Thursday, February 14, 2013

Who Doesn't Want a Ballet Body?

A ballerina I am not. Not even close. I don't have much poise and grace, my balance hasn't been very good lately due to my lack of yoga, and my strength is at an all-time low. But I wasn't going to let that stop me from trying out this new Ballet Body Workout.

This new series is a set of three videos: Upper Body, Lower Body, and Core. It was hard to decide where to begin, but I finally settled on testing out the Lower Body one. I should have known right off the bat that a workout that includes what's referred to as the "barre technique" would be deadly. The muscle-sculpting moves are supposed to lengthen the thighs, lift the backside, and sculpt the backs of the legs for sleek definition and a slim figure. The amazing part is how little you actually move. If you just sat back and watched this video you would think it's very easy, but you would be amazed to find out how challenging those little movements are. The greatest words you'll hear are, "Time to put those heels down." There's a whole lot of burning muscles involved, but the good news is that I was able to do all of it, even with no ballet experience at all. The moves are all simply enough (as in  . . . not complicated) that any non-dancer can do it.

The video moved right along pretty quickly. Despite the fact that the entire video is about 55 minutes, the last 13 minutes is yoga-type stretching and believe me, you won't want to skip that part after what they put your legs through. You'll need every minute of it. I don't think I ever appreciated stretching so much.

I am very much looking forward to trying out the other two videos and will be posting my experiences soon.

If you are interested in checking out this Ballet Body™ series the DVDs will be available from Acacia on April 2, 2012 and will cost just $16.99 each.