Tone, Strengthen and Lengthen Your Muscles with Isometrics and Small Isotonic Movements 

Who likes Barre classes? 

Add variety to your workout with joint friendly isometric exercises combined with isotonic exercises to effectively strengthen the body. Barre is a class is for men and women looking for a low impact but high intensity workout that tones and strengthens all of their muscles.  

What is a Barre class? 

Tone and strengthen all the muscles in your body with isometric movements that are a held position. Because they do not require any joint movement, they are very joint friendly. Some examples of isometric exercises you may be asked to perform in class are static squats, core exercises like a V-sit and plank variations. Barre exercises mostly use your body weight to perform many exercises borrowed from yoga and Pilates. Using the barre, the instructor may ask you to do squats, pulsing squats or heel raises to strengthen your calves. If the up and down of a squat hurts your knees, you might do an isometric or a “held” squat where you hold the squat to strengthen your quadriceps. 

Barre also uses smaller movements with high repetition and low range of motion, which you might recognize as pulsing. Low weight, or less resistance, with high repetition helps to create a long, lean musculature. You see this more with a ballet dancer, as opposed to bulking up like a competitive weightlifter. 

Aside from the barre, you might use only a minimum amount of other equipment. Provided by our WK Fitness & Wellness Centers, those tools could include resistance bands, stretching straps, exercise balls and light hand weights. Any weights you are asked to pick up in a barre class will be only one to three pounds of light resistance. For example, you might be asked to place a mini band around your legs to perform leg abductions to strengthen your glutes. Another example of an exercise that uses equipment would be to squeeze a bender ball between your knees while at the barre, which works your adductor muscles in your inner thighs. These muscles provide lower body stability to support daily movements like walking, running, jumping, squatting and more.  

There is a lot of emphasis on your core, even for exercises that do not use the barre directly. For example, your instructor might ask you to get down on the floor for plank variations. A few exercises can be done with or without the barre, like a leg lift while standing vertically at the barre or from a horizontal position on the floor. 

Sometimes the instructor may ask you to remove your shoes, if you are willing. Barefoot exercises help you focus on balance and more effectively perform some of the exercises. When you are barefoot with your feet on the floor (or the ground if you’re in nature), the skin on the bottom of your feet gets more ground feedback to increase your mind-muscle connection. Also, without shoes, your toes are able to spread apart more on the floor, which helps with balance and stability and contributes to your overall foot health.  

This class is not prechoreographed. It uses light background music so members stay relaxed and engaged. Whether you choose to wear shoes or not, this Barre class builds community. Like all other classes at WK, you end up socializing on the barre and making friends who want you to be there. They hold you accountable to your exercise intent and encourage you to attend.  

When and where does the Barre class meet? 

Barre classes meet in the aerobics studio at WK Fitness & Wellness Centers. Check the interactive class schedule to find a class that works for you. Classes meet for 50 minutes every week. 

Why do Barre? 

Come to this Barre class to improve your core strength, stability and balance. With regular attendance over time, you’ll see muscle toning and definition in your legs (quads, calves) and arms (triceps, biceps, shoulders). You'll feel and see the difference. 

We encourage you to bring your own mat for sanitary purposes.