Let’s talk about LIFT Barbell Strength at Life Time. One of my favorite classes to teach!
I love to teach group fitness classes, and I love to write about group fitness classes. I’ve been an instructor for 16 years, and I’ve been teaching LIFT Barbell Strength for 4 years.
LIFT Barbell Strength is a Life Time Signature program that you will only find at the more than 175 Life Time locations across the U.S. and Canada. (I’ve been an instructor at Life Time Charlotte for 4 years, by the way, and I love it.)
In case you’re wondering what you need to know before taking a LIFT Barbell Strength class, or in case you’re just curious about this popular program, I’ve got you covered today …
We often hear that music makes the workout, and when it comes to LIFT Barbell Strength at Life Time, that’s absolutely the case. This beat-based class is focused on strength endurance, with no cardio or jumping. And it’s full of beneficial resistance training, which we all need at any age. This is one of the most popular group fitness classes at Life Time, and it’s one of my favorites too.
Now let’s get into the details …
What is a LIFT Barbell Strength class like?
This program in the group fitness studio is all about lifting weights to the beat of the music, and it’s an incredible way to build strength, improve endurance and perfect simple and foundational movement patterns.
In a typical LIFT Barbell Strength class, you can expect to spend most of the time working with an adjustable barbell (you’ll add and subtract weight on the bar throughout the class) and some of the time working with dumbbells or your own bodyweight. The split is usually 80 percent barbell, 20 percent dumbbells or bodyweight.
In this class, you’ll hit every major muscle group over the course of either 45 minutes or 1 hour, and you’ll feel fatigued in that particular muscle group by the end of each track. This workout is done song by song with short breaks in between to adjust equipment and rest. Each song is focused on one or two muscle groups at a time.
Who is LIFT Barbell Strength for?
LIFT Barbell Strength is great for someone who is new to lifting weights and wants to learn foundational patterns. And it’s a great way for someone to start lifting weights in a safe, group setting.
While at the same time, LIFT Barbell Strength is also great for a more conditioned exerciser who wants to improve their muscular endurance and needs a little push to do so.
I love to see all levels of exercisers challenging themselves with appropriate weight on their barbells throughout the course of the class. And this is definitely a class where people from novice to advanced can get in a great workout doing the same moves at the same time.
What type of exercises are in LIFT Barbell Strength?
The exercises in LIFT Barbell Strength are simple and stable, and this is because you want to focus on excellent range of motion and execution. There’s no need for fancy combinations, as the basics work really well when programmed correctly to an energetic tempo. And although you can elevate your heart-rate in some of the bigger tracks, there’s no cardio or plyometrics in LIFT Barbell Strength. It’s all about endurance repetitions, and there are a lot of them in each muscle-group-focused track.
In LIFT Barbell Strength, you’ll see a variety of simple exercises, such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, deadrows, bicep curls, shoulder presses, chest presses, chest flyes, reverse flyes, crunches, planks, push-ups, tricep extensions, tricep kickbacks and more.
And these exercises are synced to the music, which keeps everyone in the class moving together in unison — an incredible thing to feel and to see. Each new song starts a new track, and you have just under a minute to adjust your equipment/weights to get set up for the next track. (Your instructor will tell you whether to add more weight to the barbell or take some weight off.)
What type of music is played in a LIFT Barbell Strength class?
The music in a LIFT Barbell Strength class will be dependent on the instructor teaching the class, but mostly, it’s comprised of high-energy beats that are motivating and fun. Personally, I use a mixture of old and new songs across various genres. I like my playlist to be diverse, but moving. Here’s a playlist I’ve used before.
What is the order of tracks in a LIFT Barbell Strength class?
What’s cool about LIFT Barbell Strength is that there are a few different templates instructors can choose from. And here are the two most popular for the 1-hour class:
Traditional template
(This is the one I use.)
- Movement prep
- Posterior prep: Back
- Legs 1: Deadlifts and squats
- Chest
- Legs 2: Bar-less
- Triceps
- Biceps
- Legs 3: Lunges
- Shoulders
- Core
- Cooldown
Remix template
- Movement prep
- Core
- Legs 1: Bar-less
- Posterior Prep: Back
- Chest
- Legs 2: Squats and deadlifts
- Bicep
- Triceps
- Legs 3: Lunges
- Shoulders
- Cooldown
What are the class details you need to know about LIFT Barbell Strength?
