Cardio Barre Beginner Workout

I love barre workouts. I danced from the time I was very small all the way through my teens. Then I stopped taking classes because life just got to be too hectic. I noticed that after I stopped dancing, my hips, thighs a butt got a WHOLE LOT BIGGER. NOT GOOD. I missed my dancer’s body. I know I’m not perfect. I’m what some people would call “pear” shaped. I’m okay with that. I have a much larger lowerbody. That’s fine…except when it’s fat. That’s no good. So I’m on a mission to get my lower body into shape. That’s where my barre comes in. I use a Fluidity Bar (www.fluidity.com) for my workouts. BUT, I’ve found that there’s a wide variety of barre workouts available. My latest find is the Cardio Barre workout series. (www.cardiobarre.com) It’s a workout that was designed by a former Chippendale dancer (weird, right?!). I was curious, and a little skeptical…sure, Richard Giola gets rave reviews from stars like Amanda Bynes and Drew Barrymore…but that’s nothing new in the world of fitness. Celebrity endorsements DO entice me to look into the workout…but that doesn’t mean I’ll be able to do it (I mean, come on, celebrities have HOURS that they can dedicate to exercise…I work, go to school and have a family. Enough said). So I was pleasantly surprised to discover that my $30 got me 4 workouts, each of increasing intensity (and increasing time). I like that. The “Intro” workout is only 20 minutes long, which is good for crunch days. They teach the basic moves and do them at a slower tempo. Then it’s on to the “Beginner” workout. This one speeds things up a bit. Here are my thoughts:

This workout is structured well. It is lead by a girl named Kelly who has RIPPED abs and arms (so I’m a little jealous…but if I can get her body from this workout, then let me at it!!). She’s sweet, and starts by introducing her backup exercisers. They’re all shapes and sizes, which is a nice way of saying that anyone can do this workout. I will say that they are ALL crazy flexible…but more on that later. The workout starts with a good warm-up…my muscles were definitely feeling it. There was some good dynamic stretching and then we were off to do some legs! Lots of plies, releves and something called inner thigh twists. THOSE were odd…but good. I was feeling it in all the right places. After the leg work, you move on to cardio, which is basically standing abs done super fast. Okay, now my heart rate is climbing and I’m wondering why I wanted to do this workout. If you don’t know, I’m not a huge fan of standing abs. NOT MY THING. But I did it, and it wasn’t horrible. Then some seat work, all done with a flat back, arms straight and hands lightly on the barre. Okay, I have a small space. I cannot get that stretched out…so I modified by folding my arms genie-style over the barre and doing flat back from there. I liked the seat work here. It was akin to doing the moves normally done in the pretzel, but standing with a straight leg. The tempo throughout the workout remained very fast. After my butt was jello-ed, we moved on to triceps. UM…OUCH. 4 SETS of triceps, one holding the barre, the next propped on one leg, then next on your knees and the last on the floor. I’m really not sure why we had to end up laying on the floor. I need to vacuum…back to the workout. After triceps, there are two sets of bent-leg push ups. UM…wait a minute…we just did 50 reps on each tricep, and you’re wimping out on the rest of my upper body?! Okay, I’ve reconciled and did some Tracy Anderson-esque arm work after the video. The rest of the video is on the floor: abs and some inner/outer thigh work. The stretching segment was nice and relaxing, but NO WAY can I lay myslef out in a split the way that ALL of the girls in the video can. Something to work toward, I guess. I will definitely be doing this workout again, since I want to see what the Intermediate and Advanced workouts are like.

Overall, the instruction was good, but you have to do these workouts in order, or you won’t get the form right. Start with the “Intro” workout. I think that the progression of these workouts will keep me occupied for awhile, too. It’s nice to know that when this gets “easy” (I’m waiting for lightening to strike), I can yet again be challenged.

The Cardio Barre approach is definitely different from any other barre workout I’ve done. But I like different. Different workouts work my muscles differently. The best way to aviod a plateau is to keep my muscles guessing!

Tagged as: Barre Workouts, exercise, health, motivation, workout review