Barlates: Long Lever Upper & Lower

This was an excellent total body barre workout using light weights. The only muscle group not touched is your back. Linda Wooldridge offers this workout free on YouTube. When the workout begins, the intro/title screen says “Glute Bridge on the Ball” but it is actually Long Lever Upper & Lower, as labeled–so don’t worry! You are in the right workout. Long lever refers to the fact that your arms and legs will be held straight for all of the exercises. And Linda really burns them out. You use light dumbbells for this workout–impossible to lift heavy. Linda used 2 pound dumbbells and I used 2, 3 and 5 pound dumbbells. Listed below are what I used for each exercise. Not only did this workout burn out my arms and legs, but it got my heart rate elevated, too, so there is a bit of a cardio factor. I did do another workout prior to this one: Jessica Smith‘s Walk Strong 2 Build Balance + Inner Strength/Poise & Grace, which already had my heart pumping and my muscles burning. That is also a total body high rep workout that uses light dumbbells. So combining the two gave me an excellent hour long low impact, high rep, total body metabolic strength workout. And since I am moving slowly back into lifting weights again, both of these workouts done back to back felt so good! I felt like I really worked my body well, even though I didn’t lift anything heavier than 5 pound dumbbells!

Long Lever Upper & Lower is 28 minutes; 3 minute warm up (leg swings first forward and back then to side and across other leg, arm circles, swing arms across chest and wide) and 30 second stretch. Equipment: chair and light dumbbells. As already mentioned, Linda used 2 pound dumbbells for everything and I used 2, 3 and 5 pound dumbbells. Because many of the moves end with pulses, I had to drop to a lower weight for the pulses because my arm was already burning out. That is noted below.

1. Stand beside chair, one hand on chair back, raise and lower one leg and one arm straight in front of you (5# DB); changes to pulses while both arm and leg are raised (2# DB)
2. Still beside chair, raise and lower straight arm and leg to side (3# DB); changes to pulses while both arm and leg are raised (2# DB)
3. Still standing beside chair, swing one straight leg across/in front of other leg while pushing bent arm up across body (5# DB); changes to pulses while both arm and leg are raised (3# DB)
4. Still beside chair, raise as lower straight arm and leg behind you; changes to pulses while both arm and leg are raised (3# DB)
5. Repeat 1-4 on other side of body
6. Still standing beside chair, one hand still holding on to chair back, circle straight arm and leg in front of you (large circles) (2# DB)
7. Still beside chair, circle straight arm and leg to side of body (large circles) (2# DB)
8. Still beside chair, circle straight arm (palm faces ceiling) and leg behind you (2# DB)
9. Repeat 6-8 on other side of body
10. Arm swings and leg swings for dynamic stretching (same as warm up)

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