So I did the DB Barre workout today. First, a few cons:
1-no mirror cueing. However, you are facing the screen most of the workout so its no trouble to just follow their moves and ignore the right/left commands.
2-chaptering-it has 5 chapters that start every 10 minutes but have no relation whatsoever to the exercises.
3-Sadie, the instructor, talks too fast. However, the actual pace of the workout was good-not too frantic. If you turned off her voice and just watched video it would look fast paced but not too fast.
That said, there were a lot of things to like about this workout. I’m comparing it to TurboBarre, which is the only Barre workout I’ve done. So I’m not an expert in this area AT ALL. But I liked it better than TurboBarre.
The first 26 minutes you are holding 1-2# hand weights and/or a resistance band so your upper body is getting a lot of work. I had to rest several times even using 1# weights! And I do overhead presses with 15s. Just saying. It was Hard! There is a lot of upper/lower simultaneous moves going on which really gets the heart rate up. You start with side lunges into leg abduction(an STS exercise by the way) while lifting one arm overhead and keeping the other arm out in a static lateral raise. That’s your warmup, and it was good. You then go into plie squats, then on toes, then one leg on toe, then jack in and out (a low impact mod is shown). Your arms are working this entire time.
Next you go down to the floor into a plank, then dragon plank while doing pushups. Doing pushups in dragon pose was a new one for me. It really stretches your hip out while your working, which I liked. You do about 60? pushups. Then mountain climbers to get your heart rate up. Like its not up from doing 60 pushups already. I had to go shallow in the pushups and went anaerobic during the climbers. Killer.
Back to standing you are now using the band with one hand for overhead press while the other arm holds a weight out in a lateral raise. And you’re back lunging on one leg. Then punch band out and to the side, in static hold of a lunge. Again, 4 limbed work-very cardio.
Down to the floor again for spiderman mountain climbers (cathe does these with a disc-you are jumping them here.) Then about 100 tricep pushups on knees-or not.
This takes about 12 minutes to do on one side. Then you start all over and repeat using the other side of the body for the moves. I was absolutely drenched with sweat after this.
The next section is Barre, using a chair. Again you work all one side then the other.
Curtsy lunges into side abductions ; leg circles forward; leg raise to side and back; rear leg lift while other is pulsing in releve(on toes); pulse leg up high; leg circles forward; pulses in attitude; leg circles backwards; pulses, criss-cross hops then lift leg back (low impact mod shown); static hold on toes. This takes 7 minutes.
Then you are using a playground soft squishy ball. I really liked this section and how it worked my muscles. You are standing with legs crossed in front of each other, on toes, contracting the ball between your inner thighs and squeezing glutes at the same time. You do this from different angles for about 3 minutes. I don’t have a ball so I used my stability ball foot pump-it compresses like an accordion and worked just fine!
So the Barre/ball section totals 10 minutes on the first leg, then you repeat it all over on the other leg. Both legs are working at all times, just in different ways. I had to alternate legs because my standing leg cramps up too bad, which I also have to do in TurboBarre.
The last section is abs, which is pretty short, about 4 minutes. You put the soft ball under your tailbone and scissor your legs in various poses-up and down, pulses, leg circles, double leg stretch. It wasn’t very hard, but I used a foam roller to support my back which probably made it easier. Burned my hip flexors way more than my abs.
There is a nice 3 minute stretch but its way too short. I did the STS extended stretch after that.
I felt like a had a good total body workout but in a totally different way then I feel after say Muscle Max. I thought this was much harder than TurboBarre, much more cardio-I was dripping with sweat and breathing hard the entire time. Alternating my legs during the Barre section made it a much easier workout than if you stayed on the same leg the whole time. Kudos to anyone to anyone who do the one leg the entire time! I just hit failure and then find myself using my back to elevate the leg which defeats the purpose, which is why I change legs back and forth.
To compare this to other programs, it has a feel of Insanity in the intensity; Slim Series in the variety and quick changes from move to move; The Firm in the 4 limb choreography style moves.
Really all the exercises in this workout were familiar and in no way weird, poor form or dangerous. The pace is fast and I did have to slow down some, but not that different from Cathe really-I can’t keep up with her pace on lunges or pushups either. I am 56 years old, so if I can do this workout, anyone can, with modifications. There was only a minute or two of high impact with low impact mod shown (which I did.) My knees felt great throughout and I have knee issues so that is another plus.
