BARRE CLASSES
Our barre tone classes are specifically designed to offer an extremely effective total body workout that strengthens, tightens, elongates and burns fat.
You don't need a background in ballet to join our classes.
Barre classes are completely inclusive.
Welcome to reading more about our
Barre Tone Classes.
Our Barre Tone Classes use a blend of the classical dance form with yoga and Pilates. Each session targets your core and lower body as you make tiny pulsing movements, using your body weight as resistance, to fast-paced music.
Balancing with the aid of the barre, you isolate certain muscle groups, giving you faster results than your average yoga or Pilates class. It’s also a great way to improve posture and build lean muscle.
Plie and pulse your way to leaner legs, tighter abs and stronger arms.
What is a
Barre Tone Class?
Barre training is modeled after moves that ballet dancers perform in their studios. You hold on to a horizontal bar and do stretches and technical ballet squats to strengthen your quads, glutes, hamstrings, ankle ligaments, and hip flexors.
By combining movements from yoga and dance, this training method stays true to Pilates, by focusing on a lot of core lengthening and strengthening. The classes promise to help develop a “dancer’s body”, through body-sculpting movements, which emphasize the development of long, toned muscles.
What will I do in a Barre
Tone
Class?
Our Barre Tone Classes include a mix of barre work, abdominal work, as well as free weights, yoga straps and medicine balls, with upbeat music.
Expect a warm-up to elevate your heart rate and engage your core, followed by several sets of exercises, each set aimed at a target area, including shoulders/arms/back, core, thighs and seat. Common exercises include variations on planks, push-ups, pliés, lunges and fire hydrants. To the rhythm of music with a strong beat, you'll pulse, lift, circle and hold nearly every part of your body until it trembles and burns.
Each segment concludes with stretching the muscles worked before hitting the next muscle group. There are workouts at the barre and on mats to work these specific parts of the body. The sequence variations last for 30-120 seconds to avoid stagnation and to ensure optimal alignment.
Position and alignment are key. There's lots of clenching of glute muscles and pulling belly buttons in toward the spine and breath cues.
While most of the moves rely on gravity and body weight for resistance, some require accoutrements such as exercise balls, resistance bands and light (one-to-five-pound) dumbbells.
What body areas does a
barre Tone
class target?
The idea is to target specific muscles, such as transverse abdominals, psoas majors, inner thigh and obliques, ones that don't always get attention.
The goal of the classes is to create those longer, leaner muscles through muscular endurance, not to build muscle mass. This is achieved through many repetitions of lifting light weights, and moving through limited ranges of motion. For example, assuming a plié and flexing your knees up and down an inch, until your quads are on fire.
Barre improves postural alignment, flexibility, core strength and functional fitness, while the low-impact format minimizes the risk of injury: It's very relatable to the rest of your life. The benefits of barre class enhance your ability to safely move everyday items, such as groceries.
Barre can be an excellent complement to the repetitive, single-plane motions characteristic of workouts, such as running and cycling. For example, you'll work your quads while standing at the barre in second position, where your stance is wide and your feet are turned out. This position, which mimics a sumo-wrestler stance, opens your hips and awakens muscles you didn't know you had. Similarly, exercises such as "pretzel," which, as the name suggests, challenges your body to become a pretzel (and is just as hard as it sounds), engage smaller muscle groups that have been dominated by major muscles. Therefore, if you have underdeveloped muscle groups because of the type of training you're doing, barre can [target] those spots and bring you back to a more balanced state.
FAQs
How much are Barre Tone Classes?
Barre Classes at Saddleworth Ballet School are extremely competitive. Competitive pricing in Alderley Edge is £28.00 per class.
Pricing:
£10.00 per class.
What should I wear to a Barre Tone Class?
While not required, snug-fitting clothes make it easier to spot any flaws in your form.
However, any form of gym/sportswear is absolutely fine.
Bare feet is a must, or socks with rubber grips on the soles are ideal.
How do I pay for classes?
You pay for classes through a direct debit that is collected monthly on a date of your preference.
The class cost [dependent on how many sessions you attend each week], is multiplied by the number of weeks in the year, and divided by 12 months.
If you wish to leave, you simply cancel your direct debit.
Can I do Barre Tone Classes if I am pregnant?
In short, yes, but all women and all pregnancies are unique. Please always seek advice from your doctor.
Gentle movements and a focus on alignment make barre a great choice for pregnant and postpartum women. As pregnant women's bellies grow, their weight naturally shifts forward: If they don't strengthen their seat, if they don't strengthen their back muscles, they're going to start feeling sore. Focusing on the posterior chain can counter those imbalances.
Does a Barre Tone Class count as cardio?
Sorry—it's all about strength. If you're looking to get your heart pumping, you'll need to add 75 minutes a week of cardio (running, spin class). You will, however, burn fat, torching up to 345 calories an hour. And your ankles won't throb: classes don't involve jumping, so they're joint-friendly. To create the lean-muscle aesthetic, your regimen should include cardio workouts such as swimming, running or spinning two to three times a week, with the goal of getting into a heart-rate zone where you feel out of breath. Keep in mind that ballerinas don't just work at the barre – they dance up to eight hours a day, five to six days a week.
Saddleworth Ballet School
The Dance Studio
Greenfield Primary School
Shaw Street Greenfield
Saddleworth
Oldham
OL3 7AA