Barre Strong

Hi guys, Tracey Mallett here. Welcome to the mat and a chair. Yes, this is my chair bar today. All you need is a chair or a table, something to hold onto, even a wall, okay? It's better with a chair or something you can actually hold onto.

With a wall, you can't hold onto it, but you can obviously touch it for a little help with balance. So I'd kind of would suggest getting a chair or a countertop, something like that. We're also gonna need a ball today, too, to work those inner thighs. We're gonna start standing, doing some leg work, and then we can progress down to the floor to finish off with some core and some inner thigh and leg work, okay? You ready to get going?

Alrighty. So let's put the hands on the hips and you're just gonna walk through the feet just like this, just a little walking through the feet. There we go. Just getting those ankle joints nice and warm. Alrighty, 'cause we're gonna be going up onto a releve, which is on the balls of your feet.

We just want those ankle joints nice and supple. Now bring both feet down, releve up and down. That's it. Up and down, working those calf muscles. Let's do five more here, five, and four, and three, and two, and one more, and then slowly turn around to face your lovely chair, feet are parallel, releve up onto your balls of your feet and we're gonna plie down and up. Now you are on the balls of your feet, the soft part of your foot, not on your toes, and you're gonna try and get the heels connected together.

Shoulders over your hips in that beautiful alignment. As to four, for three, for two, for one, hold it down there. Little pulses. So in that mid range of motion, just like your leg work. Okay, let's do eight more here, and eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two.

Now bend your knees, lower your heels, releve. Keep your knees bent. So you just low on your heels and releveing, but keep your knees bent. Let's do four more like that. Four, three, two, and one.

Extend the knees, turn the feet out into like a V position. Toes are pointing diagonally forward and plie down and up. Now your heels are connected, your knees are going diagonally forward off the mat. Once again, you're zipping up from your inner thigh, pelvic floor abdominals and you're resisting your chair, depressing your scapular to work your back. Your abs are engaged, down and up.

Small releve, four, and three, and two. Now hold it down little midway in little tiny pulses. We call this like the burn zone. Yeah, you can feel those legs. Now lift up with your hamstrings.

Think of working your hamstrings here. Lifting up, drawing the sit bones together, pulling the pelvic floor up, but knees are going this direction, not to the sides. For five, for four, for three, for two, for one, hold it there. Extend without moving your heels. Now take your feet wide, so you're just kind of off the mat diagonally, toes forwards, releve up onto your balls of your your feet, plie down and up.

So you're in a kind of a wide second position. Now once again, make sure you're not on that high releve. That is really important. You keep your ankle joint completely stable, and you could wiggle your toes around. Could even test your balance to make sure that you're not hanging onto the chair.

The chair is just there for little extra help, a little extra help with your balance, but you should not be relying on it too much. Let's do four more, four, lift, three, lift, two, lift, one. Down we go. Hold it there in that lovely mid-range of motion here. You're gonna feel those inner of thighs work.

Your adductors working super hard. Okay. Let's do eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Hold it there. See if we can test our balance, bring your hands together, shoulders over your hips, hold it there.

Now, keep your ankle joint still, extend all the way up and then lower your heels down. From here, we're gonna turn to the front, back foot on a releve, front foot down. You're in a lunge position here. So front heel is down. Gonna hold onto that chair or your bar and pull your shoulder blades down.

Then we're gonna add the arm. You're gonna reach, pull back, reach. So working those legs down and up, down and up, four more here. Four, three, two and one. Reach the hand forward.

Now lift that front heel, pop it up and down. Lift it up and down. But don't bob up and down. Just lift that heel up and down. Scoop out those abs, lift it up. Ooh, there we go.

Feel that back leg is the burning. Good, let's do four more here. Four, and three, and two. Hold it there. Lift the hand over your head and then come back down, turn to the other side. Back heel is off, and down and up, down and up in a single lunge.

Your hand is just there for support. Perfect. Now we're gonna add the arm, reach forwards and back. Swinging that arm down, squeeze those legs. Good, let's do four more here.

