The Bar Method or Aerobics? Why You Don’t Have to Decide

Which is more important to do, aerobics or strength-work?

Bar Method studio owners, myself included, get asked this question by new students who are in the process of fitting the Bar Method into their lives. A recent email from a student at the new Montclair, New Jersey studio is a case in point. “We know that everyone who starts the Bar Method LOVES the Bar Method. A lot, the student wrote, But they still need to do cardio, and they’re having a hard time paying for you AND for spin, or a gym. I hear a lot of ˜Well I STILL have to go to New York Sports, the Y, or Spin.

Undoubtedly, both kinds of workouts these students are trying to decide between give benefits. A rigorous aerobics workout like a spinning class helps make your heart stronger and more efficient, burns calories, and increases stamina. It does not build muscle and sometimes burns muscle for fuel, resulting in a decreased resting metabolic rate. A rigorous strengthening workout on the other hand prevents the loss of muscle mass, one of the major side affect of aging, and guards against the weight gain that can result from muscle loss. It strengthens your bones and heart, and it makes you look toned and sexy. Most importantly in my view, it extends the life of your joints and rehabilitates any you might have previously injured. Because were a relatively delicate species in terms of our physical structure, our joints wobble when our muscles get weak, wearing down their cartilage. The resulting arthritis causes us pain, inflammation, more weakness, and more pain in a downward spiral of dysfunction. School age soccer and basketball players who arent pre-conditioned, for example, are prone to injuring their knees and ankles and starting down this road at a young age unless they build strong, balanced muscle to re-track their strained joints and lock them into proper alignment. In my 20 years of teaching the Bar Method, the largest portion of emails I’ve received are from students thanking the Bar Method for helping them heal their backs, hips and knees.

So if you have to choose between aerobic and strengthening, decide on the merits. By this measure strength-work would come in first because it offers a greater bang for your buck in terms of overall health and extended quality of life. Conventional aerobics classes such as spinning, for most fit people, would rank second.

This said, I can now give the Montclair students good news: You dont really HAVE to choose between one or the other. Theres a third kind of workout out there that offers most of the benefits of both aerobics and strengthening. It uses more reps than conventional weight lifting (which can total a little as eight) but far fewer reps than aerobics (which can add up to the tens of thousands). Its weight exercises last for somewhere in the neighborhood of 90 reps each, so it builds stamina, burns away fat, and strengthens your cardiovascular system while its toning and elongating your muscles. Its called interval training, and the Bar Method is one form of it. So dont feel guilty about not making it to the spin gym! Your Bar Method classes are building stamina “ and burning calories “ more than you might have been thinking. Aerobics is a plus when you can fit it in.  But if you just have time for one workout, listen to what your body is telling you about how much you love the Bar Method, and enjoy!