Health & Fitness

• a sculpted physique
• improved cardiovascular health
• long, lean, supple muscles
• improved strength and endurance
• better flexibility
• improved body alignment
• increased bone density
• lifetime health and conditioning
• a lifted seat
• stronger abdominal muscles

Physique 57™’s Co-Founder and Director of Training, Tanya Becker, was extensively trained in this revolutionary exercise routine developed in London by the world-famous ballerina, Lotte Berk (1913-2003) and her orthopedist. As a former instructor at The Lotte Berk Method for almost a decade, Becker updated and fine-tuned the long-respected and effective technique.

Soon after Physique 57’s New York City opening in 2006, Becker recruited Shelly Knight to join the esteemed Physique 57 staff. With a strong background in Pilates and dance, Knight was the Associate Director of Training before heading west to become the Director of Training, West Coast for the Los Angeles studio.

Physique 57 has attracted thousands of women and men in New York City and abroad whose bodies have benefited from the intense strengthening and stretching exercises. Due to tremendous popular demand, Physique 57 now welcomes clients at two studios in New York City, one in Bridgehampton, NY and one in Los Angeles, CA.

As seen in the New York Times:

IN a light-filled studio in Midtown Manhattan, the class wasn’t even half over, but the students were already grimacing in pain. The dozen women stood in front of a ballet barre, feet in a V position, heels lifted and a soft ball between their thighs. They bent their knees and pulsed and pulsed, as if performing nonstop pliés. After almost 60 repetitions, the cheerful instructor declared the set over, and the group sighed with relief.

This was the scene at Physique 57, one of several New York City studios with classes that use the barre as a base and help replicate the enviable dancer’s body: long and lean, svelte but not bulky.

Ballet is only one element in these classes, which can include Pilates and yoga and aim to engage the core in every exercise. Though the sequences follow one another quickly, increasing the heart rate, the movements are low-impact and usually interspersed with stretching.

The workouts first popped up in the city in the 1970s when the Lotte Berk Studio opened on the Upper East Side with an exercise method created nearly 50 years ago by Ms. Berk, a German dancer. That center has closed, but others today are run by former Berk teachers and are inspired by her techniques, with each adding twists, like Physique’s “V” position, a variation on the first position in ballet.

At the Body on the Upper East Side, for example, Shawn McCormack has devised exercises that work multiple body parts. In the dreaded “chair,” students hold the barre at arms’ length with legs hip-width apart and squat. As they pull up with their arms, they bring one knee to the chest for a core crunch and then alternate sides in quick succession.

The moves might sound torturous, but adherents profess striking results. Ann Moore, 55, a fund-raising consultant, has taken four classes a week at the Body for the last year. “My body was a bit built before, and this has made my shape more feminine,” she said.

While it might seem that a workout aimed at creating a dancer’s body would appeal only to women, instructors say men reap their own benefits: defined abs, a less bulky upper body and more movement throughout, which can improve performance in sports like golf and tennis.

Bob Raskopf, 59, a lawyer, is a devotee of the barre-based Core Fusion at Exhale. He initially went at his wife’s insistence. “I couldn’t touch my toes, but I’m far more flexible now, and my back is much more limber, which helps my tennis game,” he said.

The latest entrant in barre workouts is G.S.T., short for Grace Somatomorphic Technique, created by a former Pilates teacher, Anna Rahe, who didn’t study the Berk approach. She uses a metal barre and springs with handles attached to the wall for an extra burn.

Stephanie Stanko, a hairstylist, said the sessions had helped straighten her shoulders, which were constantly bent over at work, and had tightened her body. Yoga and Pilates were “slightly boring,” she said. This workout, on the other hand, “makes me look and feel sexy.”