pure barre

Try this thigh-sculpting move in the comfort of your own home, and see it work some magic on your gams. This barre-optional exercise from Pure Barre helps shape the body without the need for any equipment. Try it tonight!

The Setup

If you don't have a barre in your home, find a doorway you can stand in easily.

• Stand straight with your heels together and toes slightly apart to form a V shape. Bend your knees and place your palms against either side of the doorway for balance.
• Picture the barre behind your lower back, which will help remind you to tuck your pelvis under and pull your abdominals in.

Step One

• Extend the right leg straight out in front of you, with pointed toes.
• Take two counts to lift the right leg up until the foot reaches hip height, then lower it back down for two counts. Repeat five times.

Step Two

• On the last leg lift, keep your right leg up. Try to hold your leg in the highest position you can.
• Bend your right knee, and then lengthen it back to straight. Do this 10-15 times.
• Remember to keep your left knee bent to help stabilize your body.

See the rest of the variations and cooldown after the break!

Holding this wide ballerina stance, aka second position, will tone trouble areas around the thighs and get you up and off the mat. Bonus: you can also skip some of those bicycle crunches, because the obliques get stronger from doing this exercise. Try this Pure Barre move at home, and since no equipment is needed, there's no excuse to skip the exercise!

The Setup

• Begin with your legs wider than hip-width apart, and turn your toes slightly out. Bend your knees, coming into a wide squat position and keeping your shoulders directly over your hips.
• Place your hands on your hips, and pulse up and down in a one-inch range in this position for 15-20 seconds. (If you feel unsteady, then place a chair in front of you to use for balance.)

The Reach-Over 

• Keeping your knees bent, reach your left arm up and bend sideways to the right.
• Maintain the side bend as you pulse up and down, in a one-inch range; the further you reach, the more your obliques will work. Do this 15-20 times while keeping your hips even. Repeat on the opposite side.

Keep reading for two variations after the break.

You may have tried scissor kicks, but this variation will provide double the burn. Using a ball between your hands, this exercise enables you to keep your abs engaged between curls. This do-anywhere move from Pure Barre is easily done on the floor — commercial break, anyone?

Setup

For this ab sequence, you'll need a small play ball or something that gives a little, like a bundled-up scarf or pillow.

• Lay down flat on your back with one leg straight to the ceiling and the other floating above the ground.
• Position your ball or item that you're going to hold behind your top thigh, holding it between your palms.
• Lift your shoulder blades off the ground, but try to relax your neck so that the work stays in your abs. Start curling your upper body up and then squeezing in on the ball with your hands. Each time you curl, go higher.
• Complete 15-20 reps of each curl and squeeze.

Switch Legs

• Switch legs, reset your shoulders, and begin to curl. Then squeeze on the second side.
• Complete 15-20 reps before drawing your bottom leg up to meet the top leg.

See another variation and soothing stretch after the break!

To build a strong core, it's important to strengthen muscles to work as a whole. This high curl position from Pure Barre works your front abs for that coveted six-pack, and then twists to work the sides of your core, or obliques. Feel the burn with this dynamic move, which sculpts your abs and inner thighs at the same time as you squeeze in on a ball.

The Setup

• Begin in a seated position with your knees up and a ball or pillow between your thighs.
• Tuck your hips by pulling your abs back and in, toward your rib cage. At the same time you tuck, squeeze in on the ball with your inner thighs. Do this 20 times.

Tabletop

• Lift one of your legs up in a tabletop position. Repeat the tuck and squeeze motion 15-20 times.
• Repeat on the second side with your opposite leg in tabletop position.

For More Challenge: Release Hands

• To challenge yourself even more, you can release your hands with your palms facing in.
• Complete 15-20 reps on each side.

Side Rotation

• Extend one of your legs from tabletop position and twist toward that straight leg. You can reach past your top thigh and grab underneath with both hands for support.
• Repeat the tuck in your hips and squeeze with your thighs 15-20 times. Complete the opposite side.

See a special bonus move after the break!

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.

We spend a lot of time waiting in line, at the doctor's office, or for a dinner reservation, to name a few. But that doesn't mean time waiting should be time wasted. Strengthen your muscles with only the slightest disturbance to your neighbors. Here are four relatively discreet exercises you can do when standing around in public (with little or no embarrassment!).

Lower-body barre moves: Barre exercises rely on small isometric movements to build muscle, so they don't require a lot of attention-getting moves. If you're near a wall, chair, or countertop, you can do the two standing Pure Barre exercises from this video: the standing pretzel and the semi-push-up. Both work your backside and while they look deceptively simple, you'll feel the burn in no time.

Calf raises: Strong calf muscles are important for flexibility as well as strong ankles, so you should make calf stretches part of your regular routine. The good news is you can do calf stretches anywhere, so remember this three-variation calf stretch routine the next time you're stuck in line.

Two more exercises you can do while waiting in public after the break.

Bride-to-be Zooey Deschanel has been dancing it up lately. Seems she likes tripping the light fantastic so much, she's using ballet-inspired workouts to prepare for her wedding.

Sources told the New York Post that the actress has been taking back-to-back classes at Pure Barre in LA. Similar the Bar Method and Physique 57, the workout combines elements of ballet, Pilates, and weight training. The 55-minute classes are said to burn fat as well tone the arms, abs, and help "lift the seat."

Zooey is engaged to the lead singer of Death Cab For Cutie, Ben Gibbard, and their wedding is planned for some time this Fall.