Top 5 Benefits of a barre3 Practice

As published in the b3 Mag

When I find something I love, I can’t help myself, I have to spread the word. Frankly, I think I watched too many Oprah’s “Favorite Things” over the years. Case in point,, this is a picture of our family’s Christmas Eve workout tradition. We all come together to sweat, laugh and be together before the holiday festivities, and this year we were at barre3.

When recommending something new, it’s important to understand the whys, and also someone’s personal experience behind the recommendation. You hear me speak about the workout, barre3, but if you’ve never been you may wonder why I chose this over another option. Or you may be curious what keeps me going back, or why you should step in the studio for the first time. I hope to answer each one of these questions below in my top 5 list of benefits of a barre3 practice.

Modifications

It’s not common to step into a group class and be encouraged to modify postures & movements. To be in a space where you’re not meant to be uniform backup dancers, but maybe sometimes when we’re all in sync I day dream of a Beyonce moment. Barre3 helps create an understanding around the strength, not weakness, found in modifications. “You weren’t made to look like your neighbor” is a common phrase to hear, and it’s true, in so many ways. Adapting a posture, whether it’s to be more challenging or less, is a sign of strength that you’re present and listening to your body. I love how how modifications are embraced, and also how it makes this workout accessible to everyone.

Intuition

I’ll confess, before going to barre3 I wasn’t aware of how to listen to my intuition. In general I knew what it meant, but I didn’t understand how it felt. Over my years of practicing I’ve learned the power of being present and listening to my intuition. At the end of the day an instructor is there to guide you, but it’s up to your own intuition to tell you what is actually right for you today. No one else can tell you that answer.

It took me years to let my inner-voice guide my movements and choices, instead of following the exact choreography. There are lots of times when I love doing just that, being in sync, but there are a lot of times when I look different from the rest of the room. You can often find me at the barre for seat work, hinged slightly during leg work, or on my forearms for plank.

I really appreciate the reminders to be present for the full hour you’ve given yourself, as opposed to a message of “how hard can you push yourself.” That push can work for many people but personally I have to take it in moderation. I’m super competitive with myself, so if you tell me to push myself I’ll take it to an extreme. For this reason some workouts simply aren’t a good fit for me; given a competitive environment, I push myself beyond what feels right for my body and I hurt afterwards. The encouragement to listen to your own body is exactly what this recovering perfectionist needs.

Community

I’ve found a sense of community within my local barre3 Portland studios. I’ve worked from a home office for most of my career, meaning my daily life doesn’t include interacting with very many people who aren’t within my computer screen. I craved a sense of community, and since it didn’t exist in my work environment, I found it within my workout community. Today the Portland studios provide a sense of community for me, and for my daughters who join with me on the weekends.

Teachers and fellow clients provide an ongoing source of encouragement. It’s here that I get compliments on my new haircut, or chit chat about the happenings from the week. It’s a social outlet that I’m thankful to be a part of, and I hope that I empower and lift up my barre3 friends as much as they do for me.

Efficiency

I’m an efficient person by nature, and I appreciate having found a workout that shares the same quality. I go in wanting to know that in my 60 minutes will be well spent and effectively strengthen my body. Maybe it’s just me, but I also appreciate that class is always 60 minutes, starts on time and ends on time. It’s a pet peeve of mine to worry about whether class will end on time, or run long, and I’ll be late for my next meeting. I want to be caught up in my workout and not worry about checking the clock, and thankfully I can do that in barre3.

Another lovely option is being able to practice outside the studio. Whether that means you’re taking online classes, or even building your own workout flow from postures you know and love, the option is there to practice where it works best for you that day. Personal opinion, but I do recommend taking a few studio classes first to understand cues and alignment, I think this helps you be setup for success and getting the most out of your workout in the end.

Breathwork

Breathwork is a newer aspect of class, it wasn’t there 10 years ago when I began, but I have to be honest and say I love it. When taking yoga classes I’ve always loved the closing time laying on the mat, eyes shut and soaking in your practice. Barre3 has adopted a similar focus by dedicating a few minutes of breathwork to the close of each class. It’s a moment to sit in stillness and gratitude, before rushing off to what the rest of your day brings. It’s easy to overlook the value of this slower time, but I believe in the benefit of it. Sometimes it’s the only time I’m quiet and hearing myself breathe all day.

I’ve actually learned how to breathe much more fully thru this practice. Here’s short story to elaborate. I took a foam rolling class, because I wanted to learn how to properly roll out my muscles. That day I learned wonderful tips for using the foam roller, but I was also told “Oh my aren’t you a chest breather!” First off, I had no clue what that meant, but the delivery indicated it was the worst of the worst. So I set out to better understand what this meant and how to correct it. How do you change your natural breath pattern, doesn’t it just happen instinctually? I learned that ideally I should be breathing from my belly, letting it fully expand and contract, but we’ve been conditioned to always hold in our stomach for vanity purposes. It took time to reset this pattern and breathe more slowly from my belly, but the effects are amazing. I am calmer and process stress better. In higher intensity workouts I can direct my focus to steadying my breath and have more endurance simply because I’m breathing more effectively.

I hope this top 5 list of benefits of a barre3 practice has inspired you. If you haven’t tried it yet, I encourage you to give it a shot! If you’re a long-standing barre3 follower I encourage you to reflect on your personal top 5 list, and focus on those aspects during your next workout.

If this blog has left you inspired check out Four Ways To Practice Presence, which is my latest b3 magazine publication!