Written by Esther Wolthers
There is a small window of time before every class that belongs to me.
I always arrive fifteen minutes early and unlock the studio. The alarm greets me before anything else, filling the room with this high-pitched wail until I hurry over to switch it off. Then the heaters turn on, warming the room, and everything is quiet.
I line up each step carefully, making sure everyone has enough space to move freely. On top of every step sits a pair of Amp Wellbeing's sculpt bars, ready for my signature step style. Music that reminds me of long beach days starts softly in the background, and before anyone arrives, I start to dance. It's been my ritual since my professional dance days, helping me settle back into my body and focus on the present. Soon, the room will begin to fill.
There are familiar faces, women who know exactly where they like to stand, and those rushing in at the last minute, apologising as they laugh. I try to greet everyone.
But first I need to introduce you to the person at the centre of it all.
Movement Begins Before the Music
Esther Wolthers has been teaching fitness classes for over a decade. Originally trained as a professional dancer, she found her way into group fitness through a love of rhythm, choreography and the particular energy that builds in a room full of people moving together.
She now teaches Step aerobics twice a week at a local studio, and for the past three years, she has incorporated weighted bars into every single class.
Not as a gimmick. Not to make things harder.
Because, as she puts it, they change the way people move.
"When someone picks up the bars for the first time, something shifts," she says. "You can see it happen. Their shoulders settle. Their posture organises itself. They stop thinking about the choreography and start actually feeling it."
"That's the moment I love."
Why I Use Weighted Bars Instead of Heavy Weights
People often assume the bars are there to make the workout harder.
In practice, they help us move better.
The resistance is intentionally light. It's enough to give the body feedback without allowing the larger muscles to dominate the movement. The moment the bars are in your hands, if you pay attention, you can notice the subtle changes. Your shoulders naturally settle. Your posture begins to organise itself. You become more aware of where your arms are in space, how your core supports you and how everything connects together.
It's this awareness that I'm really training.
Many of the muscles responsible for good posture and stable movement are small, deep and largely unnoticed. They're not the muscles people usually think about when they lift weights, but they're the ones supporting us every day when we carry shopping, reach into cupboards, climb stairs or simply stand comfortably for long periods.
Heavy weights tend to recruit the largest muscles first. That's useful for building bulk and raw strength, but it can bypass the stabilising work entirely. With a lighter bar, the big muscles can't just take over. The smaller ones have to engage.
Add choreography and music to that, and you have something quite different from a traditional weights class. You're not thinking about lifting. You're thinking about moving. The bars are just part of the movement.
Building Confidence One Layer at a Time
Step aerobics already asks a lot of the brain. There's rhythm to follow, patterns to remember, coordination to develop. Adding equipment into that could easily feel overwhelming.
But it rarely does.
Esther introduces the bars gradually. In the first few weeks with a new group, she lets everyone find the choreography first. Then the bars come in, and they become part of the vocabulary rather than an interruption to it.
"People surprise themselves," she says. "After a few classes, they stop noticing the bars at all. They're just part of how they move. And then you see something change."
She describes watching a woman at the back of a class, someone who'd been coming for about six weeks. She'd started quietly, keeping to herself, always choosing the spot furthest from the mirror. By week six, her posture has changed. Her movement has softened. She catches her reflection in the mirror and, just for a moment, sees herself standing with the ease and confidence of a dancer. Not because she's been trying to perform confidence, but because her body has learnt a different way of holding itself.
More Than a Workout
Afterwards, we stretch gently, never forcing the body further than it's ready to go. I always encourage everyone to move with their body rather than against it. Flexibility comes from consistency and patience, not force.
The room fills with conversation again. Women lean against the barre, laughing, catching their breath and talking to people who were strangers an hour before.
Eventually, the weighted bars are placed back into the basket.
They're perceived as just 'pieces of equipment', but they've done exactly what they were designed to do. They've encouraged better posture, greater awareness and stronger, more connected movement without ever becoming the focus themselves.
As everyone leaves, the energy in the room is noticeably different from when they arrived. They walk a little taller. They smile a little more easily. The rush they've carried in with them has softened.
The studio becomes quiet once again and I am alone. I never feel drained after a class. Instead, there's a calmness that settles over me, knowing that in my small way, I was able to help people. We've moved, we've laughed, we've challenged ourselves and, without even noticing, we've spent that time reconnecting with our own bodies.
For me, that's what Step has always been about.
The choreography is joyful and the music is uplifting. For one hour, you stop rushing. You stop trying to catch up with life and you take some time for yourself.
The bars Esther uses in every class are from amp's Sculpt Bar collection — designed for exactly the kind of movement she describes. Light enough to let your stabilising muscles lead. Weighted enough to change how you stand. If her approach to movement resonates, the kit is a good place to begin.
Shop the sculpt bars