​ ​

30-Minute Cardio Kickboxing Barre Workout

Build lean muscle, challenge your core strength and improve your cardiovascular endurance with this cardio kickboxing barre workout. We’ll strengthen every muscle in the body with this fusion workout. Cardio kickboxing barre blends the sculpting power of barre with heart-pumping kickboxing drills, creating a dynamic workout that will leave you feeling strong and energized.

I spent years teaching cardio barre classes at local Minnesota studios and I love a fusion barre workout.

Barre workouts are known for the sneaky “barre burn” because they involve a lot of small pulsing movements and isometric holds that target hard-to-reach accessory muscles.

Personally, I love a fusion workout like barre blend, barre sculpt, or today’s cardio kickboxing barre. These fusion-style workouts are a great way to mix up the week and allow you to reap the benefits of several different training styles.

Today’s cardio kickboxing barre workout combines the sculpting benefits of barre with the cardio endurance benefits you get from kickboxing exercises. This makes for an effective and fun workout at home.

Cardio Kickboxing Home Workout Jab with light weights

Achieve your fitness goals at home with this guided, cardio kickboxing barre workout.

A complete workout targeting every muscle group in the body: the lower body (quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves, and thighs), upper body (biceps, triceps, back, shoulders, and chest) and core.

Add cardio barre workouts like this one to your home workout plan 1-2 times per week to build and maintain strength.

Workout Instructions:

Follow along with the guided Cardio Kickboxing Barre Workout on YouTubeled by certified personal trainer and barre instructor, Lindsey Bomgren. 

Your Workout Looks Like This:

  • 30 Minutes of Cardio Barre Exercises
  • Sequenced Flow (moving naturally from one series to the next)

Workout Equipment:

Optional Light Dumbbells. I recommend between 2-15 lbs depending on your fitness level. I’m using 5 lb dumbbells in today’s workout.

Cardio Boxing Workout

Prefer to Watch On YouTube?

youtube icon Cardio Barre

Workout Outline

  1. Warm Up
  2. Down Dog and Plank
  3. Chair Pose and Arms
  4. Cardio Kickboxing Interval with Weights
  5. Second Position and Arms
  6. Cardio Kickboxing Interval without Weights
  7. Mat Series
  8. Cool Down and Stretch

Chair Pose and Tricep Kickback to Balance Press

Targets: Legs, glutes, quads, triceps, shoulders, abs and core.

woman performing chair pose to an overhead press and knee drive in a cardio barre workout

How To Do Chair Pose and Tricep Kickback to Balance Press

  1. Begin standing in mountain pose, feet together with your big toes touching. Hold a set of light weights at your sides, palms facing in.
  2. Bend your knees, bringing your thighs as parallel to the floor as they can get. Your knees will project out slightly over your feet. Bring your pelvis and hips down as low as you can. This is chair pose.
  3. Hold chair pose as you bring the dumbbells to your sides (palms facing your body) with your arms bent at 90 degrees. Think shoulders down and back away from your ears.
  4. Perform a tricep kickback with the dumbbells. ‘Kickback,’ extending the elbows so your arms form a straight line as you push the dumbbells back past your hips.
  5. With control, slowly return the dumbbells to the starting position. As you do so, stand tall, shifting your weight into your left foot.
  6. Then, perform a knee drive by driving the right knee up towards your chest, stopping so right knee is in line with right hip.
  7. Hold the knee high as you perform an overhead shoulder press, pressing the dumbbells directly overhead, locking out biceps near ears.
  8. With control, lower the dumbbells back down to your shoulders, then down to your sides as you lower the right foot back to the mat and repeat the sequence.

Modification: Option to omit the balance element, keeping both feet on the ground as you perform tricep kickbacks and overhead presses.

Front Punch and Press Jack

Targets: Total body — back, shoulders, chest, biceps, triceps, glutes, outer glutes (side butt), quadriceps, hip flexors, inner thighs, calves, abs and core.

woman performing two jabs and two jacks with light hand weights in a cardio barre workout

How To Do A Front Punch and Press Jack

  1. Start standing feet hip-distance apart, knees slightly bent. 
  2. Hinge forward slightly and bring your fists up to chest level. Option to hold a pair of light weights.
  3. Maintain this loaded stance as you jab your right hand forward, punching the air in front of you. Keep your left arm in towards your chest.
  4. Then pull the right arm back in towards your chest as you immediately alternate, jabbing your left hand forward to punch the air in front of you.
  5. Then “jack” both legs out wide as you press the dumbbells overhead, locking out biceps near ears.
  6. “Jack” your feet back together and return the dumbbells to shoulder height. Repeat for a second press jack, then return to the starting position and repeat the two front punches.

