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COUCH POTATOES:
With Jim Karas

Karas: Welcome to Couch Potatoes. I'm Jim Karas your host, and today we're in Greenwich, Connecticut where I'm going to introduce you to a very cool new form of exercise that actually isn't that new, but right now it's getting a lot of attention. It's starting to sweep the country. It's called The Bar Method, and it has to do with the bar. And so I want to introduce you to the creator and the president of The Bar Method, Burr Leonard. Burr, it is so nice to meet you.

Leonard: Hi, Jim. Nice to meet you.

Karas: Thank you for coming and being with us today. Now I have to ask you these terrible personal questions first, okay. So you ready? Where did the name "Burr" come from?

Leonard: It's a family name. But we are descended from Aaron Burr, from that family. And so it's one of those names that's a last name used as a first name.

Karas: Okay. Number two personal question: How old are you?

Leonard: 58.

Karas: Oh, you're kidding. My gosh. You look fantastic.

Leonard: Thank you.

Karas: Wow! 58. And these shoulders and everything are all yours?

Leonard: All mine.

Karas: All done by the Bar Method generally.

Leonard: That's about it.

Karas: Well, now tell me, did you actually create this form of exercise, or have you kind of found out about it and interpreted it?

Leonard: I didn't create it. It was developed by a dancer in London who hurt her back and went to rehabilitative therapy, and then put her bar exercises together with her therapy. And since then - that was in the 60s - and since then, it's been refined and streamlined by physical therapists and sports medicine doctors. But it still retains that feel of physical therapy.

Karas: Interesting. So it's more like physical therapy than dance, even though it has the bar, and we think of the bar along with ballet class and modern dance and things like that.

Leonard: Yes.

Karas: Now for you, do you just do the Bar Method, or do you do a little bit of other stuff and some bar?

Leonard: I take four classes a week, and that's about all I do.

Karas: Really. And how long are the classes?

Leonard: An hour.

Karas: An hour. And where are your locations right now around the country?

Leonard: We right now have eight Bar Methods, five in California and three here, and we're growing.

Karas: Really. Boy, that's fantastic. Now, let me ask you, along with the Bar Method, is there a certain kind of eating philosophy that you'd preach to put more of a comprehensive approach to being healthy and lean and etc.?

Leonard: The word is out there on food. You need to eat smaller portions, healthily, drink water.

Karas: Smaller portions, that's a big one!

Leonard: That's a really big one. And the Bar Method helps people stay healthy by giving very quick and visible results, and so when you see your seat lift and your waist shrink, you're inspired to eat better. It all goes together.

Karas: I agree with you. I think they go hand in hand. Now, I was also reading in some literature before meeting you that this is a little bit like yoga and pilates and then beyond in the sense that it has some of those philosophies, but it's really taking exercise to the next level. Do you agree with that?

Leonard: Absolutely.

Karas: Can you explain how your philosophy has come about?

Leonard: Well, yoga and pilates work the small muscle groups, the interconnecting ones. The Bar Method does too, but also focuses on the major muscle groups - on the seat, the triceps, the thighs - which gives an all-over leaned-down feel in the body - that gives a defined look that you don't get in yoga and pilates, and also helps to stabilize the underlying joints.

Karas: That's so important. I always say to people that when you look at exercise, don't look at what is the benefit today. Look at the fact that in addition to the benefits, you've got to preserve the joints over time, so that five, ten, fifteen, twenty years - 58 years from now - you can be looking like this and be able to do all the things that you do. Are you a posture fiend too? Is the Bar Method good for posture?

Leonard: How did you know?

Karas: I didn't know.

Leonard: Absolutely a posture fiend.

Karas: I'm standing up like this all of the sudden.

Leonard: One benefit from the bar is that while you are working very hard, you're holding good posture under pressure. It does teach people good posture in many ways. Again, unlike so many other systems, you're standing at the bar. You're using your postural muscles as you're working your muscles.

Karas: That's great. Well Burr you're terrific. What I want to do is I want to go to commercial. And I want to come back to get my first Bar Method workout, and I'll instantly be taller and leaner and longer yes?

Leonard: Absolutely.

Karas: Well I'm excited about it. I hope you are too. So stick with us at Couch Potatoes. We will be back.

COMMERCIAL BREAK

Karas: Welcome back to Couch Potatoes. I'm Jim Karas, and I'm still in Greenwich, Connecticut with Burr Leonard. And I'm going to have my first session with the Bar Method. We still have the bar here. I'm ready to go.

Leonard: We're going to start with a stretch, Jim.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: So face the bar, and kneel down in front of it.

Karas: Okay. Praise to Buddha.

Leonard: And bring your right foot forward. Straighten your knee. Square your hips. We're going to stretch your hamstrings.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Gently fold forward with a straight back.

Karas: Is this how you generally start each class?

Leonard: We actually start with 50 vigorous leg lifts to warm up the heart.

Karas: To get your heart rate up. That makes sense.

Leonard: Right. And we keep the heart rate elevated the whole hour, so you burn fat.

Karas: Oh, do you really? So it's cardio and strength and stretch.

Leonard: Yes.