This one is definitely a keeper for me!
Beth
1-no mirror cueing. However, you are facing the screen most of the workout so its no trouble to just follow their moves and ignore the right/left commands.
2-chaptering-it has 5 chapters that start every 10 minutes but have no relation whatsoever to the exercises.
3-Sadie, the instructor, talks too fast. However, the actual pace of the workout was good-not too frantic. If you turned off her voice and just watched video it would look fast paced but not too fast.
That said, there were a lot of things to like about this workout. I’m comparing it to TurboBarre, which is the only Barre workout I’ve done. So I’m not an expert in this area AT ALL. But I liked it better than TurboBarre.
The first 26 minutes you are holding 1-2# hand weights and/or a resistance band so your upper body is getting a lot of work. I had to rest several times even using 1# weights! And I do overhead presses with 15s. Just saying. It was Hard! There is a lot of upper/lower simultaneous moves going on which really gets the heart rate up. You start with side lunges into leg abduction(an STS exercise by the way) while lifting one arm overhead and keeping the other arm out in a static lateral raise. That’s your warmup, and it was good. You then go into plie squats, then on toes, then one leg on toe, then jack in and out (a low impact mod is shown). Your arms are working this entire time.
Next you go down to the floor into a plank, then dragon plank while doing pushups. Doing pushups in dragon pose was a new one for me. It really stretches your hip out while your working, which I liked. You do about 60? pushups. Then mountain climbers to get your heart rate up. Like its not up from doing 60 pushups already. I had to go shallow in the pushups and went anaerobic during the climbers. Killer.
Back to standing you are now using the band with one hand for overhead press while the other arm holds a weight out in a lateral raise. And you’re back lunging on one leg. Then punch band out and to the side, in static hold of a lunge. Again, 4 limbed work-very cardio.
Down to the floor again for spiderman mountain climbers (cathe does these with a disc-you are jumping them here.) Then about 100 tricep pushups on knees-or not.
This takes about 12 minutes to do on one side. Then you start all over and repeat using the other side of the body for the moves. I was absolutely drenched with sweat after this.
The next section is Barre, using a chair. Again you work all one side then the other.
Curtsy lunges into side abductions ; leg circles forward; leg raise to side and back; rear leg lift while other is pulsing in releve(on toes); pulse leg up high; leg circles forward; pulses in attitude; leg circles backwards; pulses, criss-cross hops then lift leg back (low impact mod shown); static hold on toes. This takes 7 minutes.
Then you are using a playground soft squishy ball. I really liked this section and how it worked my muscles. You are standing with legs crossed in front of each other, on toes, contracting the ball between your inner thighs and squeezing glutes at the same time. You do this from different angles for about 3 minutes. I don’t have a ball so I used my stability ball foot pump-it compresses like an accordion and worked just fine!
So the Barre/ball section totals 10 minutes on the first leg, then you repeat it all over on the other leg. Both legs are working at all times, just in different ways. I had to alternate legs because my standing leg cramps up too bad, which I also have to do in TurboBarre.
The last section is abs, which is pretty short, about 4 minutes. You put the soft ball under your tailbone and scissor your legs in various poses-up and down, pulses, leg circles, double leg stretch. It wasn’t very hard, but I used a foam roller to support my back which probably made it easier. Burned my hip flexors way more than my abs.
There is a nice 3 minute stretch but its way too short. I did the STS extended stretch after that.
I felt like a had a good total body workout but in a totally different way then I feel after say Muscle Max. I thought this was much harder than TurboBarre, much more cardio-I was dripping with sweat and breathing hard the entire time. Alternating my legs during the Barre section made it a much easier workout than if you stayed on the same leg the whole time. Kudos to anyone to anyone who do the one leg the entire time! I just hit failure and then find myself using my back to elevate the leg which defeats the purpose, which is why I change legs back and forth.
To compare this to other programs, it has a feel of Insanity in the intensity; Slim Series in the variety and quick changes from move to move; The Firm in the 4 limb choreography style moves.
Really all the exercises in this workout were familiar and in no way weird, poor form or dangerous. The pace is fast and I did have to slow down some, but not that different from Cathe really-I can’t keep up with her pace on lunges or pushups either. I am 56 years old, so if I can do this workout, anyone can, with modifications. There was only a minute or two of high impact with low impact mod shown (which I did.) My knees felt great throughout and I have knee issues so that is another plus.
This one is definitely a keeper for me!
Beth