The low-impact workout challenges your muscles from head to toe and can keep you injury-free.
Barre tends to bear the brunt of misconceptions in the fitness world. Time and again, I hear people declare that the movement method is simply dance. It’s only for women. It’s all about building your butt. You get the picture.
Allow me to set the record straight: Barre is for everyone and every body. And what the workout actually entails is much more holistic than those misbeliefs imply.
Created back in 1959 by Lotte Berk, a dancer recovering from injury, barre is essentially all of the elements of dance that make a ballerina strong and mobile — specifically Pilates, resistance training, and rehabilitation movements. While Pilates emphasizes controlling the body and learning to move from your “powerhouse” (aka the core), barre targets all the tiny muscles throughout your body. You focus on improving their strength, stability, and mobility so you can move efficiently in your day-to-day life and stay injury-free in your athletic endeavors.
That’s really the root of the workout and what it continues to represent today — moving your body without pain.
While I teach barre rhythmically, it doesn’t have to be presented that way (seriously, you can have no music at all — but that sounds like a snooze fest, right?). You’ll perform dozens of repetitions at multiple tempos, and you’ll use equipment like light weights (typically 2 to 5 pounds), the ballet barre, and the Pilates ball to reach muscular fatigue.
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The classes train you from head to toe. Yes, you’ll work your glutes. But you’ll also zero in on the biceps, triceps, pecs, back, shoulders, thighs, core, calves, and feet. Your entire body is working as one unit during every move you do.
Consider this: Throughout your lifetime, you learn to drive a car. You learn how to ride a bike. But you don’t necessarily learn how to use your body effectively in everyday situations. In a barre class, you're really learning how to best use your body so that you’re strong and stable enough to tackle more high-performance challenges, whether it’s a pickleball league championship or an IRONMAN.
And this training could cut your risk of injury during those demanding moments. Do a heavy barbell squat without properly engaging your pelvic floor, and it’s very easy to get a hernia. In barre, there’s an entire sequence at the end of class dedicated to strengthening the pelvic floor and abdomen in harmony to support those heavy lifts outside of the studio.
This injury-prevention benefit is the reason why I was hired to teach barre to professional football players once a week earlier in my career. Thanks to the combination of muscle-strengthening and joint mobility work, you prep your body to pivot quickly and avoid injury. The muscles in my feet and ankles are so strong from barre, I’m able to walk on the joint in what would be considered a sprain-like position. You also practice maintaining proper alignment of your knees and hips, which can be game-changing for runners and other cardio lovers.
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The beauty of barre is that it can be tweaked to meet your body and mind where they’re at. The movements can be scaled back for folks recovering from injuries or individuals with certain health concerns. You train in the range of motion that’s available to you, not what the instructor or the member next to you can achieve. Its low-impact nature makes it ideal for people who want to be gentle with their joints. Even taking a class just once a week can have a big payoff for your main fitness focus, whether it’s strength training, bodybuilding, running, or basketball.
I want you to be able to get up from a chair, drop down to the floor, or drive your knee to your forehead when you’re 100 years old. And that’s what barre is designed to do: to support the overall health and functioning of your body at every age and stage.
Ready to help others experience the body and mind benefits of barre? Learn to instruct barre with Equinox’s Barre Certificate Course, launching January 2025.
Michael J. Clark is the group fitness manager at Equinox Hudson Yards and a former professional dancer who’s performed on Broadway and assisted with choreography for a Beyoncé music video.