Modification: Option to make this a low-impact exercise by tapping your feet out instead of jacking them out.

Second Position Pulse and Front Punch

Targets: Glutes, quads, hamstrings, inner thighs (adductor muscles), shoulders, chest, biceps and core.

woman performing pulses in second position with a front punch in a cardio barre workout

How To Do Second Position Pulse and Front Punch

  1. 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.
  2. Hold a light set of weights in front of you, palms facing in. Bend your knees, lowering into the bottom of your pliè squat. Shoulders should remain directly over hips. As you squat low, flip the palms so they’re facing the ceiling and press them directly out in front of you as if you were serving a platter.
  3. Drive through the heels to rise up as you move your arms in a circular motion, this time flipping the palms down so they’re facing the ground. Think of dumping the platter rather than serving it. Keep a slight bend in the knees to maintain constant tension in the legs.
  4. Repeat this pulsing squat movement as you continue to circle the arms, rotating between serving the platter and dumping the platter (palms up versus palms down).

Sumo Squat High-to-Low Punches

Targets: Inner thighs, outer thighs, glutes, quads, shoulders, back and biceps.

woman performing a sumo squat with high to low punches in a cardio kickboxing barre workout

How To Do A Sumo Squat High-to-Low Punches

  1. Stand with feet wider than hips, heels in and toes pointed out (sumo squat stance). Option to hold a pair of light weights in your hands. Bring your hands or knuckles up to “defend” your face in a guard position.
  2. Bend your knees to lower down into a wide squat, pushing your knees out towards your pinky toes as you drop your hips parallel to your knees.
  3. Punch your right arm overhead and out to your right side as you hold the bottom of the sumo squat. Keep your left arm in your defensive position.
  4. Keep a loaded squat stance and pulse up and down about an inch as you bring the right arm in, then immediately punch it back out, this time punching the arm a little bit lower as you simultaneously sink into a lower squat.
  5. Continue to maintain the squat pulse as you punch the right arm out four consecutive times, punching lower each time as you continue to sink into a lower squat.
  6. After you’ve performed the lowest punch at the bottom, drive through your heels to stand tall as you bring the right arm back in.
  7. Then repeat the sequence. Punch on the right side for the timed interval, switching sides on the next set.

Jab, Cross and Speed Bags

Targets: Arms, shoulders, back, chest, biceps, triceps, abs, core and calves.

woman performing a jab cross speedbag in a cardio kickboxing workout at home

How To Do A Jab, Cross and Speed Bag

  1. Start standing, feet hip-width apart, knees bent, core engaged. Open your hips to the right so your left foot is forward and right leg is back. Bring hands or knuckles up to “defend” your face in a guard position.
  2. With your right arm, “jab” forward towards the front of the room. Pull your right arm back to your defensive position.
  3. Then punch across your body with your left hand (crossbody punch). Pull both hands back to the defensive position.
  4. Then imagine you’re hitting a “speed bag” (think of any kind of boxing movie you’ve seen, this is the classic move!) for a two-count. Make large circular motions with each arm as you “hit” your imaginary boxing bag.
woman performing chair pose as part of barre workout

FREE 2-WEEK PROGRAM

Download Your FREE “3-2-8” Workout Plan Here

Combine strength training, barre pilates, and daily step goals in a well-rounded 2-week workout plan. Download the FREE challenge here.
Download Plan
What Is Cardio Kickboxing Barre?

Cardio kickboxing is a martial art inspired workout format that combines punches and kicks from both karate and traditional boxing with heart-pumping cardio exercises. Barre workouts are inspired by traditional ballet moves while pulling from yoga and pilates exercises. The combination of cardio kickboxing and barre creates a total body workout that challenges your small, stabilizing muscles as well as your cardio endurance, core strength, flexibility, speed and agility.

Is Cardio Kickboxing Barre Good For Weight Loss?

Kickboxing is one of the best full body cardio workouts you can do at home. It’s a high intensity aerobic workout from start to finish that raises your heart rate and burns calories (making it great for fat loss). The kickboxing barre combination offers a great low impact workout that will burn fat while being joint-friendly.

Pin This Workout: 30-Minute Cardio Kickboxing Barre

Cardio Barre Boxing Full Body Workout at Home

This post includes affiliate links. I do earn a commission for products purchased using these links (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for supporting Nourish Move Love, making the content you see on this blog possible.

6 comments
  1. Hey Lindsey!
    Thanks so much for another incredible workout! Loving the variety that you bring to the table, and this barre/kickboxing combo was a great idea. Keep up the great work!

  2. Five days into our quarantine and I’m so appreciative of your video resources and encouragement. Doing this workout tomorrow morning. Thank you!

  3. Love all your workouts, but specially barre kickboxing!! Been doing your weekly routines for months!