Ballet Beautiful Ballet Workout DVD - Cardio Fat Burn. Mary Helen Bowers Barre Dance Inspired Fitness DVD

I just got done doing this workout for the first time -- and loved it! I've had wonderful results using Mary Helen Bowers' Ballet Beautiful Total Body Workout and Ballet Beautiful Body Blast workouts together (which I liken to the results that many get from Tracy Anderson's workouts, in terms of the lengthening and tightening that you get), and had been eagerly awaiting this new one, which I pre-ordered from Amazon a few months ago. (In my reviews for those two other DVDs, I've mentioned the positive results I've gotten from doing Mary Helen's workouts in the past; when I was doing just those two workouts and no cardio, I lost several inches.) I'm really pleased with this new one, and know that I'll be using it a lot! When you go to the main menu, you have the option of playing either the entire workout or individual chapters. Whether you choose the individual segments or the whole thing, you also have the option of playing the workout with Mary Helen's voice + music or just with the music. This is a nice feature since the counting on her other two DVDs can be a bit repetitious after doing the workouts a few times. The individual segments (if you choose to do them one at a time) are: * Warm-Up (about 8 minutes) * Core Workout (about 11 minutes) * Upper Body (about 16:30 minutes) * Lower Body (about 13 minutes) * Total Body (about 11 minutes; this is really the last cool-down stretch) The entire workout comes in at 62 minutes, and all you need to do the workout is a mat. The music is classical piano music, and it's more upbeat than the music on her other workouts, which is nice since this has a cardio focus. The workouts are filmed in the bright, white loft that is similar to the backdrop used in her other two workouts. Mary Helen uses ballet shoes to do the workout, but you could probably be barefoot and be fine. (I use the Capezio Women's Daisy Ballet Shoe when I do Mary Helen's workouts to feel a bit more ballerina-like! :-) ) The cardio segments/bursts (what Mary Helen calls "Allegro intervals") on this are mixed in with mat work, so it's not a pure cardio workout, where you'd be doing cardio for an entire hour. On the back of the DVD case, it mentions that these are designed to be "high-intensity cardio intervals," but they aren't as intense as other HIIT or cardio workouts. That being said, the cardio bursts still got my heart rate up during all of them. The cardio moves that she does all have a ballet focus, and include things like leaping in place and doing hopping plie lifts. Mary Helen will have you doing a few minutes of these cardio bursts, and then you'll get on the floor and do a toning segment that focuses on a body part (abs, arms, or legs), before moving into the next cardio and toning segment. If you like ballet-inpsired workouts, I'd also recommend Leah Sarago's Ballet Body DVDs or Tracy Mallet's barre workouts. While Leah's and Tracy's workouts have a more athletic feel to them, they focus in similar ways as Mary Helen's workouts on lengthening and developing lean muscles. Overall, this is a nice cardio workout that will fit in nicely with her other two Ballet Beautiful workouts! I always feel graceful when doing her workouts, and love how lean and lifted I feel afterwards! UPDATE ON 3-18-15: If you need more of a low-impact cardio workout, then I'd recommend the new Ballet Beautiful: Swan Arms Cardio , which just came out last month. Since you leave one foot on the ground at all times with Swan Arms Cardio, it's easier on the joints.

It took me a month to decide how I felt about this DVD. After trying all the other Ballet Beautiful dvds, I finally got around to doing this one enough times to get a good feel for it. The allegra intervals are great. I kind of hate running, so the intervals of standing work mixed in with mat work make this doable for me. I know I can make it through the cardio segments because the mat work is not far away. If you are like me and have 0 dance training, just mirror her movements and ignore the directional commands. You'll get the hang of it if you are patient with yourself. You have the option of doing the 4 different chapters alone, which I have done, complemented with other Ballet Beautiful dvds in the past. However, to really get the most out of this specific workout, it would be best to do a few chapters in a row. That way you get to do a few cardio intervals, considering that each chapter contains only only cardio interval paired with one mat routine, if I remember correctly. The mat workouts include core, arms, and inner thigh exercises. I feel like this workout really does lengthen and extend the muscles, reaching areas that are otherwise neglected in a lot of other routines. The music in this video is more upbeat than others, which is nice. Mary Helen Bowers is pleasant to listen to and fun to try to imitate throughout the workout. This DVD, unlike the others, has an extensive warm up and cool down, unlike the others. Sometimes I pause in the middle for an extra stretch. All the stretching keeps me feeling long and lean for the rest of the day.

