A 10-Minute Barre Workout You Can Do at Home

Over the last two decades, barre workouts have exploded from a niche boutique offering to a fixture of the fitness scene — taught at hundreds of specialized studios, gyms and Y.M.C.A.s — as word has spread about their power to build strength, balance and flexibility using mostly your own body weight.

Barre workouts were first created by a German ballerina in 1959. They train every major muscle group through a series of exercises that involve small movements, with the goal of isolating and stressing your muscles to the point of fatigue.

“Every muscle has to show up, all your ancillary muscles and your larger muscle groups,” said Tanya Becker, a longtime barre instructor and co-founder of the franchise Physique 57. To effectively engage all of these muscles, many barre exercises involve several incremental steps.

Barre also has a reputation for being deceptively hard — all those tiny movements can add up to a rigorous workout. (Many barre instructors encourage their students to strive for a “shake” with each exercise: the point when the muscle is so fatigued that it begins to quiver.) But you can tailor it to meet you where you are, said Nicole Davey Hilliger, a barre and Pilates instructor in San Clemente, California. Like all effective strength-training workouts, it never gets easier, she said. But as you get stronger and more flexible, your abilities expand.

For all barre exercises, maintaining proper form is essential, said Whitley Miller, owner of the Healing Barre studio in Washington, D.C. If your form starts to break down, it’s better to “shake it out and come back” into the correct position, picking up where you left off, than trying to push through, she added.

The Times enlisted the help of Ms. Hilliger to create this 10-minute introductory routine that you can do anywhere.