05 Nov Why do I believe so strongly in the BarSculpt method?
Why do I believe so strongly in the BarSculpt method? Well of course part of it is because it is literally my baby, created out of my love for teaching the Lotte Berk Mrthod and Pilates . I created BarSculpt to bring the same change to bodies through movement, as my body experienced.
So what is it about BarSculpt that makes it body altering? Simply put it is the structure of the method and the freedom found within that structure.
BarSculpt is an energizing interval group fitness class usually utilizing a ballet bar and one's own body as resistance to challenge strength and flexibility, resulting in a sculpted form with enhanced balance, posture, and vitality.
BarSculpt focuses on first working the large muscles (such as the quadriceps) to exhaustion and then stretching those muscles out so that as class moves along the small muscles can step up and do the work. It is here, in the work of the small muscles that bodies are changed, waists defined and strength built.
The exercises are planned specifically, while there are different moves in each section the sections are never switched around. For example, back body is never completed before front body and the placement of SeatWork is always after ThighWork, never reversed.
Even with this tight control on the order of the exercise there is freedom within each section. Clients find challenge every time they attend a class because even though they know that ThighWork follows ArmWork they never know if today’s thighwork will push their strength in chair, or make them lower and hold in a Pilates V, the minor differences in a section keep the routine fresh and challenging.
By adding the ballet barre to the routine participants work to exhaustion while standing so the mat exercises seem like a welcome break. At the point where we walk away from the barre and use the mat for abs the large muscles are ready for a rest and the abdominals must step up and do the work. This structure produces tangible changes to the body in just weeks.
BarSculpt incorporates many of the wonderful elements of the original Lotte Berk Method class, but it is not the same class. There are anatomical changes incorporated based on years of Pilates training, working with clients and working in my own body. BarSculpt isn’t the class that is jumping on the trendy barre bandwagon. BarSculpt is the class others are trying to recreate.
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