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.

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? :-)

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.