- Where to take LIFT Barbell Strength: Only at Life Time locations or on the Life Time Digital app
- How long is LIFT Barbell Strength: 45 minutes or 1 hour
- What equipment do you need for LIFT Barbell Strength: Iron Grip barbell, plates, clips, dumbbells, a bench and a mat
- What is the focus of LIFT Barbell Strength: Full-body strength endurance
- What makes LIFT Barbell Strength different: It’s rhythm based and all moves are choreographed to the beat on a song-by-song basis per muscle group
- Who is LIFT Barbell Strength for: Someone new to weightlifting looking to increase their strength or a more advanced exerciser looking to improve and maintain their strength endurance
How often should you take LIFT Barbell Strength classes?
This class is best done two or three times a week, with at least 48 hours in between. I would not recommend taking LIFT Barbell Strength more than three times a week, because of the repetitive nature of the simple-strength movements.
Also, because LIFT Barbell Strength is all about full-body muscular endurance, you want to take at least a day off between taking this class to let your body recover (or incorporate cardio or another type of exercise in between).
Ideally, you’d want to take LIFT Barbell Strength on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or perhaps Tuesday and Thursday, with other workouts or rest days in between. Remember, our muscles grow when we’re away from the gym resting, and that truly matters after a LIFT Barbell Strength class.
If you’ve been going to LIFT Barbell Strength for a long time and are starting to see your results plateau, it could be that you’re doing it too much or not enough. I do this class twice a week (on Mondays and Fridays) and that feels perfect for me with other strength workouts throughout the week, and of course, a full rest day.
I would also encourage participants to go on the same day each week to a particular LIFT Barbell Strength class or instructor, so you can see your progress in each new workout the instructor delivers. For me, I do a new routine for 4 to 5 times, before debuting something new. This gives my participants time to learn the routine, start to find better range of motion and increase their weight in each song. This continual progression is what helps people improve their strength endurance.
And remember that range of motion and form matter more than the weight you use, so work on properly executing each move before going too heavy.
How is LIFT Barbell Strength different from Les Mills BODYPUMP?
This is a question I get often!
You see, I started my group fitness career with Les Mills, and I taught Les Mills BODYPUMP for almost 10 years. I loved Les Mills (I still use Les Mills equipment, because it’s amazing), but I no longer teach these programs and am now Life Time exclusive.
The big difference between these two classes is that Les Mills BODYPUMP is a pre-choreographed program, which means the folks at Les Mills International choose the music, provide the music, create the moves, plan the exact workout and deliver it to the instructors world-wide. This is an amazing way to distribute group fitness and ensure brand consistency, but it also means that all the BODYPUMP classes at a gym could potentially have the instructors teaching the same moves and songs at the same time (especially when a new quarterly release comes out).
But LIFT Barbell Strength is more of a freestyle program. While there is an essence, framework and plan behind all LIFT Barbell Strength classes, the individual instructor finds the music, selects the appropriate moves and puts the workout together. This is much more work on the instructor’s part, but it also means that people taking LIFT Barbell Strength will find much more variety within their gym from instructors. Yes, you can expect certain branded elements in LIFT Barbell Strength, but the personality of the instructor will come out much more in this class than in a pre-choreographed Les Mills BODYPUMP class.
Now that I create my own workouts under each Life Time Signature format that I teach, I know I will never go back to teaching pre-choreographed classes again. While it’s a big challenge to create all my own content, I absolutely love it. It’s a skill that has taken a long time to develop and I never would have been able to do it without that educational basis I started with Les Mills (as well as my other group fitness certifications from the beginning of my career).
The other difference between LIFT Barbell Strength and Les Mills BODYPUMP is the order of tracks. In LIFT Barbell Strength there are a few templates that instructors can choose from, either starting with movement prep and moving into core or starting with movement prep and moving into back. There is also freedom in LIFT Barbell Strength to include floor-based glute-activation exercises before big leg tracks, which is one of my favorite elements.
Finally, LIFT Barbell Strength is supposed to be 80 percent barbell work, with the other time utilizing bodyweight or dumbbells. While I haven’t taught a Les Mills BODYPUMP class in a while, it’s typically more focused on the barbell or on plates. I like the variety you get with LIFT Barbell Strength, and I love the ability to create my own routines. I’ll always have a place in my heart for Les Mills and Les Mills BODYPUMP, but LIFT Barbell Strength at Life Time is certainly my preference now.
What should you know before taking a LIFT Barbell Strength class?
When you take your first LIFT Barbell Strength class, you need to remember that you’ll be doing a lot of repetitions for each muscle group, so weight selection and form is everything. I recommend choosing very light weights throughout the class and focusing on great execution of the exercises before adding much load.
You’ll also probably want to talk to the instructor and let them know you’re new so they can give you tips and pointers before class starts. Get ready to have a great workout, and enjoying moving to the beat of the music with the other members of your class. Let’s lift!
Thanks for reading my post about LIFT Barbell Strength at Life Time. Go off and have a strong day!
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