatever speed gets them into the right zone.

The first time she stepped into Barry’s Red Room, she started on the treadmill. “Prepare to run for your life,” she said. At Orangetheory, she ran between 4.5 and 7 mph. At Barry’s, the recommended speeds are 7, 8, and 9 mph, and sometimes higher. The starting speed at Barry’s was roughly where she said she’d been maxing out at Orangetheory—so she described feeling humbled before the first interval even ended.

That “training for war” comment wasn’t a figure of speech in her mind. Her first thought was: “Who is chasing us, and how close are they?”

The floor exercises didn’t come with a softer ramp either. With Orangetheory, she said the coaches spend significant time making sure she has the movement down before she attempts it. At Barry’s, she received only a brief demo and was expected to jump in. During her first class. she was a half step behind her classmates the whole time. particularly because of how the instructor faced her and because of the loud music. By the third class, she said she was up to speed.

That momentum is part of why Barry’s fans talk about the culture like it’s a feature, not a side effect.

Jorge Cardozo. who recently celebrated his five-year anniversary as a Barry’s instructor. described the approach bluntly: “Even though it may be hard. and you can modify however you want. I think the instructors and the culture that we’re trained under is let’s train grand.” He added after class. “Let’s make sure that we push everyone the same amount. and beyond that. make sure that we’re pushing everyone to the level that they can get to.”.

Cardozo said he started as a client about eight years ago. He was already in the fitness industry and taught for other studios before he “fell in love with the brand.” What pulled him in, he said, was the club-like atmosphere and the community the studio seemed to attract.

Grace Koetje. a fellow classmate. found her way to Barry’s the same way many first-timers do—through word of mouth and curiosity. A Georgetown University student athlete. she said she’d tried CrossFit. CorePower Yoga. and Orangetheory. but that Barry’s stood out for its level of intensity and the environment it creates. “I liked that you could set your own pace, but you were also encouraged to go faster,” she said.

For the writer, the lesson is personal and immediate: being humbled by a workout either scares people off or pulls them back in. For her, it did the latter.

She has taken five Barry’s classes since that first one. The progress, she said, is noticeable in a short amount of time. Her endurance is building. she’s hitting speeds she wouldn’t have attempted on day one. and she’s pushing past limits she didn’t know she had. Just as important. she says Barry’s has given her the kind of training foundation she thinks she needs—because her next challenge is HYROX. a competitive fitness race that combines running with functional workout stations.

She hasn’t quit Orangetheory. With Barry’s still fresh, she ends on the same forward-looking note that brought her in at the start: “Still, I haven’t given up on Orangetheory. With that said, here’s to the next 500.”

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