Karas: So you get three things for the price of one.

Leonard: Yes, it's a complete workout.

Karas: I'm giving you advertising bites that you can use.

Leonard: Turn your left knee out. Turn your body to the left.

Karas: Body to the left - I'm a little challenged with my right and left.

Leonard: And lift your left arm over.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Now I'm going to call in a senior teacher from Connecticut to help us with this. Erin, can you come over and help show us these positions. (Erin comes over and joints in.)

Karas: Erin will probably look better at these positions than I do so we should shoot her a lot.

Leonard: Now turn at your waist and fold down, but keep your left hip kind of open and then fold over. You get a stretch for the left side of your back.

Karas; Oh yeah, right through here (touches the left side of his back) right through this part here, yeah.

Leonard: Now turn your left knee back and kneel, and change sides.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Fold over. Stretching also warms your muscles.

Karas: I'm sure it does, without a doubt. Now you don't wear shoes. Any particular reason?

Leonard: We're non-impact. We don't need shoes.

Karas: And the floor is very cushy. It feels very good on your feet. Got it. And you don't do it barefoot?

Leonard: Not barefoot because of the carpet.

Karas: I got it.

Leonard: Turn to your right. Bring your arm up and over.

Karas: Oh, you guys look good doing this. See, I'm having a hard time keeping this - (points under his arm) I appear to be having a hard time keeping my right shoulder - you know I'm tight through the anterior deltoid. So this is part of opening that up as well.

Leonard: It's a good stretch for under the arms. Now turn at the waist. Now you're stretching the right side of your back. Turn your right knee back to front. Step up to the bar (they all stand up at the bar). Face me.

Karas: Whew. All right. That's the opener?

Leonard: Now we're going to work the largest muscle group: the quads.

Karas: Now isn't the largest muscle group your glutes?

Leonard: The gluteus maximus is the largest muscle, but your largest muscle group - four muscles - is your quads.

Karas: I got it.

Leonard: Turn your feet into a narrow "V".

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Bring your free hand onto your waist, and lift your heels just about an inch off the floor, onto the balls of the feet.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Now bring your knees forward. Check in the mirror that you're vertical in your spine.

Karas: Okay (checks).

Leonard: And hold.

Karas: Now isn't this, Burr, bad for your knees, going forward of your toes?

Leonard: Research has found that squats are the best things for your knees. Actually years ago the Army forbid squats, erroneously thinking they were bad for the knees. And now all the research finds that these are better for you than weighted leg extensions.

Karas: Oh, really.

Leonard: And we now use it in therapy.

Karas: Oh, how interesting. Now I'm shaking a little bit, and you're not. Why is this happening?

Leonard: Now you're going to go up and down ten times. Down and up. You've got a little shake in the legs: That means that every muscle fiber is firing. It has to. It can't not when you're holding. Now five more. Then I'll give you a break. One,

Karas: Wow. You really feel the quads.

Leonard: Two.

Karas: Do your people cheat like I'm cheating, looking at my posture.

Leonard; Three.

Karas: .to make sure I stay up.

Leonard: Four. It's the opposite of cheating. Release! (They stand.) It's good to look at your posture.

Karas: Good, because my whole body wants to collapse, and I'm trying to stay back.

Leonard: That's posture under pressure. Now bring your feet together. Second set.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Now lift your heels high.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Bend your knees.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Now squeeze your inner-thighs together isometrically.

Karas: So just keep thinking "squeeze, squeeze, squeeze." Okay.

Leonard: Just squeeze, squeeze.

Karas: Is this working the inner thigh, the adductors?

Leonard: Well, it's actually working your inner quads. In athletes these are usually a little weaker. So we're balancing the muscles. It's also good for the knees to balance inner and outer quads.

Karas: Wow. And my heart rate is up, too. Is yours up?

Leonard: Yes. So start to breathe. Now I'm going to finish with little pulses. Down-up last ten.

Karas: Ow! Okay.

Leonard: Two. Nice burn in the quads?

Karas: Oh yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. Are you kidding?

Leonard: Six, seven.

Karas: I'm not doing this shaking for effect. This is real.

Leonard: It's going to be over. All the way up! Now let's face the bar and stretch before the muscles know what happened to them. Take your right foot. Bend your left knee so when you tip your hips, you're going to increase the stretch in the front of the hips.

Karas: Do you want to get more of the hip-flexor in there?

Leonard: Yes. And change sides.

Karas: All right. Don't we all as Americans have really tight hip-flexors with all the driving and the computer and everything?

Leonard: All the driving and computers. And that creates problems with the lower back.

Karas: Yes, so it's all connected. So the tighter you are in the hip-flexors the more stress you put on the lower back and it's a big issue.

Leonard: And the Bar Method addresses that.

Karas: The Bar Method does everything, everything!

Leonard: We do. Now sit down in front of the bar.

Karas: All right.

Leonard: Now sit to your right.

Karas: Sit to my right.

Leonard: Bring your right shin forward so that it's parallel to the mirror. Hold onto the bar with both hands. Now slide your left knee back so that it's a little further back than your hip.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: And then slide your right hand a little bit more right so that your spine is more or less in neutral.

