Trainer Rachel Nicks was a finalist for Women's Health Magazine's Next Fitness Star. She was an athlete growing up, and as she got older, gravitated toward yoga and barre. Now, Barre Class is among her favorite to teach, and she says don't discount it before you try it.
"I feel like people have a similar reaction or aversion that they might do to yoga,” says Rachel Nicks, trainer at BFX Studio. “It's like I don't know it's too hard, or it's girly or it's just ballet and it's not that. I literally had to convince a student yesterday at BFX to come try my class. We had to literally shake on it, because he thought maybe he'd be doing twinkle toes across the classroom or something. But I guaranteed him that it would be very intense."
Nicks played sports all her life, but gravitated toward yoga and barre as she got older. She says barre targets every muscle and creates a long lean body.
"You basically fatigue each muscle group so you start with the top of the body and finish all the way at the bottom, so I go pushup, plank, core work, then we go lightweight work,” Nicks says. “Lots of repetitions to burn it out. We stretch, we do thighs, we do glutes and more core."
Barre class began in London in the 1950s and was first introduced in the States in the 70s. It combines elements of ballet, Pilates and yoga. It uses your own bodyweight as resistance to strengthen your core and improve your balance.
"The other great thing about barre is that it is for everyone,” Nicks says. “For an elder, for an injured person - it was created by Lodi Burke who was a retired dancer dealing with a lot of injuries and she was like 'What can I do to stay healthy to stay fit and work around injuries?'"
Rachel says you'll get fast results if you put in the work. She says if you do barre three or four times a week for a month, you will have a different body.