Four, three, two, now give me one more, hold it here. Now pop that front heel up and down. So that front heel is lifting up and down, and you're staying low. You're not going up or down. You're staying low. There we go. Lift that leg up.

That back leg is burning. All right? Up and down, and six, and five, and four, and three and two. Hold it here. Hold it. Now fully extend, the arm comes overhead.

Perfect. Come back into center, bend the knees, pitch the body forwards, and we are just gonna go releve and down. And your hands are on top of your bar. Your body's pitched forward for four, for three, for two. Now hold it here, and little pulses here.

Shoot the right hand forward, palm is flat, and bring it back down and shoot the other hand forwards. There we go. And bring it back. Four more with the other side. We go four, and three, and two, and one.

Bring it back. Six and take it four, three, two, one, bring it back. Six, seven, and eight. Lower your heels, lift up. Bring the legs together from here.

We're gonna step back just a little bit. Turn your right hand, turn that foot out and lift that leg up. So your forearm is on your bar, opening your hips from here. Now we are going to bend your knee and come around into a little attitude. Bend and around.

So we call this a little fan kick. Why I love this so much is for hip mobility, and around. So you in that external rotation of your stabilizing leg and you're doing that lovely hip circle. Hip circles, do a few more. One, last time, hold it here, bend your stabilizing leg.

Make sure that knee's behind, square off your hips and then lift up in your attitude. You wanna make sure your knee's behind your body, your hips are square, place a hand here for a little bit more support and lift from your glutes and your hamstrings, right? Can we lift that leg up? Ooh, there we go. Lift it up. Let's do four, three, two, hold it here.

We're gonna come all the way up, all the way down. So it's like a single leg squat with that stabilizing leg. Lift it up, up, up, down, down, down, down. Up, up, down, down. Lift it up, bend the knee, lift, squeeze that booty and back, and lift up, up, down, down.

One more, lift up, up, and down, down. Hold it here. Now we're gonna kick the leg back, kick it back, so it's going diagonally back. Your focus is forward and you're pressing back. It'll get a little bit faster if you can.

Kick it out with power, strength, precision, those three P's. Power, precision, precise. There we go. Four, three, two, hold it there. Lift up, turn it back to the other side.

Now, let's go the other side, elbow down, turn that leg out. Lift that leg up. Hold it there. Now bend the knee, and we're gonna do our circle, and around, circle around. There we go. Your little hip circle. We call this the fun kick.

There we go. Round and out. Get the synovial fluid going around in that hip socket. So important. Breathe, three more, three, and two, and one.

Hold here, bend your stabilizing leg, square hips off just a little bit. Make sure your knee's behind your body, ready to lift that leg up. So it goes up. Now, be mindful that you are not lifting from your lower back. Super important that you are lifting from your glutes and your hamstrings.

You're gonna feel the burn. Mostly in the stabilizing leg is where all the action is happening, that stabilizing leg, 'cause this is stabilizing the whole body, your stabilizing leg. Good. You're there. Keep it going. Keep smiling. Let's do four more, four, three, two, and one.

We're gonna come up, up, down, down. Lift it up, press it back. Lift it up, reach forward. Squeezing your glutes as you come up, so you're in that lovely single leg squat, working the thighs, walking those legs, bar strong, absolutely. Good. Let's do a few more.

For three, two, one. Hold it there. Now, ready? We're gonna kick it out. We kick, we kick. There we go.

Now resist your bar, lift up. Those obliques, your back is working. You're not hanging onto the bar here, you are reaching out. Let's do a little bit faster and kick and kick and kick and kick. You got it. Oh.

Ready? Can we do four more? We go four, three, two, hold it there. Ooh, bring it back. Now from here, we're gonna step back, nice and tall, hold it here. Curl, releve, pull back.

Curl and just stretch out through that back, pull back. One more, curl, curl, and back. Now turn your feet out into first position, lift that front leg, now get your hip square. Okay, so you're in that square position. Hips are square. We're gonna bend both knees, shoot the leg, bend and shoot.

