• Who: GINA!
• Where: 8th Street SE—Barrack’s Row
• What: Splitsville with Gina—Breakfast pizza, veggie fritatta and a bloody mary…and a diet coke

Nothing erases all the ills of a rough Friday night as much as a good, sweaty Saturday morning workout.  It’s one of those things that sounds like a terrible idea at the time—no lunatic would leave a nice warm bed and a DVR full of reality television to put on spandex and stand in what a room with what sounds like a group of sinewy, deep breathing spiritualists who probably haven’t touched a carb after 6:00pm since the early 80’s (aka the opposite of the people in this picture).  So when Gina insisted that I fulfill my promise to join her at Redbow Studio for an early morning barre pilates class, I drank a giant glass of water, popped 3 aleve, and promptly called her back to let her know that I’d be sitting this one out. That Gina knows what’s good for me, though, so when I saw her idling Volvo outside my front door, I knew there was no use in fighting it. Off to Redbow!

Redbow’s owner, Jane Brodsky, is an old friend of mine who I’ve known for years since I moved to DC. When she told me she was going to quit her job and open up a fitness studio on the Hill, there was no way I thought she was serious—not because I didn’t believe in Jane’s commitment and vision and drive, but mostly because I wasn’t sure if she realized how hard it would be to park over there. Little Jane, resourceful as she is, solved this problem by building her studio strategically above some of her favorite neighborhood establishments, which means that Jane can’t walk two feet from the door without saying hi to at least three people she knows and being handed a free enchilada or a bottle of prosecco. A maven of the Capitol Hill Community! Oh, and everyone makes sure she never gets towed, too.

And that’s the best part about coming to Redbow. It’s like Jane read the sign from the Statue of Liberty about taking your tired, your poor, and your huddled masses and turned it into an exercise-based Ellis Island where there is no judgment and everyone is welcome. There is no too inflexible, or arms too short, or too much Target workout gear instead of Lululemon. There’s no pretending your next stop after class isn’t bottomless mimosas, and there’s no shame in knowing the teachers by name because you come every day and are a serious tucktucktuck devotee. In fact, both of those are encouraged. It doesn’t matter if you’re the the busboy next door covered in queso or the sweaty guy beer delivery guy from down the block who brings kegs to frat houses, come as you are to Redbow and just be ready to work hard and move your butt muscles in ways you didn’t know were humanly possible. You’ll feel like a million bucks afterward. Jane will tell you, this is a present you give yourself.

The epilogue to this lovely morning is that after I begrudgingly thanked Gina for making me roll out of bed, we decided to treat ourselves to a little brunch. We’d earned it with all that tucktucktucking! One whole breakfast pizza later (not to mention a frittata, bloody and unlimited quantities of diet coke), we were rolling ourselves out of Matchbox and back into the car, wondering if all our hard work had been undone. “No,” said Gina, “Definitely not. That won’t happen until tonight when we have pizza again for dinner.” And just like how she told me I’d regret it if I skipped Redbow that morning, she was right—we did have pizza (and a salad) again for our latenight dinner—which is exactly why we already made plans to go back to the studio for another class soon.