Is Barre the yang to Yoga’s yin? I had a love/hate relationship with barre the first time I took a class. I’m a yogi after all, and that “do-what-feels-good-rest-when-you-want” attitude inherent to a good yoga practice was replaced with a “stay-in-it-and-let-it-burn” encouragement that made me shake, sweat, and swear under my breath. However, I found that by making barre classes a part of my routine, my yoga practice became stronger, more stable and safer. My knees stopped hurting, my flexibility inexplicably increased, and my high to low push-ups no longer put any strain on my low back. Oh, and my core, forget about it!!! I became ridiculously strong.

I began to incorporate much of what I learned and taught in my barre classes into my yoga classes both in my own practice and as a teacher. What I found was an effective, efficient, and beautiful synchronicity that helped me to move my students through smarter and more functional sequences, while awakening and creating a new kind of muscular strength. While the yoga poses generally target the bigger muscle groups in large ranges of motion, barre targets singular and often forgotten muscles in a sustained, targeted, and much smaller range. 

We’ll learn about fast twitch muscles vs slow twitch muscles, why and what that burning sensation is, explore how to modify for injury while still targeting the desired muscle/s, how to add the ‘barre’ while sequencing in a way that keeps the ‘yoga’ and finally how the mindfulness, breathing, and connection to the body in yoga is the perfect compliment to the internal fortitude it takes to get through the barre exercises (and visa versa). The last hour of class will give you the opportunity to try it yourselves as I lead you through a one hour yoga/barre fusion practice.

1:00-2:45 Applied learning & Lecture

2:45-4:00 Flow taught through barre lens

$35