Now keeping your hips super square, your leg is just a little bit below your hip. So try not to get carried away. In and out, in and out. Four more, four, three, two, one. Hold here. We're gonna pull the leg.

Now, if you can, you're gonna try and drop the hand down to the floor and look underneath. If that's too challenging, stay exactly where you were before. So you're in that lovely stretch. Keep lifting that leg up. There you go, smile.

And four, and three, and two. Now hold it here, hold, lower your leg just a tad, use your abs to come back into that arabesque position. Bring the leg down back to your first position, pull your shoulder blades down. Lift that back leg up, square your hips off, scoop out through those abs. Ready? We go, bend, shoot, bend, reach that leg out.

Now, keep your hips facing the mat. Inhale, now your upper body's gotta stay completely still. So this is not as easy as it may seem, not when you're doing it correctly. You gotta keep that upper body still. That's it.

So the only thing that's moving is your legs. Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale. For four, three, two, one. Hold it there. Hold, take that hand down. Look underneath, lift that leg up and now pulse that leg.

There we go. So you're looking underneath your arm and just pulsing that leg. Perfect. Lifting up. There we go in that awesome stretch. Let's do four, let's do three, let's do two.

Hold it there. Now, keep onto that abdominals by lifting those abs, lower the legs, rotate back around so your hips are square. Lower your foot down, step a little bit closer, plie down, look up into that stretch. Ooh, put your hands down, hands down. Extend, plie, lift up like a little frog, extend, bring your legs together, roll yourself all the way up.

Awesome work. Okay. We're gonna pick up your ball now. I'm just gonna move the chair just out. All right. We're gonna get down onto the floor. We're gonna be in your sideline position here.

Gonna grab your ball and put the ball just on the top of your leg there. Now your forearm is down, your feet is diagonally forward. From here, we're gonna try and lift the legs off of the floor, lifting up and down. So you're in that sideline position here, lifting those legs. So what's happening here is your adductors.

Now, if you feel comfortable, you can take the hand behind the head. So you are working into those oblique muscles there. Feel those obliques and your inner thighs. Good. Let's do four more here.

Four, three, two, and one. Slide the ball down. Hold it here. Slide the ball back. One more set. Eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. Lower the legs down, reach the leg out, lower down.

Now, upper and lower body, lift. So place the hand in front, we call this the banana. So your feet are in front of your torso, and you lifting up into those obliques. Squeeze onto that ball, working those inner thighs. Lift up. Let's do four more here.

Four, exhale, three, and two, hold it here. We gotta find your balance. Hold that balance. Now, if you feel comfortable, we're gonna roll onto your back. Roll back again onto your back. Hold it here, lift the legs up, lower the legs.

Lift them up, lower the legs. Lift them up, lower legs. Three more, three. Keep that head lifted, squeeze that ball. Two, one more, lower the legs, ready to turn back onto your side, find your balance and then come back down.

Bend your knees, reach out to the other side. Get yourself set up, forearm down, ball on the inner part of your calf muscle here. Top leg on top. All right. You ready? Lift up and down.

Shaky shaky for that first attempt. So you can put your hand here for a little bit of support. You got it. Now, if you want, take your hand behind your head, there we go. (exhales deeply) There, lifting up, good, up and down.

Couple more. Feel those obliques, inner thighs. Now, hold it here. Reach the leg out, lift up. Let's take you back, one more round.

Eight reps. Ready? Exhale. Eight, and seven, keep lifting up, six, press that foot down on the ball, four more, four, three, two and hold it there. Lower the leg, reach that leg out. Come all the way down into your sideline. Ready? Upper body and lower body.

Make sure the legs are slightly in front of your torso. There we go. (exhales deeply) Squeeze those inner thighs for four, reach out, three, two, now one more, hold it here. Can we all balance? So we try to balance. Okay, we're gonna try and roll over, onto our back.

Back, side. Balance. Let's try it again. Ready? Drawing those abs back. Hold it here, get comfortable, lift those legs and down. And see if you can reach to the feet and back.

