If you don't have a dance background, barre classes can be intimidating. Enter a class, and you'll see people standing in formation around a ballet barre like ballerinas. But the low-impact workout is actually an accessible form of exercise that caters to people of all fitness levels.
In fact, barre was the fifth most popular workout in 2023, according to . “Barre exercises are primarily , and we target each major muscle group at a time, working with high repetition and light resistance, so we fatigue each muscle group. And then we combine some stretching in between each section of work, so we’ve got , mobility and strength training in every single class,” says , Pure Barre’s director of training and technique.
Barre is a style of fitness that weaves together elements of dance, , and yoga into one workout that offers full-body strength training. Barre’s history dates back to Lotte Berk, a German ballet dancer in the 1940s who created the method to help her recover from a back injury, explains , a barre instructor at Equinox. Berk left Nazi Germany and opened a barre studio in London, where she fused her dance training with physical therapy.
Fast forward to today, barre’s movements are still based on postures from ballet, but are much more approachable for non-dancers, Sweeney said. And given that the popularity of other forms of like Pilates and are on the rise, we predict that barre’s popularity will continue to soar. If you’re thinking of signing up for a ba.