If you’ve ever thought, “wait, WTF am I supposed to be doing?” during a barre class, Kelsey Lindell, a personal trainer and disability advocate, is here to help. In this episode of Trainer of the Month Club, she demos a 30-minute full-body barre workout. Along the way, she doles out some stellar tips to help you find and maintain good form for the movements—and TBH, she has the best way of explaining things. (Seriously, is “My right glute right now it feels like Madonna’s bra, it’s got the pointy little cups,” not the best description of how a glute bridge feels?)
Experts in This Article
Kelsey Lindell is a Minneapolis-based fitness instructor, the founder of Shape Society Collective, and an advocate for people with disabilities. She has taught yoga sculpt, barre, HIIT, Vinyasa, Warrior Sculpt, and more at boutique and national fitness studios all around Minneapolis including CorePower Yoga and LifeTime Fitness. She has partnered with Nike, Lululemon, and Athleta to combine the power of sweat to bring awareness and funds to causes she cares about. Over the course of her teaching career, she has taught more than 3,500 students and has raised over $30k for social justice and disability-focused organizations.
You can choose to spice up the workout with a set of Bala Bangles ($42), or simply use your body weight—either way, you’re sure to feel the shakes. If you’ve taken Lindell’s other Trainer of the Month Club videos, you know that she is all about taking modifications as needed. “Remember, it doesn’t mean that you can’t do the workout, it doesn’t mean that you’re not strong enough. It means you’re listening to your body, and that’s how we get the strongest,” she said in the previous episode. She is also all about working both sides of your body evenly. “I only have one rule of thumb, because I only have one thumb, and it is we wanna make those sides as even as we can within our body to prevent injury,” says Lindell. Meaning: Whatever you do on one side, you’re going to do on the other.
Your entire body will feel the burn in this 30-minute workout. If you’re using weights, you’ll start with them on your ankles, then switch to your wrists halfway through to amp up your upper-body work. You’ll finish the workout with some lunges and wide glute bridges—and Lindell has a particularly clever visual for the latter. “I like to imagine in this posture that my belly is a big vat of ice cream, or big pumpkin, and you’ve got the scooper for the ice cream or the pumpkin, and you’re gonna scoop from your belly button towards your face. So you’re really carving out that belly,” she says. This is all to ensure that you really pull your bellybutton under your ribcage and engage your core with proper form.
Ready to feel the burn and perfect your barre form once and for all? Follow along with the video above.
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