Celebrity Loved Gym That Turns Working Out Into a Nightclub Scene is Opening in River Oaks

Get ready to bust out your lululemon and Nikes. River Oaks is getting a cult favorite boutique fitness center this spring, and it’s kind of a big deal.

Barry’s Bootcamp is a pioneer, the original gym behind High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT. What celebrity trainer Barry Jay started in 1998 has become a pure fitness phenomenon, with devotees certain it is one of the best ways to burn fat and gain lean muscle.

It’s something of a Cinderella story on steroids — but you won’t need any roids to get these results. The gym that began as a humble 1,400-square-foot studio in West Hollywood now has 50 locations across the globe, everywhere from Dallas to Dubai.

The new Houston Barry’s Bootcamp will come in at 6,218 square feet and open in the River Oaks Shopping Center.

Barry’s is known for a party vibe, courtesy of booming music and red lighting, a different focus each day of the week and an in-house protein shake stop. It a favorite A-lister hangout. The locations in Los Angeles are frequented by Kim Kardashian and David Beckham, to name just a few.

But that doesn’t mean you need a feature in People to fit right in.

“It’s had this intimidating reputation, that it was a place you had to show up and be fit. But we’ve always had a very wide range of people in the class,” Barry’s Bootcamp CEO Joey Gonzalez tells PaperCity.

“That’s from celebrities to star athletes — and people in their fifties and sixties who are looking to maintain. It’s really something for everyone.”

Conditioning is the goal, so it’s all about going at your own pace and building up over time. “It’s a matter of not being a hero out of the gate,” Gonzalez notes.

The system behind this 50 to 60 minute workout is simple: a combination of interval cardiovascular work and strength training.

The idea of 20 minutes on the treadmill might make anyone groan. But it’s not something you slog through at Barry’s.

“What we mean by interval is you will take it up to a sprint for 30 seconds, then down to recovery. Or a two-minute run at six miles per hour, then up to eight, then back down to six, then up to nine, then recover,” Gonzalez says. The regimen keeps your body guessing.

“It’s about creating peaks and valleys in your heart rate so you are optimally burning fat,” he says.

On the floor, the strength training is a combination of high-rep, lower weight work and high-weight low rep work, as part of the same targeted approach.

“Basically, the goal is to create lean muscle tissue. There’s a false idea that you’re going to bulk up if you grab heavier weights. It’s actually pretty difficult to bulk up,” Gonzalez says. “Some of our most fit female customers and trainers are actually lying down and bench pressing 25 pounds on a Wednesday.”

Party Fitness

Barry’s focuses on a different area of the body each day of the week — arms and abs on Monday, lower body on Tuesday, chest and back on Wednesday, abs and ass on Thursday, and then full body from Friday to Sunday.

You can probably pick out the most popular from that lean lineup. “Thursday’s become the most popular day at Barry’s globally. That’s been interesting,” Gonzalez laughs.

In the getting conditioned and fit phase, Gonzalez recommends working up a sweat four to five times a week. Those looking to maintain could scale it down to three to five.

But with the party environment, you just might want to go as often as possible.

“Barry really wanted it to feel like a nightclub, so people would feel like they were at a party having fun. The sound system, the lighting, everything is mean to sort of mimic a fun night out,” Gonzalez says.

The red lighting was key, and special care was taken in tracking down the right hue. “The red lighting they chose in particular complements your skin. People just look really good in that lighting. People take selfies. A lot of shirts come off,” Gonzalez laughs.

At the same time, the dimly lit space gives fitness junkies a space for anonymity, where they don’t feel so out in the open.

By the end of the class, they aren’t worried about that at all.

“What we see is people feeling endorphins, feeling positive,” Gonzalez says. “It’s exciting because I think a lot of people who experience Barry’s for the first time, myself included, after working up the courage to go just walk out feeling like ‘I had no idea how much fun this would be,’ ” Gonzalez says.

Barry’s keeps the fun going with Fuel Bar, its in-house stop for meal replacement protein shakes that come with a variety of benefits, whether you’re looking to burn fat or build muscle.

Barry’s HIIT exercises are a certified hit worldwide — will the party catch on in Houston?