What is Barre?
When you first heard about barre classes, maybe you envisioned ballerinas standing by a long wooden support, fluidly moving through ballet exercises. What a beautiful image to aspire towards! However, as you look deeper into a traditional barre fitness class, you see it only shares a few similarities to a traditional ballet class.
A Barre Fitness class, inspired by the fluid movements of ballet, is a strength training class which targets your main muscle groups- arms/shoulders, thighs, glutes/hamstrings, and abdominals- by activating those muscle groups through small isometric and isotonic exercises. You will move up and down in a position (isotonic) and then when your muscles have had enough, you will be told to hold that position (isometric). Yes, it can feel shakey and, yes, you will feel the BURN, but that’s the point. Through these exercises, you are breaking down muscle fibers so they can rebuild stronger. The combination of isometric and isotonic exercises promote blood flow, create strength, and strive to correct muscle imbalances.
So, here is the secret: We stretch. A lot. The secret ingredient to barre is stretching. We stretch between each set, or muscle group exercises, to help the contracted muscle group return to its resting state. Stretching helps muscles stay long, flexible, and healthy and incorporating stretching into your fitness routine helps with posture, mobility, and, it just feels good!
What does this all mean and how does it apply to your body and movement practice? Overally, barre fitness is safe for your joints and helps create strength and flexibility in each muscle group. I believe that barre can help you feel strong and agile so you can participate in the activities that make you happy!
Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3273886/
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-fitness/chapter/types-of-muscle-contractions-isotonic-and-isometric/#:~:text=Isotonic%20contractions%20generate%20force%20by,to%20shorten%2C%20thereby%20generating%20force.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-importance-of-stretching#:~:text=Stretching%20keeps%20the%20muscles%20flexible,to%20extend%20all%20the%20way.
