Meet the MYbarre Fitness Founders in Shenzhen

By Ned Kelly, October 28, 2023

Siri Nordhejm arrived in China from Denmark in 2011, and is now well known in the community as a fitness entrepreneur, awesome instructor and busy mother of three. Having worked in the fitness industry for the last 12 years, she has a personal commitment to being healthy, staying active and inspiring positive change in others.

Ann MacLellan, a former national level figure skater, also arrived in China in 2011. Hailing from Scotland, she studied sports management and has worked in the health and fitness industry for more than 25 years. She is an experienced group exercise instructor with a passion for training fellow instructors, but also has been part of the sales, marketing and operations side of the industry in the UK.

Ann MacLellan (L) & Siri Nordhejm (R)

Together they founded MYbarre Fitness, and recently expanded their operation from live online to two brick and mortar studios in Shanghai. And next weekend, they're heading down to Shenzhen to host a couple of events.

We sat down with them to find out more about their growing empire.

What is MYbarre?
It is a group exercise class in the studio; a full body workout inspired by ballet and Pilates movements combined with functional fitness training.

The MYbarre program is for all levels and welcomes everyone! Our classes are designed using compound movements (where we work more than one muscle group at a time) and isometric moves (holding positions) to really help target trouble zones – glutes, thighs, abdominals and arms.

The combination of these styles of exercise and the series of movements work in such a way that you are lifting, toning and calorie burning – resulting in a nice long, lean and light body. Our students will feel powerful yet elegant in this cardio and sculpting workout.

Taking MYbarre three to five times per week, you can expect to see a more lifted booty, strong core, and lean sculpted arms and legs. The key to success in fitness training is to be consistent and have variety in your training.

How did MYbarre Fitness come about?
MYbarre was created by Siri and I in Shanghai in 2016 through a friendship and passion for barre fitness.

We are the pioneers of barre fitness in China; Siri brought the first barre program to Shanghai in her previous fitness venture here 12 years ago. But we knew we could make it better.

So, with our 30 years of combined group exercise teaching experience and knowledge from all fields of exercise, we created our own format, choreography, instructor training program… and now stand alone studios.

As busy moms, entrepreneurs and fitness lovers we had a desire to create not only a fitness program but a community for instructors and students that welcomes everyone, that empowers, supports and inspires people to transform their mind and body.

You are also big on social media – what platforms are you on?
We have MYbarre official account on WeChat, where we keep our students and guests up to date with class news, events and training courses.

We also have Xiaohongshu, where we upload short workouts you can do at home every week. We just hit 40k followers last month, which we are super excited about and can’t wait to keep creating new content for these dedicated barre fans!

MYbarre is also on bilibili, where you can find longer workouts if you want to take your home fitness to the next level.

Any exciting plans for the future?
This year we can’t wait to offer more classes and meet more students in our studios – growing with the community is important to us!

We will upload more workouts to our social medial platforms, run some in-person fitness events and parties and build our MYbarre Instructor community.

We are always looking for great trainers to join our team, and we offer a great in-depth instructor training program and journey – 2023 will be a great year, and we are excited to plié, pulse and passé our way down to Shenzhen next weekend!