Today I would like to tell you about one of the hottest trends in recent years: the Barré Training Workout, that is the training that uses the dance bar in a fitness key.
Barré really means bar, as it is used in classical dance. Its “hybrid” use is not as recent as one might think. Bar training, with the aim of conditioning lower limbs and cores, was born in the United States as early as the seventies. It was moreover of combinations and sequences derived directly from the dance. And for this with a limited audience.
Over time, different formats and fusion approaches have been born and grown, which have indeed inspired dance, but have also welcomed the developments of other more popular disciplines suitable for the general public, such as Yoga and Pilates. This mixture has allowed the bar training to be cleared through customs and made accessible to all, also spreading overseas, in Europe first of all.
The phenomenon of Barré Training has also arrived in Italy (a few years ago), drawing the attention of the big clubs and proliferating in the Fitness Boutiques, small studios attentive to innovation and experimentation with new formats.
The Barré Training Workout is a functional fusion that combines the muscular conditioning of dance (at the barre or not), the flexibility of Yoga, the posture of Pilates and the musicality of traditional fitness. It has a wide applicability: everyone can do Barré, even those who have never done dance before. Non-dancers will be able to realize the dream of dancing, even as adults, in a “safe place”, where they can have the support of Pilates and the familiarity of fitness. On the other hand, dancers and former dancers will be able to experiment with unusual alignments for dance, such as parallel feet or variations in internal rotation, motor challenge and useful compensation for those used to working in external rotation of the hips.
Let’s analyze the components of the Barré Training Workout:
Dance – Provides the basis of movement for muscle conditioning, with steps and sequences, inspired by those encoded by the classic, at the barre and in the center.
Pilates, Yoga and holistic disciplines – They support the training of the core and stabilizer muscles, paying attention to posture and joint mobility.
Traditional fitness – It offers the most classic musical and conditioning setting, with exercises typical of fitness as we know it and most gym-goers know it: movements in time to music with small resistances, such as weights, rubber bands, balls. Fitness offers the Barré a cardio metabolic component.
A Barré Training Workout lesson lasts about 60 ‘and consists of an initial warm-up (without bar), a session at the bar of about 20’, a specific conditioning part for the upper limbs (which can also be placed after the warm-up) and a final part of Floorwork, or floor work, with a focus usually on the buttocks and abdomen and cool down. Flexibility is a fundamental aspect and is treated both in a static mode (in heating and in cool down) and in a dynamic mode, especially at the bar.
In fact, there are also programs and Barré lessons totally without bars (Barreless), which use the center of the room for training combinations and sequences of steps.
The lessons can always be different and use the common Pilates and fitness Props (tools): weights, long and short elastics, slides, toning balls, soft balls. Lightweight tools that can be used in dynamics and that have a destabilizing component.
The benefits of Barré are many:
- it is a global work of medium intensity, not strenuous, and suitable for increasing the metabolism, respecting the functionality of the body;
improves posture by acting on the core and deep muscles, even and especially when standing;
increases the tone of the whole body, especially of legs, abdomen and buttocks (the famous program by Tracey Mallet, which is called BootyBarre), without neglecting the arms;
improves joint mobility and flexibility;
always includes a cardiovascular component, essential for training the heart;
it is accessible to all, including the over, due to the modularity of the exercises and the support of the bar;
it is fun because it is not the classic traditional gym, offering great variety within the same lesson;
increases self-esteem, because in a short time it will be possible to create real sequences, so it will seem to really dance!
Now, you just have to try!
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