It can be difficult to motivate yourself to exercise at the best of times, never mind when it's dark and cold outside and getting out on a run or making your way to the gym feels impossible.
Fortunately, you can get a good workout without leaving the comfort of your own home. You can even do cardio without disturbing your downstairs neighbors or moving furniture around.
Barre is a form of exercise inspired by ballet and incorporates elements of Pilates and yoga to strengthen and mobilize the muscles and joints.
It's a workout style I often turn to when I want something low-impact that still provides a challenge. That's why I was excited to discover a cardio barre routine, on a day when the grey skies and cold temperatures meant I was keen to find an alternative to my usual 5K run.
The workout is from barre and Pilates instructor Lara Maurermeier, and it promises to heat up muscles all over the body and burn calories in just 15 minutes—all with no jumping.
I was intrigued and decided to give the workout a go.
How to do Lara Maurermeier's cardio barre routine
To do this workout, you'll need a chair or another stable surface to lean against, as well as a little bit of space to move around.
It takes 15 minutes and you can follow along with Maurermeier's video as she demonstrates each move in real-time.
My experience trying a cardio barre workout
The barre workouts I usually do tend to focus on small, slow and controlled movements, but this workout was very different. For a start, it moved at a much faster pace.
On top of that, there were lots of lunge variations that engaged a wide range of muscles.
I felt that my heart rate was higher than if I was doing a more traditional barre workout and the muscles in my legs were fully engaged.
By the end of the workout, I was out of breath and my legs felt tired—pretty good for 15 minutes.
However, this routine didn't challenge me as much as my usual gym-based strength workouts, or going on a run.
Despite this, it was a great way to move my body when I didn't feel like exercising otherwise and my head felt a lot clearer by the end of the routine.
This is also a fantastic workout for anyone who is not in an exercise routine and is new to cardio. It will certainly challenge you, but you should be able to keep up with the pace and the types of movements.
Plus, it's low-impact which means there's less risk of damaging your joints, for anyone who isn't used to exercise or is recovering from an injury.
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