Barre is essentially dance classes meets yoga meets ballet-fitness. The reason why barre is so interesting to me — it’s perfect for weight lifters and power lifters. In fact I prefer it over yoga.
The Achilles (hip) of weight lifters
It seems weight lifters (power lifters especially) would most benefit from stronger hips, stronger hip and knee mobility, abs, and other “IT BAND” type of exercises.
How I got into barre
Cindy got me into it initially from a random workout class she signed up for. And since doing barre with her, I’ve hit new PR’s (personal record) in my squats (3 plates, a 25, and a 5 on each side), and my deadlift has also been strong. My theory is that when it comes to doing squats, deadlifts, or any other leg exercises, we need to build not only our muscles and muscular strength, but the strength of our joints, ligaments, and other connective tissue which often gets overlooked.
The goal is to become stronger, and increase our “one rep max” strength
What I love about powerlifting — physics don’t lie. Also, powerlifting is better than bodybuilding because powerlifting is purely objective, whereas bodybuilding is quite subjective.
Thus the morale the story is this:
If your objective is to increase your one rep max in squat, deadlift, bench etc … add some barre to your fitness regimen.
ERIC