Natalie Rymarz, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said that Amanda Lotwin, the Sunday night barre group fitness instructor at Eppley Recreation Center, really raises the bar, no pun intended.
Lotwin, a sophomore computer engineering major, along with Elena Horowitz, a senior math and education double major, instruct the class offered Wednesday and Sunday evenings at the ERC.
Barre is a yoga, pilates, classic ballet technique hybrid, Lotwin said. Both classes use similar technique, but Lotwin and Horowitz make their classes their own. Horowitz took ballet classes from the time she was 3-years-old to her junior year of high school and she said she pulls a lot from that for her class.
“The point of barre is to get a long lean dancer’s body,” Horowitz said.
She focuses heavily on stretching in her Wednesday night class and said it is the most important thing she does. Barre stretches out the muscle, makes it look nice, and allows you to build even more muscle. She holds stretches for 30 seconds to increase flexibility. Horowitz describes her class as laid back and Lotwin’s as more upbeat.
“I love that she does really up beat music for this class,” Natalie Rymarz, a sophomore mechanical engineering major, said about Lotwin’s Sunday evening class.
Lotwin, who enjoys loud music inside and outside of the barre studio, runs a high energy class. She focuses on one muscle at a time and pulses to engage the muscle.
“When we focus on one body part at a time we focus on really small muscles that people don’t even know exist, “ Lotwin said.
Lotwin said that after the class you feel like you worked out but you are not necessarily sweaty. This is the only problem that Emily Rohlfing, an undecided freshman, has. She was first introduced to barre at a UMD CHAARG event and liked it, but she enjoys sweating and a more intense work out. However, she said she was sore for several days after.
“I know I have succeeded if someone tells me they were sore the next day,” Horowitz said.
Rymarz agrees with the instructors that the class is challenging. Lotwin says she sees a lot of people roll their eyes when she tells them to pick up a one pound weight, but when they start working out they are surprised at how challenging it can be.
Horowitz has noticed this as well and tries to give her students modifications to make certain moves easier and different.
“Some things we do you do need the ballet technique and the ballet background and if I see someone doing it blatantly wrong I’m not going to do it because they are just going to injure themselves,” Horowitz said.
Lotwin taught the class last semester when no one really knew about it. It was held only once a week at 7:15 a.m.
“It was kind of under the radar,” she said.
In its second semester the interest has grown and both instructors said that class size has been a challenge for them. They have found it difficult to make enough space on the bar. At most barre studios class sizes are restricted to 20 people and there are bars on all four walls Lotwin said. The ERC has one wall of bars and allows up to 40 participants.
Lotwin hopes to see more instructors in the future and hopes that barre continues even after she and Horowitz graduate.
Horowitz’s advice for anyone who maybe nervous about starting the class is to bring a friend, and come.