Without a variable workout, exercise quickly becomes nothing more than a Sisyphean routine of lifting boulders, running up hills, and running away from sudden boulder avalanches. Enjoy fun fitness with today's Groupon: for $39, you get a 10-pack of group fitness classes at Cardio Barre (up to $160 value). This Groupon is valid at five locations (see sidebar).
Choreographer Richard Giorla's energizing ballet-barre workouts incinerate excess fat, elongate muscles, and tone hindquarters with dance-inspired, no-impact maneuvers. Each session incorporates full-body exercise and isolated movements to shape the muscle families inhabiting the torso, arms, legs, and backside. The addition of light weights simulates the act of brandishing a dictionary or playing hackey-sack with ziplock bags filled with quarters, and preserves the limb-sculpting benefits of both. Celebrities from Lucy Lawless to Dakota Fanning praise the joy-instilling dance sequences, nontraditional fitness regimen, and busy clients laud the seven-day schedule copiously.
Cardio Barre Studio City
Few professionals can credit Flashdance with rerouting the course of their career. In fact, Richard Giorla could be the only one. The unconventional dance moves he saw in the film motivated the former Pennsylvania Ballet Company member to hit the streets of his new home, Manhattan, and learn breakdancing from dancers at the heart of the movement, trading his own dance expertise as payment. Richard’s career was in full swing when, struck with an injury, he started teaching a ballet-barre class. Though he appreciated its stretching and toning components, Richard craved a more aerobic workout. So he created his own solution—Cardio Barre.
The unique workout consists of high-energy, zero-impact movements that sculpt the long, slender body of a dancer without a student ever having to step foot in a traditional dance studio. As they balance on the ballet barre, or whichever classmate is closest, pupils direct all their focus to one muscle group at a time, while the entire body stays in motion for maximum fat burning. His approach’s pudge-busting abilities have made the fitness method a favorite of many health magazines and celebrities.