Benefits of Barre: What to Expect, in Studio and at Home

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Barre is a low-impact workout you can do at home or in a studio to gain strength, build endurance, and more. This type of workout involves dance moves commonly found in ballet, as well as other forms of exercise like yoga, Pilates, and aerobics. Participating in barre classes requires only comfortable workout clothes, bare or socked feet, and a few pieces of equipment like a chair and a mat. This form of exercise can: contribute to your overall fitness and health Read on to learn more about the many benefits of barre class.

What to expect from a barre workout Barre classes can involve a lot of different elements of exercise, depending on the type of class and its format. Your workout will likely involve ballet movements like pliés and relevés, and you’ll use a bar or other waist-high object to stabilize yourself. These exercises rely on isometric movements, which focus on flexing specific muscles one at a time, without contracting or expanding them. Your barre classes may also incorporate movements from yoga, Pilates, Zumba, or aerobics. These types of exercise can enhance your overall workout. The amount of exercise you get at your barre class depends on its length and the other types of exercise involved. If the class focuses solely on small muscular movements, it’s more of a strength training workout. If it adds aerobics, Zumba, or other fast-moving exercises, it may also serve as cardio. A barre workout is just one of several ways to exercise. It’s best to include a combination of cardio and strength training exercises into your weekly workout habits. In general, for a balanced exercise program, you need more cardio than strength training each week.

Benefits you may experience from a barre class Here are some of the physical benefits you may experience from engaging in regular barre workouts. One benefit of barre is that it’ll strengthen your muscles, particularly your: A strong core contributes to the proper functioning of your entire body. Strengthening the muscles of your pelvic floor can help you control your bladder, and these exercises are especially important if you’re pregnant. Participating in regular barre classes will increase your muscular endurance. Endurance influences your heartbeat and breathing patterns. Your endurance increases your stamina, so you’ll be able to maintain a higher level of activity in your everyday life. Plus, you’ll be able to exercise longer and harder. Endurance also lowers your risk of developing health conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer. Barre workouts feature a lot of stretching. This helps improve your flexibility and the range of motion in your joints. Maintaining flexibility makes it much easier to move throughout your day. It can even prevent stiffness when you sit for long periods of time. Barre workouts can help you maintain or increase your bone density. Decreased bone density can lead to osteoporosis, which can cause bone weakness and breaks. You may find yourself sitting or standing straighter after doing barre. This could be an external benefit from these workouts. Good posture also positively influences what’s going on inside your body. It can decrease pressure on your spine, reducing your chance of back pain and injury. It also helps you take deep breaths. Can barre class help you lose weight? You can achieve weight loss by increasing the amount of time you exercise each week, eating a nutritious and balanced diet, and reducing the amount of time you sit every day. Participating in weekly — or even more frequent — barre classes will contribute to your overall activity level. You may want to add barre exercises to your weight loss plan, but doing this type of workout alone probably won’t help you shed pounds. To lose weight, you need to look at your entire lifestyle.

Can you do barre classes at home?  Another benefit to barre workouts is that you can do them anywhere. You can take in-studio classes from certified teachers or try various online videos at home. To make your home workouts feel like you’re in the studio, you may want to purchase equipment like a ballet bar, a yoga mat, and even some weights or resistance bands. But keep in mind that you can also use items you already have at home, like a chair instead of a bar, a soft blanket in place of a yoga mat, and a filled water bottle as a weight. If you want to try online barre classes, look for options taught by certified instructors to make sure you learn the proper techniques for this type of exercise. Websites like YouTube may have barre workouts for free, but paid classes may provide a more personalized experience. Some well-known barre studios include Pure Barre Go, The Bar Method, and Barre 3. Check with local studios to find out whether they offer online classes as well.

Are there any downsides to doing barre?  Barre is an excellent way to work out — no matter your physical condition — because it’s considered low impact and can be modified. You may even be able to find a barre class tailored to your specific needs. For example, you may seek barre instruction designed for a specific age group, pregnant people, or people with certain health conditions or injuries. Seek medical advice from your doctor before engaging in barre exercises if you’re concerned about an underlying issue.

How long before you can begin to see results?  It’ll likely take several weeks of barre classes to see results from your efforts, though you may feel the impact of the exercises right away. Barre workouts focus on lots of different muscles, some of which you may not exercise regularly. You might feel sore after initial barre workouts, but this discomfort should go away after your first few sessions as your muscles strengthen and become more flexible. You’ll likely see the most external benefits from barre classes by keeping up a regular amount of exercise each week and engaging in other healthy habits. For best results, include barre in a whole health and fitness plan Eating a diverse, well-balanced diet, refraining from unhealthy behaviors like drinking and smoking, and getting enough sleep will add to the effects of your workout routine.

Engaging in regular barre workouts can help you build strength, increase your flexibility, improve your posture, and more. You’ll notice the benefits of this type of workout if you combine it with cardio exercise and other aspects of a healthy lifestyle. Engaging in barre can maintain your health, keep you strong as you age, and reduce your chance of developing certain health conditions.