Karas: Your spine is in neutral. I don't know about mine.

Leonard: Now push your left palm up under the bar. Lift your foot.

Karas: Yeah.

Leonard: Lift your knee.

Karas: Oh boy! Okay.

Leonard: And hold. Now you're going to start to pull with the back of the seat.

Karas: So I'm pushing back.

Leonard: Pull. Tiny pulls. Little moves. That's what the Bar Method's all about.

Karas: This is the Bar Method's answer to glute lifts that we've all done a million times?

Leonard: And even better because the Bar Method multi-tasks.

Karas: This is what I'm saying. I've got a lot of muscles working, not just my glutes.

Leonard: Yes, and you're also working the upper glutes, which a lot of glute exercises don't touch - the gluteus medius.

Karas: We like high glutes.

Leonard: So, high seat! Girls love this because it lifts their seat, and guys love it because it pulls in the love-handles. Not that you have any.

Karas: Oh, we like that, getting rid of love handles. You know something? I actually do feel it there.

Leonard: Okay, let's do it a little faster to finish: last ten.

Karas: I've asked you to do a lot of stuff in a short period of time. How many reps of most things do you usually do?

Leonard: And release! Well, we usually do about three or four minutes an exercise. Now bring your left foot over your right thigh.

Karas: Hold on a second. Left foot over right thigh. Gotta think. Got a lot going on here.

Leonard: Now lean back, and begin to lower your left knee down towards your right foot.

Karas: Lower my left knee; that's about as low - oh you two! That's not fair! Look at this (points out that his knees in the "half-lotus" are higher than Burr's and Erin's). Is this the difference between men and women or between flexible and inflexible?

Leonard: Well, we teach you not to compare yourself to others. You just have to enjoy the stretch for itself.

Karas: I'm intensely competitive though, just so you know that.

Leonard: (laughs) A lot of Bar Method students are. Now bring your right leg out to the side. Left arm over.

Karas: Left arm over. All right.

Leonard: And now turn at the waist and bring your nose to your knee.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Or towards it.

Karas: Wow! Again, lots of hamstring I'm feeling.

Leonard: Yes; hamstring, waist, lots of different things.

Karas: Talking about the physical therapy component. I mean it really is a lot of back rehab, because you said this dancer in London did this when she hurt her back.

Leonard: Yes. Absolutely.

Karas: Is she still alive?

Leonard: She died two years ago in her 90s.

Karas: Did she see the Bar Method come to fruition?

Leonard: Yes. She was very thrilled.

Karas: Wow. That's great.

Leonard: Let me show you one more quick exercise.

Karas: Cool.

Leonard: Now this is for your abdominals. You're going to sit underneath the bar.

Karas: All right.

Leonard: This is for the transversus abdominis, which is the girdle muscle underneath.

Karas: A lot of people say that the more important abs we should be working are the transverse.we keep hearing about the rectus abdominis, but underneath is what really gets you sucked in and lean.

Leonard: That's right. Now take the bar. Push in so that you're all the way into the wall. Bring your feet forward. Now lift your right foot up.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Now start to exhale. It's all about breathing, which helps you catch the transversus abdominis. Your diaphragm and this muscle are interconnected. When you breathe, it has to go in.

Karas: Why is my leg shaking? Well, yours is a little bit too.

Leonard: Because you've already worked it.

Karas: I feel better that you're shaking with me.

Leonard: That's why we call it "The Method". Because we've already worked the quads, and now we're working them again to burn fat.

Karas: Yeah. Jees.

Leonard: Now change sides. Now exhale.

Karas: This leg feels better now that it's had a moment to rest. So I'm digging deep and working the transverse abdominals and the lower portion of the abdominals? Am I hitting them also?

Leonard: Yes. And what you're doing is working the legs against these muscles, which are stabilizer muscles. Okay, now we're going to finish off with a bang.

Karas: A big bang? All right.

Leonard: In, out, in, out (slides legs along the floor). Now push against the back of the bar. You're going to use your pectorals. Bring your elbows forward a little bit.

Karas: My elbows forward a little bit.

Leonard: Shoulders down. Now push as hard as you can like you're doing push-ups.

Karas: Okay.

Leonard: Now Jim, lift them in the air for the last ten. One, two, three,

Karas: Four, can we just do five? You're supposed to make the host look good.

Leonard: Six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Karas: Oh my gosh!

Leonard: You did great! That was wonderful.

Karas: That is a terrific workout. You really feel it, and I gotta tell you the sweating is unbelievable, and we're on the floor and just standing up. You are great. This is a wonderful method. Really quick: You have DVDs out also.

Leonard: Yes.

Karas: Wonderful. Where would we find them?

Leonard: amazon.com

Karas: amazon.com. So check out Burr Leonard. The Bar Method. Amazon.com. You are wonderful. Thank you.

Burr: Thank you! You did wonderfully.

Karas: I'm Jim Karas with The Bar Method. Couch Potatoes. Thanks so much. We'll see you some time soon, and I will be longer and leaner after my workout. We're going to keep going. So what would we do next?

May 23rd , 2005

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