Betty Rocker: Cardio Barre

Because I follow Linda Wooldridge (Barlates) and Jessica Smith on YouTube, I have been getting a lot of recommendations for other barre workouts (from YouTube–not other people). This was one of them. Since I love workouts that can give me a low impact cardio workout–with barre work in the mix–I decided to try it. It was a good workout, but it doesn’t deserve the word “cardio” in the title. I’ve done a lot of cardio barre workouts that actually raise my heart rate. I did sweat during this workout because I was working hard, but I never entered the cardio zone. That doesn’t make it a bad workout. I actually liked it a lot and think it is a great lower body barre workout, but it is not a cardio workout (according to my Fitbit, I burned 79 calories in 27 minutes and never entered the cardio zone), so I just wanted to clarify that. If you want actual cardio barre, check out Linda Wooldridge and Jessica Smith on YouTube. But if you are interested in some intense lower body barre–this is a great little workout.

Betty Rocker is not the name of the person who leads this workout. Her name is Bree Argetsinger. She has an entire Betty Rocker website. Here is her bio. She describes herself as: “C.H.E.K. (Corrective Exercise and High-performance Kinesiology) certified Exercise Coach, a Nationally Certified Structural Integration Practitioner (realignment of the body through manual therapy), an ISSA (International Sports Sciences Association) certified fitness nutrition practitioner, and an all around fitness motivator and champion of personal growth. I’ve written multiple cookbooks, and nutrition and fitness plans that have been successfully used by thousands of people.” On her website she has workout plans, meal plans and coaching, and it looks like it all costs money. But on her YouTube site, she has free workouts and cooking videos.

Bree has a few more barre workouts I plan to try so there will be some more Betty Rocker barre reviews going up at some point.

Cardio Barre is 27 minutes long; one minute intro, no warm up and 1 minute stretch. You need a barre or chair and a mat. I didn’t count reps, but it seemed like she didn’t work both legs evenly. But I am not positive.

1. Basic squats
2. Side leg lifts; add a squat; add 3 pulses at top of side leg lift; add 3 pulses to squat
3. Basic squats
4. Face barre/chair and raise up onto toes and do squats on toes; remain in squat (on toes) and pulse
5. While leaning forward over chair/barre, raise one leg out straight behind you; bend knee so toes point to ceiling and push foot/leg up–alternate flexing foot and pointing toe
6. Stand beside chair/barre and raise up on toes, heels together and do plie squats; hold at bottom of plie squat and bring knees in and out; this changes to leaning torso forward (legs still in plie, heels together, on toes) and press knees out to side
7. Wide plie squats; changes to plie squat then stand, pivoting to side w/ a punch
8. 10 push ups
9. Static pulsing lunge; changes to rear lunge w/ knee pull
10. Flow between straight arm plank to down dog; changes to pike push ups
11. Sprinter crunches (similar to bicycles but you you do a full sit up, bringing knee to opposite elbow at top)
12. Swimmers

For more info on Betty Rocker and other (free) streaming workouts I’ve sampled and reviewed, check out my Streaming page.