Ten Tips for Boosting Your Results From The Bar Method, Part 1

Kate Grove is a master teacher and the manager of our Bar Method studio in the San Francisco Marina. Kate has a reputation for designing fun, creative classes, and shes been just as creative as a studio manager. This year, she came up with the idea of offering student workshops to our Club Bar members, who are students with ongoing class packages. In the past, we’ve only given teacher workshops. Now thanks to Kate, our students are gaining expert knowledge about the Bar Method and are using that knowledge to take their workouts to the next level. After our first workshop, participants said that their classes were making them more sore than ever in the muscles they most wanted to shape. Britney Bart, a ten-year Bar Method student, commented that simply knowing where a muscle was on her body made the exercises feel different. I have been doing arm walks with you since 2003, Britney told me, but I have not felt them and proactively utilized them for the specific purposes you described until the workshop.

All these comments inspired me to share with Bar Method students who read this blog the information Kate and I gave in our workshop. This month focuses on our tips for the first half of class:

Tip # 1: Move your body in one-inch increments during the faster tempos.

How do you respond when your teacher says, lift up, up, up or press in, in, in? If your range is too large, youre relying on momentum, which is only moderately effective at keeping your muscle on. If your range is too small, youre not firing your muscle enough to get the most out of the exercise. A one-inch range keeps you in the muscle, while it enables that muscle to ignite with maximum energy on every rep.

Tip #2: Use your “rhomboids” and “lower traps.”

When I take class, Im constantly thinking about contracting my rhomboids and lower traps (trapezius) during the weight-work section. These two muscles draw your shoulders in and down. During weight work they play a critical role in keeping your upper back from slumping forward and your shoulder joints from rotating out of kilter. They also help improve your posture and burn extra calories during the exercise. So one valuable piece of information I can offer you is to consciously use your rhomboids pull your shoulder blades closer together and your traps to pull your shoulder blades in and down. Reverse pushups can sculpt your lower traps if you hold your shoulders down while your arms are carrying the weight of your torso (see photo below). Stay aware of how these muscles enhance your performance, and you’ll sculpt your upper back muscles and give yourself a longer, more graceful your neck-line by virtue of your stronger “lower traps.”

Tip #3: Protect your joints by working in good form.

Heres a fact you might not be aware of: when you stress a joint during a workout, the muscles around that joint will resist change. The joint sends a signal to these muscles saying in effect, stop doing that! So if youre regularly tweaking a joint, you might not be getting the results you want.

The Bar Methods reverse pushups is an example of an exercise that you need to do in good form to get the best results. Here are the two key points to remember: 1. Keep your wrists turned forwards and slightly outwards. If you turn your wrists backwards, youre pressing into your wrist joints instead of controlling the move with your arm muscles. 2. Keep your shoulders directly over your wrists. If you don’t and instead shift your shoulders forward of your wrists, you will pull your shoulder blades out of alignment and at the same time make the exercise significantly less targeted. So keep your shoulders directly over your wrists, and youll quickly gain the definition in your triceps you’re working for.

Tip #4: Do straight-leg pushups, and dont go low!

Pushups work an array of muscles. Obviously they sculpt your pecs and arms. Less obviously, they tone your abs, glutes, traps, and a muscle called the serratus anterior, which holds your shoulder blades in place when youre pushing with your arms. By engaging these less obvious muscles, youll get much more out of pushups, and look great doing them. Whats the easiest way to do recruit all these muscles? Believe it or not, by doing straight-leg pushups (wait a second before you reject this idea!) and moving just one inch down and up. This way, youre using every muscle in your pushups repertoire without killing yourself and creating a more defined body overall.

Tip #5: During thigh-work, let the music move you.

Bar Method students are famous for their fighting spirit, and if you’re one of them, I know you already give thigh-work your all. So what else can you do to get more out of this exercise? Make it a dance! Remember that you just gave your legs a deep stretch at the bar, and stretching is been proved to enhance muscular coordination. So use the stretches you did before thigh-work to take your performance to a new energetic level. Tap into the enhanced agility that the stretches infused into your legs, and do thigh-work like a dancer! Become one with the beat, and concentrate on performing the reps with precision and grace. Your muscles will expand and contract more energetically, and youll discover a new level of strength, athleticism and stamina in the process.

Next week! Ten Tips for Boosting Your Workout, Part 2