at home workouts

The popular workout Pure Barre has a fresh philosophy on fitness, and it involves more than just toning the tush. The 55-minute class fuses key elements of ballet, Pilates, and weightlifting. Through use of a special barre and small isometric movements, the intense class sessions work to burn fat, tighten abs, and firm arms, glutes, and thighs. The result is a graceful, challenging workout designed to build a lean dancer's body. If you can't get to a class, we've brought one of the studio's most effective moves to you. The burn starts with your seat and then works deep into the love handles.

The Setup

• Begin by lying down with your belly on the mat, toes together, and knees apart.
• Ground your palms on the floor, placing them on top of one another with your forehead resting on the back of the hands.

Leg Lifts

• Squeeze your seat and lower back, floating your toes straight up toward the ceiling and lifting your knees off of the ground.
• Take 10-15 lifts with your toes aiming for the sky.

Upper-Body Lift

• With your legs still floating off of the ground, lift your forearms up in one motion.
• Keep your back and seat engaged while you lift your upper and lower body together. Do this 10-15 times.

See the bonus move after the break.

Inspired by the dancer bodies from Dancing With the Stars and Black Swan? If you're home and want a solid workout that's fun and pumps you into a cardio zone, try a dance DVD. Here are three DVD workouts FitSugar staffers have tested and reviewed that will deliver passionate, sweat-inducing moves and make you groove.

• Julianne Hough's Cardio Ballroom ($10). Right from the start, Julianne's upbeat personality gets you excited about the warmups and choreography, and before you know it, you're doing the cha-cha, the jive, and paso doble. This is also the perfect workout video to do with some girlfriends.
• Bar Method Dancer's Body Advanced Workout DVD ($20). Led by cheery and pretty-to-look-at-while-you-are-sweating Bar Method teacher and actress Marnie Alton, the DVD offers a variety of the method's staple moves. Like the class, it starts off slow with leg lifts and light arm exercises (it's recommended you use two- to four-pound weights) and then jumps into the method's secret sauce: intense leg work at the barre.
• Tracy Anderson's Cardio Dance Workout DVD ($30). Anderson believes that dance cardio is the perfect aerobic workout for creating long, lean muscles and a feminine, toned physique. This workout is high-energy dancing full of hopping, jumping, high kicks, and even the '60s dance step the Pony. The eight combinations that make up the workout are like a jazzy version of petite allegro (the jumping section of a dance class).

If you only have a short window of time to spare but want a solid workout, a DVD concentrated on strong and sculpted abs is a smart pick. You don't need a lot of space, you won't get terribly sweaty, and if you do it just right, ab work can be an incredibly effective workout. Here are four DVD workouts FitSugar staffers have tested and reviewed and will deliver moves to strengthen your core.

• Fit in 5 Total Body Tone ($15): If the core is what you have in store, the abs workout by Fred DeVito and Elisabeth (Liz) Halfpapp will surely meet your needs. The core fusion workouts (there are two separate 10-minute routines) require nothing more than a mat and a wall. You will push your way through 45-degree sit-up positions, participate in roll downs (similar to Pilates), and crunch the 20 minutes away.
• Shiva Rea — Creative Core Abs ($10): The sequencing is very fluid and dance-like, so the time goes by really quickly. It definitely doesn't feel like yoga. Shiva encourages you to explore your range of motion, and even though this video was focused on the abs, the movements strengthened and stretched my upper and lower back, hips, quads, shoulders, and neck too.

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