Reach and back. (exhales deeply) Four more. Four, three, two. Now this last one, you're gonna hold it here, pull into that little stretch, and reach the legs out, rolling back onto your side. Hold it there in that balance and then come back down. Bend your knees, lift yourself up. Grab that ball.

Now we're gonna come into a little quadruped position here. Okay. From here, we're going to take the ball into the left hand and press the hips forward into a pushup position. We're gonna go into a nice pushup position here, hinge back. So we're going into a pushup position, hinge back.

So a little extra challenge on that upper body and then hinge back. Push down, hinge back. Press down, hinge back. Two more, back. One more.

Bring it back to center, hold it there, open up the arm, rotate around, lift just in that little rotation. Lift, rotate, lift last time, rotate, lift, bring the hand down. Switch to the other side. Ready? Push up. Push up, hinge back.

Push up, hinge back. Press, use your core, back, deep press and back. Three more, three and back, two and back, one more. Now hinge forward into your push up position, open the arm up. Thread it through, lift up, thread it through, lift up, through, one more in and up.

Bring the hand down, bring the ball into the center of your mat here. Now from here, you're gonna curl the to underneath into your plank position, back up into your downward dog, hold it here. Now getting up your toes, I'm gonna swiddle them back a little bit, press your chest towards the thighs. Now you're gonna turn your toes to point to facing me and lift up. Now we're gonna go back into your plank as your toes go parallel, then you rotate to the opposite direction as you twist up.

So it's kind of like a twisting downward dog. So we go plank, twist, lift up. Great way to activate into those obliques. Twist, plank, twist, plank, twist. There we go.

Using your obliques to come all the way up. Plank, twist. Two more, guys. You've got it. Two more, one more. And then back into your plank here, hold it here.

Come all the way down into your forearms, hold that forearm position and you can see if you can grab the ball. You don't need the ball if you don't have it there, and just hold it. Hold in that position. Drop the right knee, then the left knee, then the right knee, then the left knee. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one.

Lift up, that core is engaged. Get out your shoulder blades for five, four, three, two, and one. Drop the knees down, bring the legs together and reach out into that child's pose. Perfect. You can just put the ball to one side, turn over onto your back.

We're gonna reach the legs forward to here. We're gonna place the hands down, roll up, reach the legs up. Lower the legs down, curl and roll up. We curl down, take the hands, lift the legs up. Curl, back to a straight spine.

Just a couple more. We're gonna be adding onto this. Curl, and up, one more. Then we're gonna add into the rollover. Otherwise, if you don't wanna do a rollover, just stay where you are at. Roll, ready for your rollover.

Open, flex, roll down, lift up. Got that? Curl down, exhale over parallel, open, flex, curl down, point the toes, curl, lift up straight spine. Curl down, C-curl first, hands down, legs lift, up and over, open, flex. Reach the energy out through the heels, point the toes, lift through that like teaser position and lift up, one more.

Curl, hands, leg lift up over there. Open, flex, curl down. This time you're gonna curl the legs into a parallel position. Reach the hands over your head. Now we're gonna circle the hands, bend the knees and come up into a V-sit position.

Reach the legs back out again, circle the hands back, palms up. Circle the hands, up into your V-sit position, palms are lifted. Now, circle the hands back and extend the legs or keep the legs bent. Exhale, curl, lift up, and curl, and back. Two more.

Curl, lift up, up, up, up, reach, someone's pulling you, curl down. Reach the legs out one more time. Curl up, hold it there. Grab hold of your lovely calves. So reach out right, left, right, left in that stretch.

Four, three, two, one. See if we can do both legs. Are we all there? Can we balance? Hold that position. Now from here, we're gonna take your front arm, come all the way down, rotate and reach the arm over.

So everybody's there. We're gonna rotate back to that previous position. So we go rotate, lift up and tap. We curl and reach and look over. Look down to the floor. Now exhale, lift the legs up, tap and curl.

