By April Burkhart
Photos by AJ Reynolds, Athens Banner-Herald
Two thoughts came to mind for Cassie Pleat after her boyfriend and college sweetheart, Dustin Barrett, asked her to marry him during a romantic boat ride on the lake:
- After six years together, she was happy to be engaged
- She needed to tone her arms for her wedding dress
Pleat works out at Pure Barre Athens on Alps Road, a studio that offers a 55-minute, low-impact, full-body workout that incorporates the use of resistance bands, light weights, a rubber ball and ballet bar. Exercises performed in class aim to work the hips, thighs, butt, abdomen and arms while burning calories.
Since her engagement, Pleat has doubled her workouts from two to four times per week.
Because the couple plans to get married in December at a destination wedding in Charleston, S.C., Pleat said she has plenty of time to get “fit for the dress.”
Cassie Pleat works out at Pure Barre Athens
“I want to tone the lower half of my body, but the upper half of my body is what I’m thinking about the most when I think about my wedding dress,” Pleat said. “I feel like I’ve always had trouble with my arms, so I want to tone my arms and slim down through the waist because that’s what most people see when you’re in your wedding dress.”
While Pleat enjoys the bar exercises, she said she’s currently focused on mat work done in class such as floor exercises that work the side and core muscles and obliques and exercises using light weights to work her arms.
“I like the exercises (at Pure Barre) because they are always challenging,” Pleat said. “You can’t cheat your way out of them by lowering the weights you’re using because you’re using your own body weight. It also works the whole body and doesn’t strain your body the way some other exercises do.”
Each set of exercises is followed by stretching.
Pure Barre Athens owner Connie Popwell leads an exercise on the barre during a recent class
“We work each muscle group to the point of fatigue through small, controlled, isometric movements and then stretch the same group immediately after while the muscles are warm and malleable to create long, lean muscles without bulk,” Pure Barre Athens owner Connie Popwell explained. “Think of having a dancer’s body without actually dancing. Women of all ages, shapes, sizes and fitness backgrounds come into our studio and not only lose weight, they actually change shape.”
Pleat has attended Barre classes for the last several years and said, even before she increased her workouts, she saw results in the shape of her body and her health in general, including weight loss and increased muscle tone.
“When you work out (at Pure Barre) you begin to see results right away,” said Pleat who reports already seeing a difference in her body’s shape, since she got engaged and increased her workouts. “I haven’t seen results like this since I was an athlete in high school.”
A typical Pure Barre class reportedly burns 400 to 500 calories and the constant movements and focus on muscle groups keeps the heart rate up, producing cardiovascular elements. Isolating different muscles to strengthen and tone while adding elements of cardio also helps produce calorie burn, Popwell said.
Research shows that isometric exercises produce strength gains, but people must make sure to work eccentric (a contraction that lengthens the muscle) and concentric (a contraction that shortens a muscle) motion while working out in order for muscles to grow strong and stable throughout the entire range of motion, according to Lauren Peterson, a performance specialist and sports performance coach at Athens Orthopedics. Research also shows the benefits of multiple methods of core/stabilization training, meaning the core training methods in Pure Barre will strengthen core muscles if performed correctly, she said. When added to other methods of training and a healthy diet, Pure Barre workouts may also lead to decreased body fat, Peterson added.
“In the end, no one type of exercise is superior to another,” she said. “The most important thing is that people move.”
