The Keep Me Motivated

If you fall into The Keep Me Motivated personality, you want a great fitness routine, but it needs to be interesting, unique or possess an accountability factor to keep you from slipping off the wagon and back onto the couch. You aren’t looking to kill your body with the highest level of intensity, but, rather, guide your body with purposeful (and joyful) intent – while working up a good sweat.

The good news is that there are tons of workouts that fit into this category.
Mora Babineau and Elizabeth Dewey, former dancers and current owners of Studio47 in Barrington, talk to me about the advantages of two such workouts that fit the ticket for engaging commitment: Barre and Pilates. Barre classes are ballet-inspired and combine elements of Pilates, dance, yoga and functional training, with moves choreographed to motivating music, while Pilates is a set of mindful movement exercises performed (sometimes) on a special apparatus with intent and purpose for overall body enhancement.

“Barre, much like Pilates, has a long list of benefits, the main ones being long, lean muscles, increased bone density, a strong core, mental awareness, and overall strength and flexibility,” they begin to tell me. “Both require you to recruit smaller muscles and work in controlled movement patterns that don’t utilize momentum, thus, you are building strength through control.”

The ladies go on to talk about the positive body-changing results that become more apparent each week of practice and urge all ages to give it a try. “Barre always has a fun, new choreographed class (with great playlists) to keep you challenged and, at our studio, we always say that Pilates is for every body, because it is so adaptable to any body type or injury, and its focus of strength, flexibility and balance are so important to your fitness regime.” Both ladies finish up by telling me that the more you practice Barre and Pilates, the better you’ll become at it, but that ease also brings new challenges as you work at deeper levels and increase your overall body awareness.

Classes You'll Enjoy:

• Spend 55 minutes working your entire body with weights, a barre series and mat work in the Barre 47 class at Studio47. All fitness levels will appreciate this motivating musical workout that leaves your muscles lean and long. 47 Maple Avenue, Barrington. 401-289-2787, www.Studio47Pilates.com 
• Dance the hour away in this lively, high and low interval dance cardio class with Latin and Pop inspiration at Cardio Glow’s Zumba. No dance experience necessary for this fun-loving and welcoming atmosphere. 286 Maple Avenue, Barrington. 401-337-5471, www.CardioGlow.com 
• Give your back and abs something to sing about in Bayside School of Dance’s Belly Dancing class. This fun and rhythmic muscle-toning workout not only embraces dance, music and culture and but also gives you some sweet moves to brag to your friends about. 368 Waterman Avenue, East Providence. 401-435-4908, www.KaninaDance.com
• Dancing in the pool has never been more fun. Healthtrax’s Aqua Zumba class gives an invigorating workout of splashing, stretching, twisting and moving while waist-deep in water. 15 Catamore Boulevard, East Providence. 401-434-3600, www.Healthtrax.com
• Practice your Pilates on both the reformer and mat with Studio47’s Circuit Reformer class. A perfect combination of two styles of controlled movement to maximize your body’s strength, resilience, posture and mental awareness.