• How Barressential pioneered pilates in Sri Lanka and what comes next

The last 10 years have seen a great deal of growth in Colombo as an urban city. With this urban growth has also come a great deal of subcultures, from coffee culture to geek culture and Korean pop culture to even fitness culture. 

From a fitness perspective, Colombo has quite a lot to offer both in terms of gyms and fitness studios, from physical therapy to rehabilitation. A key shift in our fitness culture began in 2017 when Barressential opened its doors for the very first time. The brainchild of Narendra ‘Nare’ Bandaranayake, Barresential introduced barre and pilates to Sri Lanka in a structured and studio-based format.

At the time, what Barressential was doing went well against the grain of high-intensity workouts, loud music-fuelled gym sessions, and aerobic dance classes. Instead, it focused on precise, low-impact movements designed to rehabilitate, strengthen, and energise the body. 

Now, eight years on, Barressential has grown to become a well-established name in the fitness landscape as well as Sri Lanka’s premier pilates studio. To mark this milestone, The Sunday Morning Brunch sat down with Nare to look at what inspired this journey and also look to the future of Barressential. 

How it all started

Barre and pilates are low-impact, rehabilitative forms of exercise that originated as tools to help ballet dancers and soldiers recover from injury. 

“Pilates works with your own body weight. Each exercise uses different parts of your body and creates stability around joints and muscles. Because these are so targeted, there is muscle rebalancing. 

“One side of the body tends to be weaker than the other. These two methods strengthen quads, hams, core, and glutes, helping people lead better lives,” Nare explained. “They are gentle on joints but incredibly effective. You will feel muscles you didn’t know existed.” 

Barre, inspired by ballet, involves small, precise movements that build strength and balance.

In cities like London and New York (where Nare is currently based), barre and pilates, while being athletic activities, have evolved to become something of a movement. “Barre and pilates are what the crème de la crème does. It’s the most premier form of exercise. One hour can cost in the region of $ 50. It’s almost an aspirational lifestyle in and of itself as opposed to going to the gym,” Nare shared. 

Having lived and worked in London in the finance sector, Nare had experienced the benefits of barre and pilates firsthand through the studios there. “I used to do barre and pilates as a client. I had back and knee issues, and once I started, the pain disappeared. I was the fittest I had ever been,” she recalled. 

But when she moved back to Sri Lanka in 2016, she found there were no equivalent offerings. “My body started to fall apart because this form of exercise wasn’t around. I looked around and only saw things like Zumba classes on offer.”

Determined to recreate the experience she valued so much, Nare decided to train as a barre and pilates instructor and launched Barressential, Sri Lanka’s first barre and pilates studio. 

Barressential started off small, with Nare hosting four clients at a time in her living room. The idea took off. What started as a side project soon grew into Sri Lanka’s premier barre and pilates studio, with a location on Thimbirigasyaya Road and a growing reputation for excellence. 

Fast forward eight years and Barressential is not only the first studio in Sri Lanka to offer group reformer pilates classes, but it is also a franchise-ready brand with a devoted clientele and a second location launching in Battaramulla next month as well as a third location to follow in 2025.

“It was meant to be a side thing. When I started, I needed to create a Facebook page to run ads, and for that I needed a name. I started with barre because it is not capital intensive. Pilates reformers are expensive. The best way to start was with barre, since you only need a mat and a set of weights.”

Ultimately, Nare sees Barressential as more than a fitness studio; it is a community. “I started in my living room. There was a concept of ‘Welcome to my home. Have you met the person next to you?’ When we moved to the studio, it was built like a living room. The team has cultivated a sense of community, which is not something you get elsewhere. You can even go outside and have a chat,” she said.

This community aspect is especially valuable to women in their 30s and 40s. “In reality, we go from office to home or school pickup to home. Especially for women in their 30s or 40s, this becomes a place to meet like-minded people. My four best friends came through Barressential. 

