Eugene Barre3 location owned by Jessica Neely. Photo courtesy Barre3

From Shed to Strength

Sadie Lincoln, daughter of a founder of Eugene Weekly, started barre3, a fitness boutique with women’s bodies in mind

In 1982 Elisabeth Lyman, Lucia McKelvey, Sonja (Snyder) Ungemach, Lois Wadsworth and Bill Snyder founded What’s Happening out of a small shed on Lincoln Street near Washington Park. The publication later became Eugene Weekly

Sadie Lincoln, Sonja Ungemach’s daughter, at 10 years old watched her mother stay up until midnight creating the newspaper and she even contributed to it in the early days. “My mom had me draw pictures to fill up ad space because for their first issues there wasn’t enough ads yet,” Lincoln says.

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(l-r) Liz Lyman, Lucia McKelvey, Lois Wadsworth, Sonja Snyder in 2016

In 2008, Lincoln went on to create her own unique business, barre3, a fitness boutique with women’s bodies in mind. Created in Portland, barre3’s bright orange logo and natural lights are meant to be modeled after Eugene’s gray skies as a beaming, lovely place to work out in all weather types. 

“Community, connection, the value of being a local business I think is such the ethos of Eugene, and certainly my mom and my family,” Lincoln says. 

“It’s really a third place for women,” she says of barre3, “we welcome everybody but it’s designed around women and women’s bodies, and I think that was missing in most of fitness.” 

Lincoln began her love of group fitness during her time as an undergraduate at UCLA, taking and teaching classes at the university’s recreational center. However, despite her love for fitness classes she felt as though there was no place for people and their bodies to simply exist. 

“We wanted to create a place where people could be honest and good in their bodies just as they are in the moment, and I think women need that so much because we’re told every day through massive amounts of information that come our way that our bodies need to be shaped differently to be sexy, to be winning, to be achieving, to belong,” Lincoln says. 

Through the creation of barre3 Lincoln has implemented science surrounding women’s bodies to help them through inflection points throughout their lives. Through her research, Lincoln has found that women have different physical needs when going through fertility challenges, pregnancy, perimenopause or menopause as well as menstruation cycles. “We really design our workouts around that so women feel supported in our studios and also connected,” Lincoln says.

Lincoln focuses on how workouts make your body feel, instead of unattainable before and after ideals. “We cue people’s bodies in different layers so that your mind and your awareness isn’t jumping to a future ideal or going back and going ‘oh I used to be able to do this,’” Lincoln says. 

Barre3 is a franchise company, meaning that local owners use the brand, business model and knowledge for their studios. Jessica Neely, a Eugene barre3 owner since 2012, was pregnant while going through her instructor training, allowing her to experience first hand the way in which barre3 grows with women’s bodies through pregnancy and postpartum. 

“When I then finally did give birth to my son, my obstetrician commented that my labor was potentially a little easier because of all the core work that I had done,” Neely says. 

Prior to opening her barre3 location, Neely hadn’t lived in Eugene for very long, but her barre3 community grew quickly. “Folks really loved the workout, and they told their friends, and more friends came, and our staff started to grow, and it became this amazing community,” Neely says. 

With the new year starting, people are trying new fitness plans. Lincoln advises those who are trying barre3 for the first time that, “Usually the biggest friction point to starting something new is feeling like you’re going to look like an idiot, but we’re really good at making sure that with every new client we soften that worry right quick.” 

Eugene’s Barre3 location is at 301 Oakway Road. It has classes 6 am to 6:45 pm Monday through Friday and 7:15 am to 4 pm Saturday and Sunday. To sign up for classes go to Online.barre3.com/studio-locations/eugene