Take 5: Learn how to do ballet barre at home

Dance and fitness trainer Kaley Hatfield shows us how to do ballet barre at home in Yahoo Life’s fitness series, “Take 5.” If you don’t have a barre, no problem. All you need is a chair for stability. The at-home, five minute workout, focuses on strengthening and toning your legs and glutes, while also working your core and posture. “Ballet barre is such an amazing at-home workout,” Hatfield says. “It strengthens the feet, the ankles, the stability in the knees, your hips, your legs and also you look so elegant when you do it.” Hatfield walks us through five ballet barre moves we can do in our living rooms. The workout is designed for beginners. “No matter where you are in your fitness journey you can jump right in,” says Hatfield. “Just really focus on keeping everything stalked: shoulders over hips, hips over knees and knees over toes, whichever way they’re going.” “Take 5,” whenever you can, and incorporate movement into your day. “It will keep you positive, happy and healthy.”

Video Transcript

KALEY HATFIELD: Hey, guys. My name is Kaley Hatfield. Are you ready to take five and learn ballet barre? Today, we are working on strengthening and toning our legs and our glutes while also working our core and our posture.

If you have a ballet bar, awesome. If not, use your chair or the back of your couch, whatever you have.

We're going to start with our first move, doing everything on the one side and then heading over to the other. So we start. First position. Heels are together. Toes are turned out or a plié, relevé, and straighten.

Plié means to bend, so we're opening those needs. Relevé means to rise, pushing those ankles forward, and straightening. Bend and up. Good.

The ballet barre, remember, we're focusing on full body, strengthening the legs, the core, and that posture, squeezing the shoulder blades the whole time.

Now we're going to take it to move two. Keeping the feet here, my legs are straight. I'm bending all the way over, coming up, and lifting that knee. Here we go. Working the hamstrings. Squeezing the glutes to come up and rotating that knee. All the way over. Up. Using the abs to lift. Drop. Up. Squeeze and lower. Good. Up. Good posture, keeping my abs tight. And last one. Up and lift. Good.

Now for exercise number three, we're going to close those toes to first position parallel. Everything's facing front. We're going to plié here and then kick back with that working leg.

Drop. Straighten. Kick back and in. Working that glute. Squeeze and drop. Plié and straighten. Squeeze and drop. Plié and straighten. Squeeze and drop. Good. Don't forget to breathe. Drop and lift. Keeping my posture nice and tall.

Turning those toes back out for exercise number four. Going into second position where my shoulders are right-- where my feet are right below my shoulders. We plié here and take it to passé. Drop and lift. Good. Plié, bringing that toe right to the inside of that knee and keeping my standing leg super strong pulling up into that glute. Drop and lift. Plié and passé.

Now for our last exercise, we're going to do a rond de jambe. With the supporting leg in a plié. Rond de jambe means all the way around, yeah? Drop, around, and lift. Drop, around, and lift. Good. All the way to the front. All the way around. And lift. Good.

Now we finish that whole entire side. I'm going to move my chair, my bar. The bar's really here just to keep you supported and keep your posture nice and tall.

We're going to head back to our plié, relevé, straighten, and drop. Bend, rise, straight, and drop. Good. Up.

Now when we do our plié we want to make sure our heels are staying down on the ground as long as they can before you shoot those ankles up into the toes, yeah? Plié, relevé, straighten, and drop. Squeezing the glutes every time those legs straighten. And my arm is nice and controlled.

Second exercise. keeping in that first position, heels together, toes turned out. I'm going to straighten all the way over, dragging through my heels, coming up in the glutes, and lifting that knee. Here we go.

Bend and straighten. Lift. Good. All the way up. And I'm keeping my neck in line with my spine. So notice how everything moves as a unit. Lifts and lower. Bend up using the abs. Good. Drop.

Any time you want to test yourself during this workout, keep light touches here at the bar, or don't use the bar.

OK, next one up, our toes are turning to parallel. Everything's facing front, bending those knees. Same thing, driving through the heels. Coming up, kicking back, and in. Bend. Straight. Kick back. Drop. Lift. Good.

Remember, we're trying to keep those heels down on the ground for as long as you can. Drop. Lift. Good. Stomach's tight. Drop. Lift. Good. Down. Posture's great. Good.

All right, turning those toes back out, going to the second position where my heels are directly under my shoulders and everything is stacked in line. We're doing our plié passé. Plié, passé. Good.

Dropping down as low as I can go and squeezing up tall on that supporting leg. Drop and up. Bringing the toe right to the outside of that knee. Down and lift.

We're doing rond de jambe all the way around while using the supporting leg in a plié. So we're going to plié and straighten. Plié and straighten. And plié means to bend, so dropping into that supporting leg. Right knee is right over my toe always. That's one key thing you want to remember in ballet workouts. Everything is stacked.

I had so much fun, and I hope you did too. I know right now it can be difficult to really stay motivated and stay super active, but whenever you can, take five and incorporate movement into your day. It will keep you positive, happy, and healthy.