“I’m a living testimony of what we have done. Part of it is weight loss, but it is also an addictive experience where you meet really great people. That is worth all the money in the world.”

Reflections on an eight-year journey

Looking back on Barressential’s journey establishing a new aspect of fitness culture in Sri Lanka, Brunch asked Nare about which milestones resonated the most and which challenges took the most thought. 

“A happy milestone is the team we have right now. I’m not involved in day-to-day operations anymore – I’m based in New York City and work for a startup there. Our team is spectacular, from management to instructors. In Sri Lanka, it’s always hard to find good talent and I’m happy to say we have done a fantastic job of hiring the right people,” she said.

But building the right team didn’t come easily and it was also one of Nare’s biggest challenges as an entrepreneur. 

“This team came in place after I left and I knew before I left that I wanted to own a business of this scale – to be able to go into franchising and opening at multiple locations – and one of the key things for an entrepreneur is finding the right team that will follow your goals as you would,” she added.

Nare further noted that finding teams in large countries like India and the US was easier because of the amount of competition in the job market, which in turn increased the drive of the people who were hired.

A core part of the Barressential journey was myth-busting, and Nare shared some of the biggest myths she had had to work around when it came to pioneering pilates in the local market. 

“The biggest myth is that it’s just for women. There is a huge push in places like NYC to show how many athletes use pilates or have been doing it for a while. For example, Tom Brady swears by it. The second misconception is that it is just for rehab – it is not. It strengthens muscles, joints, and overall fitness, no matter your age or existing condition.”

She also noted that weight loss, while not a core marketing point, was a natural byproduct of strength-based training like pilates. 

“Weight loss has never been a marketing tool for Barressential, but getting stronger and getting healthier will naturally lead you to a point where you are losing weight. However, it is not something to use for weight loss in and of itself,” Nare said.

She noted that pilates did come with an element of strength training. The reformer machines use weights and therefore pilates can be a form of strength training. “Cardio is great for heart health but it doesn’t do much for weight loss in reality. Using heavier springs on a reformer helps with weight loss.”

Setting the bar for pilates culture 

Over the past eight years, Barressential has developed a strong brand identity and loyal clientele. According to Nare, one of the biggest changes has been awareness. 

“When I first started, I was explaining it a lot in class. I was tilling the ground to plant the seeds. Now people are seeing the fruit of those seeds. Tilling the ground was hard work because people didn’t understand what it was and what they were doing,” she said.

Today, Barressential is known not just for its classes but also for its pioneering role in introducing pilates to the country, and especially for introducing reformer machines, which are specially designed machines that add resistance to pilates routines and increase effectiveness. Barressential was the first to offer this type of class in a group setting in Sri Lanka. 

The hard work of the early days has paid off, with the brand enjoying strong recognition with growing demand. “Since the economic crisis, there has been huge demand. Demand is outstripping supply,” Nare said, noting that this was what had led to the next step of Barressential – franchising. 

Barressential’s move into franchising represents a significant step in its evolution. “We have pushed out into franchising and built a great brand name while offering high-quality training. I created our training programmes and our old trainers teach new trainers. It is a great ecosystem that propagates. We help franchisees with eight years of knowledge and provide them with the guidebook which they can implement,” she added.

For Nare, this is about more than business growth; it is about creating opportunities for others. “The beauty of becoming a Barressential franchisee is that you get to build off the brand. For our franchise partners, we have biweekly calls where we help you create a marketing plan and even plan the launch event. You get to ride off the coattails of what we have created. 

“If you feel you want to do something creative with your time, or if you like to think and want to problem-solve, this is a safe way to try entrepreneurship. You have a team to support you and at the same time get to take small risks. We can tell you what to do and show you how to get there much faster.” 

Eight years in, Barressential has not only introduced pilates and barre to Sri Lanka but has also set the standard for what a modern fitness studio can be. With the upcoming launch of studios at new locations and a franchising model that shares both brand equity and operational wisdom, Barressential is poised to shape the next era of fitness in the country.