Fitness Friday: Bar(re)-ing No Further Interruptions

Welcome (back) to Fitness Friday!

Thank you for your patience during my little hiatus from the Fitness Friday series.  As you may have heard, we welcomed home a baby daughter in late August.  I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a mommy thanks to the miracle of adoption.  However, even though my body is not recovering from my daughter's birth, it's taken a big hit from the sleepless nights!

However after a few nights of decent sleep last week (5-6 hours, aggregate), I was itching to get my body moving, but apprehensive about hitting it too hard after the layoff as well as honoring the fact that my body probably wasn't going to have the usual energy with the continued sleep interruptions.

Enter mybarre3!

barre3 is one of my favorite workouts in the ballet-inspired fitness genre that is, happily, becoming more and more popular.  barre3 fuses ballet-inspired toning with yoga and pilates for a combination of balance, strength, and flexibility.

And mybarre3 is the online home of the barre3 exercise method, where subscribers can select workouts of 10, 30, 40 or 60 minutes in length.



Here's what I LOVE about these workouts:

• They take my tired body and gently work my muscles in such a way that I finish feeling invigorated instead of exhausted.  This is because barre3 doesn't simply focus on cosmetic muscles, but also postural muscles.  This is truly functional fitness at its finest!  (Don't believe me? Check out these great "mom moves" featured in barre3 workouts.)
• The cardio effect!  Because barre3 employs movements with large range of motion as well as compound toning sequences (upper+lower body simultaneously), they get the heart rate elevated (and burning the Oreos I may or may not have eaten in moments of sleep-deprived desperation).
• I can access workouts anywhere! Today I worked out in my living room with my laptop.  I've also logged on through the browser on my smartphone as well as the browser feature on my TV!  I remember vacations past culling through my exercise video collection to decide which workouts to take with me - with your log-in, you can workout anywhere without giving up precious luggage space!
• The workouts at mybarre3 are constantly updated and have different foci so things never get boring.  There are more restorative routines, as well as amped-up sequences, so no matter my mood (or energy level) there's something that always calls out to me.

Because you know I never like to leave you hanging after raving about a workout, I'm delighted to share that mybarre3 is offering a one month free trial (and NO, no credit card is required to try it!).  Enter code b3friendsandfamily (before December 1st) along with your name and email address at mybarre3's subscription page and you're in business!

So which workout will you try first? Some of my favorites are:

• Turbo in 10 (great 10 minute burner!)
• Post Baby Bounce Back (great for the muscles you use when you're hauling around a new baby - and a Toddler - even if you're not recovering from labor or a cesarian)
• Twist (available in 10 minute segments or a full 40 minute workout; I love how refreshed I feel after yogic twists)

Have fun, tell me what you think, and Happy Fitness Friday!

All photos are property and courtesy of barre3.  Nope, I was not compensated in any way for my review - just sharing something I love!