This is a high intensity cardio DVD. This is especially helpful for women who are more serious about losing the actual weight rather than the toning/sculpting of her classic DVD. I always sweat like a pig whenever I do this, which is great, considering I've been using this for almost three months. There are bits and pieces of some strength training in here, but it's not as intensive as her Total Body Workout one. You will be jumping with Mary, and she will be so nice to you while you are sweating and crying. If you want my suggestion on losing weight, I suggest you do this DVD and the Sculpt & Burn Cardio Blast, a low-impact cardio DVD together. Remember that strength and weight training helps with overall body fat and size, while cardio helps with lowering your number on the scale. You need both for successful weight loss; you cannot do one without the other! Cardio without strength/weight training can make you lose weight, yes, but then you'll still be flabby and become "skinny fat". You can do strength/weight training without cardio, and while you'll become firm and toned... you might not like that your number on the scale isn't budging. You need both, as well as eating a clean diet. This is a wonderful DVD, I am so happy to have found Mary Helen Bowers, and she makes me feel good about being a woman, you know? I never appreciated the hypermasculine aura that I've seen in the gym scene, and maybe I don't want muscles or to 'bulk up'. Mary's workouts will NEVER make you bulk up or make you look odd. I love her so much for that. Zooey Deschanel is one of her clients, and she always looks so feminine yet in shape, you know? :-)

First of all , there is no annoying music just light upbeat piano that does not drown instructor voice. I find this Cardio Fat Burn fun while keeping the mind calm, positive ! The cardio keeps your heart pumping at a healthy level. The toning is done on a mat. Ex: cardio 8 mins. mat 10 mins. then cardio again. minutes chose are not precise. Cardio , then stomach toning on mat. Cardio and the arm toning on mat. Cardio and then leg toning on mat. et cetera . This helps burn fat , and lengthen and tone muscles. Being dedicated to the ballet beautiful dvds will have your body feel more graceful in movements. I have used over 6 months.My muscles are lengthened and toned which keeps you feminine not bulky. Huge change in posture and confidence within . I am feminine , toned , happier , and alive ! If you have issues with your thighs , also try Body Blast dvd and Total Body Workout. TBW: butterfly bridges. BB: both leg workouts. on leg workouts, modify if the burn is to intense. Eventually you will get there. It took me some time without having to stop and rest. Also , instead of 4 reps. each. Do 2 reps and rest. continue when she starts other leg.

Some background: I've lost inches since I started Mary Helen's Ballet Beautiful workouts- Body Blast and Total Body Workout- about 6 weeks ago. I was a Jillian Michaels fan for about two years until I realised that no matter how much I worked out with her dvds, my body had reached a plateau. Jillian had made me fit, but she had also bulked my thighs and butt, and there was no way she could fix that. Soon after starting the BB dvds, my body shape changed so dramatically, without doing the crazy weights, cardio and high intensity intervals of Jillian's dvds, that I knew I had found the type of exercise my body was supposed to be doing. Mary Helen is so incredible- she makes your whole body look long and lean, like a ballerina's. Cardio Fat Burn is a great addition to the dvd range, but it definitely does not push you to the extreme in relation to cardio. The title is somewhat deceiving, as I'm sure people will buy it thinking it will give them a killer cardio workout. It doesn't, but it's still an amazing workout. Sections in the workout are similar to the mat work in her other dvds- abs, arms and inner thigh. These sections are, like those in her other dvds, unbelievably challenging. You will be groaning by end of most of the reps as your muscles are completely exhausted. In between this mat work she gets you to do the 'cardio' allegra intervals, which are basically ballet jumps and skips. These are fun, and they do make you sweat, but you don't feel your muscles burning like you do in plyometrics, etc. It's for this reason that I think she really should have added more mat work to target the butt and outer thigh, as these muscles are only moderately worked in the allegra intervals. After this workout, I make sure I also do the bridge series from BB Total Body to work these muscles properly. The difficultly level of this workout is very high, only because of the mat work. Like I've said in other reviews of her dvds, I have no idea how a beginner could last even five minutes into Mary Helen's workouts. That said, the allegra intervals are perfect for beginners, even though the leg work may take a little while to master (I speak from experience!). The whole workout is about 1 hour long, and includes a comprehensive warm-up and cool-down, something her previous dvds have sorely lacked (pun intended). I really cannot wait to see what Mary Helen does next.

