| ABC7 Eye on L.A. — June 11, 2005
WORKOUT WITH THE BAR
 |
It's the new workout sweeping L.A. and Hollywood. An intense, exhilarating hour that has students hooked after just one class! The Bar Method is known for making rock hard muscles and helping make your body and posture perfect! |
I'm Garth Kemp and this is Eye on L.A. We all know staying fit is pretty much a past time here, but now if you don't have enough time to get your workout in, there's a class that could be the perfect fit for you. Leslie Sykes takes you to the dancers' bar to show you what makes this one so different.
(Leslie Sykes) Move over yoga and pilates. There's a new workout in town, and it's called the Bar Method, and students say it's the one workout that does it all.
Victoria Hawkes: "It's the perfect workout for me. It's just exactly what I want in an exercise class. It's actually the only thing I do."
Leslie (voice over): The Bar Method was invented in the 60's by a dancer who injured her back. The movements combine modern ballet exercises with rehabilitative therapy to create one powerful workout.
Michael Lowery, instructor: "Not only do you work deep into your muscles, but you get an excellent stretch, and a nice cardio burn also. Sometime people will start feeling and seeing results like within a week in three or four classes."
Katelin Henke, instructor: "I've probably tried just about everything from pilates to yoga to spin, cardio-boxing, you know just about everything. I guess why I like this the most is because it was really challenging, as some of those other workouts are, but that it also had the meditative, relaxing part. It had both combined into one hour."
Student: "I think I'm leaner, trimmer. I think that my hips have gotten smaller. My butt has lifted a little more, which is hard at my age."
Leslie (voice over): Leaner? Trimmer? What's the secret, and where do I sign up? Bar Method founder Burr Leonard put me to work.
Burr: "The first thing you're going to do Leslie is take a stretch on the stall bar. The reason for the stretch is to elongate and stretch the muscles in your lower back that get tight because we stand up all day. (Leslie stretches on the stall bar.) Now that you feel all long and stretched out, you're going to start the warm-up now by putting your hands on your hips."
Leslie: "Oh, this is going to hurt."
Burr: "Now you're ready for push-ups." (Leslie does push-ups.) "Now this is going to burn, but it's a good burn. It will also be short."
Leslie: "Uh huh. Are we done yet?"
Burr: "Come over to the bar." (Leslie and Burr go to the bar.) "Now you're going to work your thigh muscles, your body's largest muscle group."
Leslie: "I feel it. So is this what the Bar Method is known for?"
Burr: "The Bar Method is known for making rock hard, dense muscles, and this is a big part of it."
Leslie: "Yeah. I can feel it."
Burr: "Now you're going down, down another inch."
Leslie: "Oh."
Leslie (voice over): Bar Method instructors aren't looking for sweat. What they really want is to make you shake.
Burr: "Let's have some fun for the last set. Are you ready for fun?
Leslie: Yes.
Burr: "Let's do the Bar Method dance of fire." (Both lift their heels, bend their knees and shake their hips.)
Leslie: "So you've been doing it for how long?"
Burr: "Twenty-four years. It's nice for busy people because it's only an hour, and you do sweat, but you don't profusely sweat. So you can throw on your clothes and go back to work, and a lot of people do that."
Leslie: "Just do this at lunch time."
Burr: "Absolutely."
Leslie: "Who's doing the Bar Method?"
Burr: "Golfers; skiers; there's a basketball player, and we have a regular guy who's a professional surfer who comes in because it improves his balance on the board."
Leslie (voice over): So you could say that the Bar Method keeps L.A.'s beautiful people beautiful. And how does it make you feel?
Burr: (sitting on the floor at the end of the class) "Inhale arms up, exhale arms down. Thank you for your good work."
Leslie: "Thank you. I feel like a rubber band."
Burr: "Right feeling."
<Back
|
