Richard Giorla- Raise the Barre
Equipment needed: barre or sturdy chair, light hand weights (1-2 lbs recommended, but I used 5 lbs)
Level: Intermediate
Bottom line: This barre workout offers a decent full-body workout in a convenient and accessible format that is definitely worth the cost of a used book. The entire routine takes about 1.5 hours but can easily be divided up into 10-15 minute sessions.
Having progressed through quite a few barre classes and DVDs, I fond this book online, used, for a few dollars, and knowing the writer is the creator of Cardio Barre, I thought it would be worth a try. I was also interested in book workouts for those times at which I do not have access to a DVD player. Since a book format allows much more workout customization and mixing/matching, I'm going to break down the sections of the book and give my impressions of each one. The author recommends slowly building up to doing all the segments (and has an eight-week plan clearly described in the book).
Upper body- the book contains two upper body segments, one consisting of triceps exercises and pushups, and the other consisting of shoulder, back and bicep work. Gioria recommends alternating between the two segments, but I decided to do both at once. Furthermore, he recommends 1-2 lb weights, and I used 5 lbs based on my previous experiene with barre upper body work. Whew, with the 5 lbers, the segments destroyed my upper body! Because I was using heavier weights than recommended, for the shoulder, bicep and back work, I halved the sets and performed them twice rather than do all the repetitions at once. The work is strongly reminiscent of the upper body work in Squeeze Stronger. I did not feel that my biceps were sufficiently worked, however, and will add more biceps work in the future.
Plies- the workout contains several variations of plies, including several sets with the heels raised. I did the workout as described, except rather than doing simple heel raises, I repeated the full and pulsing plies sets for both heel raise segments. Going through all segments without rest, my legs were burning and shaking when I was done.
Torso twists- this segment also reminded me of the torso twist segment in Squeeze Stronger. The segment in Squeeze Stronger didn't do much for me, and neither did this one. It felt nice, but I'll probably skip this in the future.
Cardio- this segment consists of several standing abdominal moves that are intended to be done at a fast pace in order to raise the heart rate. They are all low impact. I found these enjoyable but prefer to use barre workouts for sculpting only, since the moves don't really elevate my heart rate. As with the torso twists, I'll probably skip this segment in the future.
Abs- this was the only part of the workout that I really disliked. The segment contains a variety of crunches, which I find to be some of the least effective abdominal exercises out there. There were no classic barre ab exercises here. I will definitely not repeat this segment. Instead, I did some plank work on my forearms, including alternating knee drops and hip drops. In the future, I may add some c-curve ab work.
Barre thighs- I felt this in my hips and glutes more than my thighs, and when flowing smoothly from one exercise to the other with concentration and control, I felt the burn. The pictures for this section are not as clear as in the others because of the positions, but those familiar with barre should not have any difficulty setting up the moves. I doubled the repetitions for the scorpion leg lifts and also added some point/flex foot presses toward the ceiling at the end. With these additions, my glutes felt worked and were sore the following day.
Floor work- this segment includes some seat dancing, outer thigh work, and some inner thigh work. The seat dancing is done in only one leg position in the book, but I did three sets (including slower up and downs and pulsing) in different leg positions to work different angles of my glutes. The number of repetitions in the book was not sufficient for me, so I added many more. I found the outer thigh and glute work to be mildly challenging and will add more repetitions next time as well. But wow, the inner thigh segment was TOUGH- it's an area that is not targeted specifically in most workouts, and I felt an intense burn when I finished.
I surprised myself by enjoying doing this workout at my own pace, and with my modifications, most of my body felt thoroughly worked and fatigued at the end. Doing the entire workout took about an hour and a half, but without the cardio, torso twists and ab sections, it took me almost exactly an hour. I felt the workout was a little weak on the glute work (which seems to be a common complaint for barre workouts) and would have liked to see some pretzel work, but in the future I'll add on more repetitions to the barre thighs segment and see how I do.
As for the instruction style, I thought Giorla is encouraging and clear, and the success stories were more focused on wellness and feeling good than burning calories. The language used is simple and accessible to any reader.
Overall: Considering I paid about $6 for this book, including shipping, it was well worth the cost and I would recommend it for those who'd like a written routine. Intermediate exercisers would probably find that the routine would work for them as written, as long as they remember to make the movements as small, sharp and controlled as possible. As for advanced exercisers, I'd recommend this book only for those who've done enough different kinds of barre workouts to know what exercises can be added on or modified in each section in order to make the workout sufficiently challenging, but who don't have the desire to craft their own routines.