If you’re looking to build a stronger core, barre workouts are a great way to go about it. Barre sessions generally involve doing high amounts of reps to improve your muscular endurance, and the time your muscles spend under tension is ideal for working the deep core muscles and carving out your abs and obliques.
You can get these benefits from a barre-inspired session as well, and these workouts don't often require any equipment or access to a ballet barre, though using one of the best yoga mats is advisable since you’ll be training on the floor.
When I did the session without a mat I found that my feet were slipping when doing the planks at the end of the workout, so I’d definitely say it’s worth using one. Then, with mat rolled out, you'll be able to take on this 10-minute abs workout from fitness trainer FitByMik
The aim is to do each exercise for long periods to really exhaust the target muscles. The variety of exercise involved means that you work the upper and lower abs, along with the obliques, as well as your deep core muscles, all in just 10 minutes.
Watch FitbyMik’s 10-minute barre abs workout
The session involves doing 10 exercises, working for 50 seconds and resting for 10 seconds. Mikala demonstrates each upcoming move during the short breaks so keep your eyes on screen so you know what to do.
There is also an easier modification of each exercise shown during the work periods so you can switch to that if any move is proving too hard. You can also take extra breaks, but it’s worth trying the easier move first if only to push for a few more seconds with your muscles under tension.
I did the workout during my lunch break and found the barre-inspired movements were great for making my core muscles burn. Here are my other takeaways.
Keep breathing
As an adult, I shouldn’t need reminding to keep breathing, but it’s easy to forget when you’re pushing through a hard set of abs exercises, and I caught myself holding my breath on several occasions.
Getting into a rhythm with your breathing will make the reps easier — in general aim to exhale when curling up with sit-ups and crunches, and inhale when moving back down, for example. Mikala does remind you to breathe several times during the workout, if you do forget.
Move with control
One of the aims of this barre-style session is keeping your core muscles under tension for long periods and that means it’s best to do each exercise at a controlled pace so you can engage the right muscles, and really feel them working.
I worked on moving back down slowly during crunches and sit-ups in particular, rather than flopping back down to the floor and letting my muscles relax.
The difficulty builds up quickly
After two exercises I could feel my abs, but I was feeling pretty confident about rolling through the workout without having to take extra breaks. However, with each move mostly hitting the same muscles they are quickly exhausted and, after four minutes, I was really feeling it.
The burn keeps on building until the ninth exercise, when you flip onto your front and do two minutes of planks to finish, which challenges the core in a slightly different way.
Don’t strain your neck
There are several crunch variations in the workout and often have to have your torso raised slightly off the floor as well, which I often find leads to me feeling pain in my neck because I’m craning it forward. Don’t do this! Focus on keeping your neck aligned with your spine — try to look up rather than towards your knees.
It might be too tough for beginners
Although you can of course take extra rests when you like and there are easier modifications of the moves on screen, I’d still say it’s one of the harder 10-minute workouts I’ve done, and there are better options for beginners.
One is this 10-minute abs workout, which is a bit more straightforward and also has two difficulty levels, with variations of each exercise that are more suitable for people new to working out.
