Raising the Barre

Barre classes are low-impact, high-intensity exercise practise that blends ballet, yoga, and Pilates.

Barre classes most often work your entire body, using slow exercises to build both strength and flexibility, without the high impact.

According to Barre teacher Clare Lucas from Zero Point Yoga, who has been doing Barre for six years, the practice is an accessible mix of yoga, Pilates and ballet.

“Barre is a combination of Pilates and ballet style structural sequences, or moves, that’s put together to create vitality and longevity in the human body. So we take particular exercises from Pilates that we know work really well and we also take Barre-ballet style movements… we fuse the two together to create an uplifting, energising workout.”

She said she first began practising both yoga and Pilates, and found that Barre was the perfect blend of both.

“For myself I would always do Yoga and Pilates in conjunction with one another because I did see the benefit of both practising working really well together… for the mental and emotional component of yoga and then Pilates is more physical based.

“From that I dived into Barre, and loved that there was that beautiful intertwining and incorporation of a lot of yoga types of movement as well as the benefits of Pilates.

“And for me I love exercise and I loved that Barre gives me that little endorphin kick as well.”

In a Barre class, participants use a bar in a ballet studio-style room, and a yoga mat.

Some classes also incorporate free weights, exercise bands and exercise balls.

“But Barre itself is quite beautiful because the way it works with the muscles is quite often focusing on elongating the muscles, building muscle and tone.

“So we’re building muscle but we’re also creating a lot of length and space in the body so a lot of women in particular that can be quite timid about going to gyms and bulk weight classes because they don’t want to bulk up, Barre is quite beautiful because they’re getting this overall sense of strengthening their bodies, lengthen, stretching, so it’s a really good all-rounder.”

The health benefit of Barre workouts are extensive, from increasing flexibility and raising heart rate to increasing energy.

“We know how important it is to increase the heart rate to reduce blood pressure, risk of cardiovascular disease, to boost metabolism, boost energy, those sorts of things to burn energy, get better sleep,” Lucas said.

Barre is said to help strengthen muscles without bulk, improve posture, boost your metabolism and increase cardiovascular endurance.

Lucas said she often found many people were nervous or intimidated by the idea of a Barre class before they try it, but it was a very accessible practice.

“I think a lot of people think you have to have experience in dance or Pilates or yoga, but you actually don’t.

“For my own personal classes I don’t use a lot of barre or ballet terminology because I want to keep it as user friendly as possible… so it’s open to all ages and fitness levels,

“I would always just say just come along and move your body and have fun because if you’re moving your body those endorphins are already going to come to the surface… and you’re already reaping all of those health benefits.”

“There are so many different barre styles and trains out there, some are a bit more ballet focused, some are a bit more Pilates focused.

“I try to keep [my Barre classes] as accessible as possible, and I definitely teach a more Pilates-based practise.”

“It’s not overly complicated or out of reach.”