And if that is just too challenging, bend your knees. You can come up to a bent leg and be here, and back. Just a couple more, exhale, lift, rotate back. One more, exhale, lift, rotate back, open the legs in that V-sit position. Take the hands forward, lift that back leg and reach that leg out.

So you are lengthening that leg. Push away from the floor, and you'll lengthen that leg diagonally back and kick. There you go, four more. And four, and three, and two, hold it there. Lift up, lift up, straight leg, reaching away, pressing away from the floor, connecting your arms to your back.

For four, for three, for two, hold it here. Bend that back knee, reach back in that awesome stretch and then turn to the other side. Bend your knees, reach those legs out, reach over. Are you ready? We go up, up, slow, look down.

Ready? Slow and controlled, lift up. Slow and control, resist the floor, and look down and away. Exhale, tap. Inhale, control it. Exhale, tap, and reach.

Remember you can bend the knees if you want if it gets a little too challenging. Can we do a couple more? Sure we can. Two, and one, and then come all the way back, hold it here. Bend the knees, take the hands forward, resist and lift that back leg up. So you got that back leg up in that attitude.

Bend your knees, resist the floor. There we go. Resist, resist. Four, three, two, and one. Reach that leg out, lift it, and lift it.

There we go. So that leg is lifted up and down, You gotta just work in that booty. There we go. For six, for five, for four, for three, for two, hold it there. Bend the knee back, lift back and stretch. Ooh, ain't that lovely stretch.

Hold it here. And release, turning around because I'm here, finishing off with a roll down, hands behind the head. Single leg stretch, go. Hands behind the head, and reach and reach and reach and reach, out. Crisscross and twist, and twist, shoulder to knee, and twist, and twist, and a, keep our shoulder towards the knee, and ready, we're gonna slow it down.

We go slow, slow. A quick, quick, quick, a slow, a slow, a quick, quick, quick, and slow, and slow. A quick, quick, quick and again, and a slow, and a slow, and a quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, quick, and eight, whoa, and seven, and six, and five. Keep picking up that pace, four, and three, and two, and one, chair position. Pelvic tilt.

Tilt, elongate out, exhale, tilt. So you are tilting using your abs to go into that pelvic tilt. Exhale, inhale. Two more, exhale, inhale. Last time, exhale, hold it there.

Bend the knees, drop the legs down. Keep your head lifted, hold it there. And then lower the head, neck, and shoulders. Arms come back down to the side of the body, feet a little bit hit with the part, lift your buns up and stretch it out. Reach the hands over your head in that stretch.

And we're just gonna do like a little figure 8 just to move the hips around. A little figure eight here, controlling with those abs and then lift up. Releve right then left, right then left. Awesome work, you guys. Releve both heels, press your hips up, squeeze that booty, curl down one vertebra at a time.

Knees to chest. Give yourself a little bit of a hug. We're gonna take the hands behind the back of the knees, and we're gonna rock ourselves all the way up. Gonna come into your center, take your feet into a wide wide, second position. Bend the right knee up and over into your side, stretch. Remember stretching is key.

Holding it there in that stretch, shoot the opposite hand to join it in that lateral stretch. Bring that forearm down, press into it a little bit deeper, and then come back up again. Let's go to the other side. Forearm, reach over into that stretch. Shoot the opposite hand, go a little bit deeper into that stretch.

Put the hand down, reach that hand over your head and come back. Just contract forward, release, contract, release, contract, fold yourself all the way down. Extend the legs, bend the knees, extend and bend. Awesome. Still one more. Bring the legs about here with the part, roll yourself all the way up.

Finish off with a roll down to realign that spine. Okay guys, you ready? Inhale here, chin to your chest, curl down, touching your toes, rolling all the way up, one vertebra at a time. Do you not feel fantastic now? Feel so much better than you did before you started the class, right?

Exactly. That is why we exercise. 'Cause you feel so much better. People always ask me, "What motivates you?" And I say, "This feeling right now. The feeling that you are getting right now motivates me to keep continuing." So I finish on that positive note. Have a fabulous day. Thank you for joining me.

See you again. Bye.