


Pulse your raised leg up and down by squeezing your glutes.Either slightly rotate your spine or lean forward a bit to avoid crunching your lower back. Engage your core and lift your leg higher.Stack your hip over the foot of your standing leg.

Why it’s great: Strengthens and tones your glutes and hamstrings and improves balance.

Keep your shoulders stacked over your hips and brace.Why it’s great: Strengthens and tones your glutes and inner thighs. Week 4: 2 sets of 16 reps for each move.Using one hand to hold on to a barre or the back of a sturdy chair for balance, practice each exercise two or three times a week following this progression: Perform each of the movements to an eight-count beat, making small, controlled pulse motions on each beat. Try doing them to your favorite music - upbeat songs ranging from 125 to 140 beats per minute (bpm) are typical in barre classes (Katy Perry’s “Firework,” for example, is about 125 bpm, while Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” is closer to 140 bpm). The following movements are keystone barre exercises. “Give yourself permission to play and explore!” Butulis says. Once you have these cues down, barre is an outlet for utility and creativity. (You don’t go en pointe to the very tips of your toes as in ballet.) Position your toes flat on the floor and keep your weight between your first and second toes to keep your ankles stable when you’re on your tiptoes.Maintain good alignment when bending at the knees by tracking your knees in line with your second toes.Root your standing leg to the floor by engaging your glutes during single-leg movements.Brace your core muscles to support your lower back.Try to keep these tips in mind during every barre workout: “Feeling the burn is OK,” she says, “but listen to your body and rest as needed to avoid pain, pinching sensations, or muscle cramping.”īutulis designed the following take-anywhere barre workout with a practical goal in mind: Break down common exercises and cues so you can get the most out of your workouts, in or out of a class setting. A common complaint that Butulis hears from barre aficionados is chronic lower-back pain and injury. This combo can be hugely beneficial - but also problematic, if not coached well. It focuses on isometric strength training (holding your body still while contracting a specific set of muscles) and high repetitions of small movements, Butulis explains. This provides balance as exercisers “lift, tuck, and curl” their way to improved coordination, muscle endurance, and core strength, says Meredith Butulis, DPT, a Twin Cities–based physical therapist, dancer, and Life Time Academy instructor (pictured here). Enter barre.Ī combination of moves derived from ballet, yoga, and Pilates, barre uses minimal equipment - often just a wooden ballet barre. But that can leave some of your smallest muscles out of the fitness equation. Many strength routines call for big movements: deadlifts, squats, presses.
