The butt, hip, backside or however you wish to address your gluteal muscles, are the strongest and biggest muscles of the human body. Here are some tips on barre exercises to strengthen glutes and avoid imbalances in muscles that may lead to pain/injury in spine, knee and hip.
Strong glutes help you perform activities of daily life, give you power to run faster, reduce the risk of injuries and improves posture muscles hence, it is important to strengthen our glutes as prolonged sitting is often linked with creating imbalances in muscles that may lead to pain/injury in spine, knee and hip. The butt, hip, backside or however you wish to address your gluteal muscles, are the strongest and biggest muscles of the human body and the 3 glute muscles, maximus, minimus and medius, work together to push leg to the side (abduct), rotate and extend the hip from a bent position.
Incorporating barre exercises can help you achieve real glute pump and strength without really lifting heavy or visiting the gym as this style trains you like a dancer without technically training like one. It is a lot like a mix of Pilates, Yoga, strength training, stretching and cardio where each barre session is designed as a full-body, endurance workout focusing on low-impact, high repetition ranging a different challenge on muscle to grow.
In an interview with HT Lifestyle, Ishav Mehta, Elite Coach and Postpartum expert at MyHealthBuddy, revealed, “The ‘barre burn’ is real and the effects start showing up from next day onwards. Barre challenges your glutes muscle to work isometrically as you hold the position for a long time, exhausting reps with minimal weights.”
Since Barre is a technique involves full body boosting movements with combination of isolation exercises like:
1. Standing Hip Abduction –30 reps each side
2. Circle kicks –30 reps each side
3. Table top Kick backs –30 reps each side
4. Single leg hinges –20 reps each side
5. Single leg Glute bridge –20 reps each side
He suggested a few tips to feel effective glute burn:
1. Every time you contract the glute muscle in a movement, instead of using momentum, think of holding the squeeze for an additional second.
2. Connect your mind to the muscle, it’s important to focus your thoughts on the glute muscle when performing lower body exercises.
3. It’s important to maintain a neutral spine (no overarching of lower back) throughout movements.
Ishav Mehta said, “As much as barre workouts are great beginner friendly and are easy to perform it’s also important to perform proper strength training for muscular strength and cardio for aerobic fitness. If we wish to be truly fit and strong then we need to opt for diversity in workouts modalities and not fixate to one.”
According to Abhishek Chatterjee, General Manager at Switch Wellness, CPT ACSM, barre workout technique mostly depends on isometric exercises where constant pressure is kept on muscles without changing their length (like a plank). He said, “It is widely popular and believed to help in developing lean muscle mass. These workout techniques are promising for the lower body, especially for the glutes fat-burning barre is a perfect choice. It focuses on the fat accumulated in the lower body and helps in burning them.”
He highlighted that barre workout is based on three fundamental principles:
1. Breathing principle – Breathing patterns should enhance movement not hinder it. Optimum breathing ensures proper oxygen supply to muscles and the heart.
2. Pelvic placement principle – Stabilisation of the spine in optimum shock-absorbing position is very important as most of the Barre workout is performed in a standing position.
3. Rib cage placement and stabilisation – An awareness of the abdominal muscles and spine position helps overcome the rib cage deviation that happens generally in a standing position.
He too added to the list of tips that will help in burning glutes fat a bit more efficiently:
1. Focus on the sides – Make sure that stretches and exercises are focused on one side each. Completely feel the burn on the right side before moving on to the left. The focused fat burning is what works for the glute fat.
2. Take a moment - Experience the burn or fatigue in one position and try holding on to the posture for an extra second. The principle factor working in favour of the barre is the focussed pressure on a specific muscle fat.
3. Focus on the burn – One tends to lose focus while holding a position for a long time. Instead, try focusing the mind on the burn or stress on the muscles.
4. Focus on the tabletop position – Table top position exercises where one is on all fours are focused more on the glutes fat than the standing positions. It channelizes the stress points on the glutes fat for a toned result.
Abhishek Chatterjee said, “The isometric nature of Barre makes it a great method to develop stronger glutes. Movements like “squat pulses”, “squat kickbacks” and “hip lifts” (variation of the pelvic bridge) are some of the exercises that help in developing strong glutes. The term tight glutes are not really applicable as tightness suggests a lack of flexibility and mobility in the glutes which can lead to lower back pain.”