A few months ago, I blogged about taking classes at a Bar Method studio. I did a bunch of them just as a trial, and while I liked the classes, didn’t continue on to have a membership with the gym. Following my blog post about it, a reader suggested that I should do barre DVD workouts at home. I thought this was a great idea, and last week, I finally got around to picking out a barre style workout DVD off of Amazon:
I do workouts at home fairly often, usually once or twice a week. I sometimes find them to be really convenient, especially when I’m in a time crunch and want to maximize the time I do have to exercise. I have a couple of favorites that I’ve done quite a few times, mainly Jillian Michaels’ DVDs and Tae Bo workouts (which my hubby totally makes fun of me for, and I can’t say I blame him!):
The Xtend Barre Lean & Chiseled DVD had good reviews and was super cheap, so I decided to give it a try. This past Monday, I popped in the DVD to do the workout for the first time.
The DVD lasts almost an hour, and is broken down into 3 segments: upper-body, core and the barre segment. For some reason the DVD gave me a 90’s feel (it’s from 2010), but overall I liked it!Compared to the studio classes I took, the DVD seems to be more cardio focused. At the classes I didn’t necessarily feel my heart rate elevate too much, but I did feel my muscles burning quite a bit (Hello shaky legs!). In contrast, the DVD had me sweating and my heart rate steadily around 70%, and I did enjoy this cardio element. Though it wasn’t as hard on my muscles, some of the movements were similar or the exact same as in the classes.
Since I was achy in a few strange little places after my first studio class, I was expecting to be sore yesterday after my first DVD workout. I was a little surprised when I woke up feeling totally fine. However, when I began a strength training circuit workout later in the day, my arms were feeling easily fatigued. This means the Xtend Barre workout definitely worked some muscles!
While the DVD wasn’t super challenging, I didn’t find the studio classes to be either. Sure, they worked my muscles and made me feel like I was toning areas differently than usual. But the barre method isn’t hard in a cardiovascular sense. It won’t make you feel like you’re able to pass out or vomit – it’s more of a girlie workout, if you will. After all, the barre workout was originally created by a ballerina. But overall, I like doing barre-style workouts as part of my overall exercise regimen, and I think it’s a good addition to add to my workout DVD arsenal.
On a side note, one downside to working out at home is a certain puppy who thinks it’s cool to play and lay down in the immediate area where I’m trying to exercise. I did yoga at home today, and Harley was literally trying to lay on top of me in my living room.
After taking out literally every dog toy we own and pestering me for most of my workout, she retreated to my office for a nap…
What a hard life she’s got! 😉
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