I bought this one along with the Body Blast and Total Body Workout. WOW am I ever amazed at how SORE I INSTANTLY became. The workout itself is probably the most soothing-awful workout ever. The beautiful classical music and the moves remind me of ballet class in high school, but the workout WORKS so WELL that you WILL hurt immediately if you're out of shape, and probably even if you aren't. I have a particularly hard time working out the muscles between my shoulder blades and this workout along with the others takes care of that without issue. I even went out a bought some ballet shoes, the first I've had since I was 16 years old. :) Long story short, I really really love Ballet Beautiful! It's the most feminine workout I've ever done along with being the most satisfying and successful workout I've ever done. Who needs boot camp when you can pas de chat your way back into a slim waist line? :)

I am so disappointed about this video. After LOVING her "classic" workout and most of her "body blast" set, I pre-ordered this and looked forward to doing it for days. Maybe it's my fault, I'm not sure what I expected out of a "cardio" workout, but her other workouts are so specific and toning and this one just isn't doing it for me. The footwork is complicated, like ballet I'm sure, but I struggled too much with the moves to get my heart rate up. I could do it several times and get the hang of it maybe, but it seems like my time (and anybody else's who is having this problem) would be better off using the time doing other cardio. Also, without dance training and very specific instruction on how to do each move safely, some of the things in this workout just don't seem safe to do repeatedly. The moves are higher impact than were in her other videos and the odd landing in the plies caused pain in my knees. I'm not mobility impaired or anything, I'm just a normal person, but like a lot of women, I have some lingering issues with my knees that I have to pay attention to. Part of why I loved her other videos so much is that they were challenging but never hurt my joints or made me worry that I even could. They were very gentle but also very effective. Maybe this workout is more like other "cardio" DVDs, but if you are buying it on the basis of her other workouts, you should know that there are some big differences. So, be advised. I'll give it three stars because the production value is good, it does seem to be in keeping with other available workout DVDs, and pretending to be a ballerina was pretty fun. The moves are graceful, even some of the stretches, so that was a nice change.

I became a fan of BB exercises, and this DVD did not deviate from the general style. If you have tried one of the other BB videos, I don't think you'd like this one either. Why I like BB in general My whole life, whenever I tried workout videos - I was disappointed. One either needed a lot of room for jumping around, or I wasn't challenged. I tried BB one cold Winter night when getting dressed to go to the cold gym didn't sound fun. So I figured that I have nothing to lose by doing a video off Prime. 5 minutes into workout my muscles were burning, and I was a weekly exerciser. Since then every video of BB that I've tried I liked. Why I like this DVD I would describe this one as an interval training: usual BB workout is mixed with bursts of jumping. While majority of the BB videos are low to impact on your knees, I consider this one to be a medium impact. So for those extra sensitive to knee pain - proceed with caution. While a lot of moves are the same as in other videos, there are still a couple of new ones. However combination, repetition and flow of the workout is sufficiently different from others, so that I don't find myself bored. And just like other BB workouts - you need only a mat and a space large enough for your mat!