A no equipment, 30-Minute Barre Workout you can do at home! This full body cardio barre workout combines traditional barre exercises with high intensity cardio to tone, strengthen and raise your heart rate.
Barre classes typically involve a series of controlled movements that focus on strengthening the core muscles, improving posture, improving joint stability and increasing flexibility.
If you’ve done some of my barre workouts, you know I like to incorporate compound movements and cardio bursts.
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Barre is a hybrid workout that combines ballet, pilates, yoga and strength training. It has an emphasis on building core strength and long, lean muscles throughout the body. My barre classes are a little different than Pure Barre or Physique 57. I like a high energy, athletic barre workout.
Are Barre Workouts Effective?
Yes, but they serve a different purpose than strength training workouts or HIIT cardio workouts. Barre may seem less intense than a full body strength training or HIIT session. But the tiny, pulsing barre exercises work your body in a different way. Barre fitness specifically focuses on: improving core strength, building strength in the stabilizing muscles, and increasing flexibility, balance and posture.
What Are The Benefits Of Barre Workouts?
Barre workouts have many benefits! These workouts increase total body strength by building small, stabilizing muscles in the shoulders, glutes and hips to prevent injury. Barre increases balance, flexibility, posture and range of motion. These workouts require constant core engagement so I recommend adding them to your pregnancy or postpartum workout plan. It’s also good to mix up your fitness routine to avoid fitness and weight loss plateaus.
30-Minute Barre Workout (Full Body Cardio Barre, No Equipment)
The best barre-inspired exercises to build strength in the entire body in a no equipment home workout.
Get the boutique barre studio experience with this guided 30-minute barre workout. Pairing bodyweight strength training and high reps of tiny pulsing movements with cardio intervals to raise your heart rate.
We’ll use a chair (or counter top — whatever you have available) for a few of the moves. If this isn’t available to you, you can do the exercises with just your bodyweight.
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Targets: The chest, triceps, shoulders, core and lower back.
How To Do A Launcher Plank
Start in a high plank position with your shoulders stacked over your wrists, weight evenly distributed amongst all 10 fingers. Pull your kneecaps up towards your belly, feet hip-width apart.
Hold this plank position, maintaining a straight line with your body, gaze slightly in front of you.
From this plank position, engage your core as you push your hips back towards your heels; bending at the knees. Then explosively drive your body back into high plank position (nose to finger tips).
Second Position Pulsing Pliè Squat
Targets: The glutes, quads, hamstrings, and your inner thighs (adductor muscles).
How To Do A Second Position Pulsing Pliè Squat
Find second position by stepping wide, heels in, toes facing out towards the corners of the room. Imagine your back is pressed against a wall. Slide your back down the wall, lowering into a wide “squat” position. Tuck your tailbone, anterior pelvic tilt, to engage your core.
Once in second position, option to keep your heels on the ground or take relevè with heels lifted off the ground.
Place your hands on your hips and bend your knees, lowering into the bottom of your pliè squat. Shoulders should remain directly over hips.
Stand up one inch, then slowly lower back down one inch.
Repeat this pulsing, one inch movement up and down.
Attitude Leg Lift
Targets: All three glute muscles as well as the lower back and core.
How To Do An Attitude Leg Lift
Start standing on your right leg. With a soft bend in your right knee, hinge forward gently resting your hands or fingertips on a ballet-barre, chair or countertop for support.
Then extend your left leg behind you on a diagonal and turn it out; toes pointed.
Draw your left shin towards your standing right calf, then extend the left leg long behind you, squeezing the glutes.
Repeat this movement. Option to engage the standing leg (right leg) by bending at the knee each time the left leg draws in.
Note that you can make this move more challenging by going into relevè (balancing on toes, heel lifted off the ground) on the standing leg.
Single Leg Glute Bridge
Targets: Glutes, hamstrings, hips and pelvic floor.
How To Do A Single Leg Glute Bridge
Start laying on your back, right foot planted on a chair for an added challenge, left foot extended straight overhead (ankle stacked over knee). Option to keep the right foot planted on the ground instead.
Press through your heels to lift your glutes off the mat, squeezing your glutes as you lift. Think about keeping your core engaged and knees in line with your hips.
Exhale, slowly lowering your hips to hover an inch above the mat.
Boat Pose
Targets: The abs, core, hip flexors and inner thighs. Also a great balance challenge to improve posture.
How To Do Boat Pose
Sit on the mat on your sitting bones, legs bent at 90 degrees, feet flat on the floor.
Tilt your hips forward, rounding through the spine as you pull your navel towards your spine (making a ‘C’ shape with your upper body). Keeping your shoulders down and the crown of your head towards the ceiling.
Engage your inner thighs and core to lift your feet off the mat to about knee height.
Option to keep your hands behind your knees, or increase the intensity by releasing your hands from the back of your legs, bringing your arms parallel to the floor.
You can make this move more challenging by extending your legs out away from your body, toes pointed.
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Barre Workout
Loved this! Going to be my new go-to barre workout.
Laura! So happy to hear you enjoyed this barre workout! It’s a fun one! Nice work and we hope you come back for more! -Lindsey
LOVE this workout! Thank you Lindsay for such fabulous workouts.
Way to go Tarynne! So glad you liked this barre workout and I hope you come back for more! -Lindsey
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