Barre workouts have been garnering quite a following recently. These types of workouts aim to give you a long, lean dancer’s body rather than bulky muscles. Barre workouts usually consist of exercises done both on a mat and at a ballet barre. You can purchase a portable ballet barre to use at home, but if you’d rather not shell out the money, the back of a chair will do just fine.
Most barre workouts are derived from or inspired by the work of Lotte Berk, a German-born dancer and teacher who developed the Lotte Berk method of exercises in London in the 1950s. One of her followers, Lydia Bach, brought the method to the U.S. in the early 1970s. Present-day offshoots of the Lotte Berk method include the Bar Method, Pure Barre, Exhale Core Fusion, Physique 57, Cardio Barre, and Callanetics.
Barre workouts can vary from instructor to instructor – some are very aerobic, while others are slower and more deliberate. If you dont click with one instructor, try another – their style may be the one that works for you. Also, it’s very important to focus on your form and technique when doing barre workouts; otherwise you may not get the results you want.