Long, lean, defined muscles – that’s what many women want and barre workouts are one way to get them. Barre workouts are designed to work your muscles in a way that differs from conventional strength training. Rather than using heavy weights and compound movements, a very effective way to build strength, definition, and burn fat, barre workouts focus on isometric movements that involve a minimal change in muscle length.
How are barre workouts different? For squats, rather than holding heavy barbell or dumbbell and squatting to 90 degrees or below, you assume a position with no weights and hold it isometrically or for some barre exercise do small, controlled pulses where you’re only moving up and down an inch or so. With conventional resistance training, you’re contracting and lengthening the muscle groups you’re working, but with barre, you’re often contracting the muscles with little or no change in length. Instead, you hold the muscles at a fixed length under tension until they fatigue – and fatigue they do. After a workout, your legs will feel shaky and fatigued.
With the isometric-style exercises you do during a barre workout, you’re targeting mostly slow-twitch muscle fibers, the type that has staying power and is custom made for endurance activities. As you probably know, there are two general classes of muscle fibers – slow-twitch and fast-twitch. Slow-twitch fibers are resistant to fatigue and designed for long periods of lower intensity activity like walking or jogging. Fast-twitch muscle fibers are built for strength and power since they generate lots of force but tire quickly. With conventional strength training using heavy resistance, you’re mainly targeting fast-twitch muscle fibers, which helps you get stronger and more defined. With barre, the emphasis is on the slow-twitch fibers.
Barre is a different approach to conditioning and one that’s designed to build isometric strength and flexibility rather than significantly increase muscle size. That’s why you hear people say it gives you long, lean muscles. A barre workout can also be incorporated into a standard resistance training program another way to challenge your muscles.
Not surprisingly, barre training was the brainchild of a ballerina and barre incorporates many ballet-inspired movements, but not ones where extreme flexibility is a requirement. On the other hand, if you do these exercises regularly, your flexibility should improve. Standard strength training can decrease your flexibility while barre training helps you get more flexible. With Barre, the emphasis is on using your own body weight as resistance, although you can use light handheld weights for some exercises to increase the challenge. Barre workouts often include planks, so you’re giving your core a workout too.
Kinder to Your Joints
Another benefit of barre workouts is they’re kinder to your joints since both feet never leave the ground. If you have joint issues or you’re recovering from an injury, a barre workout is a way to stay conditioned without making your injury worse.
If you were to attend a barre class, you’d use a bar attached to the wall for support during certain exercises, but if you’re working out at home, you can use a sturdy high-back chair instead. The movements are inspired by Pilates and yoga and incorporate elements of ballet. Since you’re working multiple muscles and large muscle groups like your thighs and glutes for many of the exercises, you’re also burning fat. If you want more of a cardiovascular challenge, there’s no reason why you can’t incorporate short periods of cardio into a barre workout to keep your heart rate up.
Barre workouts typically include arm exercises as well and you can increase the challenge by using 2 to 5- pound hand weights. Since you’re doing a high number of reps, the benefits you’re getting are mostly muscle endurance. Barre also challenges your core muscles and the slow-twitch muscle fibers in your glutes, so you may notice greater core strength and improvements in the shape of your buttocks over time. Like yoga, barre also helps strengthen the connection between your brain and muscles. It’s important to keep that connection strong!
The Downsides of Barre Workouts
If you have a substantial amount of weight to lose or you’re trying to greatly improve your functional strength or increase muscle size, barre shouldn’t be your only form of workout. It’s not metabolically challenging enough to burn significant amounts of fat and doesn’t work multiple muscle groups using high resistance, so it won’t give you a bodybuilder’s physique. It also doesn’t get your heart rate up enough to have substantial cardiovascular benefits, although you can increase the aerobic benefits by adding bursts of aerobic activity at intervals throughout the workout. Instead, you get the benefits of more flexibility, greater muscle endurance and will likely notice improvements in posture and the way you carry yourself.
The Bottom Line
Even if your goal is to build muscle definition, a barre workout once a week can balance out your workout and add variety, especially if you enjoy the movements. It alone, unless you modify it with bursts of cardio or add exercises using heavier resistance, won’t dramatically improve your aerobic capacity or help you build muscle size. Don’t forget how important it is to train against heavy resistance as you get older to protect against age-related muscle loss and preserve bone mass. Barre will do little to help you achieve these objectives, but it does have other benefits.
So, take your goals and objectives into account when deciding what workouts to do, but add some variety to keep your body from adapting to one workout approach and to help you stay motivated. Barre isn’t a replacement for other types of workouts like high-intensity interval training or strength training, but an accessory to them – to improve flexibility and add variety. Just as importantly, have fun!
References:
Mayo Clinic. “Are isometric exercises a good way to build strength?”
New York Times. “Lining Up to the Barre”
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I like that you talk about how it can be on the joints. I am looking for a workout or an exercise that is kinder on my joints and since you used those exact words, I will be looking at trying a class first in my area. Thanks for the great information you have shared here.