Barlates: Bounce Series/Barre

Bounce Series: Barre is a cardio + strength workout from Linda @ Barlates. The strength is barre-style exercises and the cardio is, of course, rebounder bouncing. This was a tough and relatively thorough workout. Of course, Linda burns the lower body out hard. For this workout, Linda has the T bar attached to her rebounder. My new rebounder also has a T bar so I had basically the same set up as Linda and it did not make this workout any easier. What I am learning about rebounding is that 1. every brand of rebounder is different so no one is going to have the same bounce; trying to stay perfectly in time with a trainer’s bounces is frequently impossible for that reason. 2. There is a method to bouncing. Faster bounces require bending your knees into a partial squat and pushing down into the rebounder with your feet and, depending on the move you are doing, it can get exhausting for the legs. I have now been rebounding over a month and am even doing (but not reviewing) Bellicon’s workouts that teach you all about rebounding and how to do it properly and advances you incrementally. So I feel like I can say with a modicum of authority that some of the bounce moves Linda does are advanced. They are not easy to do and man do they burn the legs out. That is my long winded way of saying this is a tough workout! The first half of the workout focuses entirely on the lower body. You alternate cardio circuits with strength circuits and the cardio circuits pre-fatigue whatever muscle group you are about to work. You only have one upper body circuit and Linda did not pre-fatigue the upper body during the cardio. The upper body uses light hand weights and and is high rep. Linda did a good job working most of the upper body muscle groups and even burned out my shoulders and triceps. However, throughout the upper body work she has you in some sort of squat–wide pie squat or a chair pose squat–so the burn in the lower body never ends! This is a great workout. My legs are still burning–quads, calves and hamstrings.

There are several ways you can do Bounce Series: Barre. It is available on DVD along with 3 other Bounce Series workouts, you can buy a Bounce Series Box Set which contains 3 DVDs/12 rebounder workouts (which is what I did) and it is also available for free on YouTube. On her website Linda sells the entire series together as a download as well. She normally allows you to purchase each workout individually but I don’t see that option for this series. But I’m sure if you emailed her she would sell it to you that way if that is what you want. I have already reviewed the other 3 workouts in this series: Cardio Sculpt, Cardio Sculpt Lower and Total Body.

Bounce Series: Barre is 63 minutes; 40 second intro, 3 minute warm up and 3:30 minute stretch. Equipment: rebounder and light hand weights. Linda has a bar/handle attached to her rebounder which she uses for the barre exercises. She offers alternatives if your rebounder does not have a bar attachment. Linda’s hand weights are 1kg or 2 pounds.

1. While hopping, do a knee raise + a front kick (remain on same leg); changes to front kicks only (with hops); changes to 1 kick forward and 1 kick out to side on a diagonal
2. Repeat #1 on other leg
3. Still on rebounder, face your bar, raise onto toes and raise and lower lower into barre squat (spine straight); hold barre squat isometrically and tuck hips forward and back
4. Put all your weight on one leg, raise and lower other leg in front of you (leg is straight)
5. Repeat #4 on other leg
6. Prance/bounce side to side
7. Hop while lifting one leg straight out to side (stay on same leg)
8. Cross jacks legs, crossing one leg in front of other leg then behind other leg
9. Outer thigh heel taps (lift bent leg out to side and tap outside of heel with same side hand)
10. Alternate #7 & #9 doing one rep of each
11. Repeat #7-10 on other leg
12. Stand on rebounder with heels together and toes turned out, raise onto toes, keeping heels together, knees turned out, do plie barre squats in this position (keeping spine straight)
13. Hinge forward, placing forearms on bar and raise one bent leg out to side (hydrant leg raise); keep bent leg raised isometrically to side, extend leg straight then bend knee
14. Rotate one straight leg in a large circle to the side
15. Repeat #13 & 14 on other leg
16. Repeat #6
17. With feet together, hop side to side while raising and lowering arms in opposition; changes to double hops to each side; changes to single-single-double hop pattern
18. Hop with legs wide; continue wide leg hops but with directional changes–5 hops in each direction
19. Hop while twisting hips; starting squatting lowering to 4 count as you twist hop then raise back up to 4 count twist hop
20. Raise one knee + kick on a diagonal with other leg (while hopping of course)
21. Alternating hopping wide leg knee raises; changes to alternating straight leg kicks on a diagonal
22. (pick up DBs) Hold a wide plie squat isometrically on rebounder and do 1 hammer curl, 1 wide bicep curl and 1 traditional bicep curl, continue alternating these 3 bicep curls versions while holding wide plie squat; changes to fast supination curls
23. Remain in wide isometric plie squat on rebounder, extend arms straight in front of you at shoulder level and make small circles; open arms more so they are in a V but still shoulder level and circle arms/DBs; extend arms/DBs out to sides of body in a T and do small circles while also bringing DBs in front of you then back out into a T
24. Still on rebounder, stand with legs together and hinge forward at waist, do tricep kickbacks while alternating DB/hand placement (1 rep palms face you + 1 rep palms face behind you, alternate); changes to fast alternating tricep kickbacks
25. Still hinged forward, do rear delta flies with palms facing behind you
26. In chair pose on rebounder, do standing chest flies
27. Still on rebounder, knees bent and hinged forward slightly, with elbows lifted behind you, pull DBs back as if in a back row in a quick pulsing back row
28. (set DBs aside) Repeat #6
29. Low jacks; changes to X jacks–jumping forward and back
30. Rocking horse
31. Hopping insole taps
32. Repeat #30 with other lead
33. Squat jumps, touching rebounder with fingertips while in squat

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