Body sculpting Barre classes focus on isolating, toning, and strengthening every major muscle group in your body. These classes do this through small, low-impact, targeted movements inspired by dance, yoga, and Pilates. I like to call these classes power cocktails! It is a powerful mixture of exercises. However, many people question the true effectiveness of barre workouts and whether they provide you with an effective workout.
I think this is really dependent on what your goals are. If your goal is to lose weight really quickly or build a ton of muscle, then no, I don’t think Barre is the right place for you. However, if you’re looking to improve your strength, flexibility, mobility, and lean muscle mass, then you’re going to see some amazing results.
This ballet-inspired workout will build strength, tighten your core and sculpt a dancer’s booty. The only problem is if you’ve been training using high-intensity workouts. If you’re used to doing sweaty workouts then you might doubt the effectiveness of a barre class. Particularly since these body sculpting classes are slow, controlled micro-movements.
Body Sculpting Barre Class Work
I agree that these kinds of classes are a lot slower than most workouts. However, you’d be surprised at how much you can feel them targeting every tiny muscle in your body. These classes make you realize all the muscles you often forget about. In fact, sometimes slow, strength movements strengthen your body more effectively than intense weight lifting workouts.
So yes, these classes are effective. According to Andrea Rogers, the creator of the Xtend Barre workout, there is no other workout that combines grace and athleticism the way barre does. This is why body sculpting classes are so popular and many women are raving about them.
These workouts are the perfect fusion of traditional Pilates methods, Ballet, and high-energy cardio. Therefore, these workouts are designed to sculpt your body to look long, lean, and toned like a dancer. Better yet, these classes are a serious challenge! Even if you’re used to doing hundreds of burpees or lifts.
A body sculpting workout like this will leave your muscles burning and shaking halfway into the class. Here’s why you should add a few barre classes to your current fitness routine.
You. Will. Feel The Burn
1. Newbie or Not, You Can Do Barre
The nice thing about barre classes is that they are low impact and easy to follow. They might be inspired by Ballet dancing, but you don’t need to have a good rhythm or be seriously fit to get through a class. A typical class includes arabesque pulses and pliés, but there’s no complicated choreography. So, you’ll feel graceful doing it, however, there’s no need to have previous dancing experience.
Barre instructors explain that these workouts are for all levels, and they always provide a variety of modifications. Therefore, you can be a couch potato or a well-conditioned athlete. It makes no difference since the risk of injury is very small.
2. Best Core Workout
Like Yoga and Pilates, a body sculpting class focuses on providing you with a body-shaking core workout. In fact, that’s what these workouts target. This is because the majority of the work you do in these classes focuses on balancing and stabilizing, which fires up your abdominal muscles.
According to research, you will also improve your strength and stability, which will significantly improve your posture. How do you think ballerinas achieve such a wonderful posture? Barre classes help strengthen the muscles of the upper back and shoulders, which helps you stand up taller.
3. Improved Flexibility and Mobility
The problem with most of us is our lack of dedication to lengthening and stretching out our muscles. Funny enough, this is probably the most important part of all exercise. It’s mainly because we’re short on time and rush through things. However, flexibility is an important component of overall fitness. Luckily, barre workouts are designed around flexible movements that range from easy twists to full splits.
Therefore, if flexibility is something you struggle with, then this is the class for you. Soon you’ll be able to touch your toes with ease. Better yet, if you maintain a regular schedule, you’ll see improvements quickly. The key to barre is consistency no matter how tight your body seems to be.
4. You Will Increase Your Overall Strength
Your body is composed of two basic types of muscle fiber. These muscles consist of fast-twitch muscle fibers that are activated to complete strenuous sets of wide squats or jump squats. On the other hand, you get your slow-twitch fibers, which get you through more endurance-based exercises. Body sculpting classes are brilliant for building up your endurance, which is why these classes can be quite challenging even for those that lift heavyweights.
You’ll be shaking from head to toe.
Lastly, you can do all this with only your body weight, light weights, resistance bands, and a ball to increase your total-body strength.
5. Try Out Barre HIIT
Pretty much any kind of movement that manages to get your heart rate up and the blood pumping can be described as cardio. No, ballet barre is not always the fastest-paced workout, but it can be if you implement a few high-intensity intervals to speed things up.
You are also able to exercise large muscle groups at once which forces you to embrace the burn. All you’ve got to do is increase the intensity of the workout.
6. Weight Loss Can Happen
Everybody has different body goals, and for many people, it’s for weight loss. Not every form of exercise is meant to be done just to lose weight, but it can be a result if you push yourself. Body sculpting workouts like Barre allow you to get outside your comfort zone, which helps burn more calories.
Not only will you burn calories, but you will also be building lean muscle. This can help increase your resting metabolic rate, which assists with weight loss.
7. It’s Super Fun
A full Barre workout is usually quite dynamic and that’s why I love them. They do not get boring and there’s always a new way to challenge yourself.
Like I said, there’s more to working out than simply burning calories. It must be fun and make you happy too. This kind of approach will provide you with something new that’ll keep you interested in moving your body forever.
Want to know more?
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