Customer Reviews

Bellydance for Beginners with Suhaila: Fitness Fusion Yoga

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

.....who needs professionals???? Seriously, this is NOT for beginners to yoga or bellydancing. You MUST have some experience (especially with undulations) or you'll be a little confused or completely lost and discouraged. I can get through the yoga well enough, in fact, I LOVE the yoga section....but when she starts using undulations there is little explanation. She incorporates them interestingly with cat & cow, but I wound up just pushing my stomach in and out. It is tough to isolate your upper and lower abs from one another and if you can't do that already to some degree, you may find this DVD frustrating. Though I can see that it's wonderful exercise and practice!! Suhaila doesn't only expect you to undulate, but she also expects you to switch the direction of the undulation at the drop of a dime while layering it on top of figure 8s and later on top of some crazy gluteal squeezes. I know things like this improve over time and with practice, but to call this a beginner video when it lacks detailed instruction on how to do ADVANCED moves is just wrong. It is a great video, though, and if I were an intermediate or advanced bellydance student who could undulate even only a little I would have given this more stars. A little side note: Suhaila is beautiful and inspiring and I watch her bonus performances while I sweat it out on my elliptical machine!

I was surprised how sore I was the next day. The workout seemed kind of tame. It was very slow and I didn't feel any burn. I was wondering if I was doing anything. I did feel very relaxed and refreshed after the workout. Then, the next morning, my triceps, upper back, obliques and buns were really sore. I have to say, at first I was a bit intimidated by all the belly rolls and butt crunching. I'm getting better over time. This isn't a complete body workout, it seems to target those above mentioned areas. I imagine, in combination with the other 3 workouts in the series, you'll get a full body workout. I'll be trying the Pilates and Jazz soon and I'll keep you posted!

I agree with all the other reviewers.
It starts out with good deep breathing using your hands under your chin to guide your head for deeper breathing. There there are some yoga poses like forward bends, side angle, wide legged forward bends.
She then uses basic on hands & knees "cat/cow" poses on hands & knees to start to teach you how to camels & undulations. Then after touching your toes, you are then sitting up & repeat the same posture as if you were still on hands & knees to slowly make the movements more subtle to turn into undulations both down to up & up to down. That idea is great for someone like me who can't quite get them & shows just how aware she is of the body & unique ways to teach. You do all these undulations many times until looked even the background dancers (about 7) looked tired themselves but Suhaila wasn't missing a beat.
Sitting wide-legged, you do glut isolations, then add on top of that.... the undulations again. I couldn't do all 3, but hope to one day.
Then she teaches in to out & out to in vertical figure 8s & outward twisting 8s & inward ones. She is a great teacher, she really knows to remind you to use your hips only, keep feet totally on the ground, etc.
The bonus workout is more undulations with figure 8s by one of her students with her doing a voice over.
She teaches better then all the other bellydance DVDs I have in my humble opinion. Throughout the 40 min, your arms are constantly in the air, so you get an arm workout as well. My arms felt slightly sore & my rear & obliques were stinging immediately.

Yoga is relaxing and strengthening, while Pilates can shape your entire body very quickly. Bellydance is where your soul is free to express its creativity in a swirling of sounds and bodily expression. This is an internal and external workout to prepare you for such adventures.

Suhaila is sensual and spiritual as she moves through a dance-preparation workout designed to strengthen and tone through the use of Yoga and Pilates essentials. This is not a dance routine, nor is bellydance the focus. Instead, you can relax into the flowing movements or focus on your stomach in more subtle undulations or experience the relaxing stretching yoga postures.

Suhaila draws on dance exercises from Pilates, but enhances the movements with her innate sensuality. I love all her workouts and this is one of the essential and more relaxing workouts in the series. For beginners this would be an excellent point to start from because Suhaila does teach some figure 8s which relax the hips and give you a good workout.

There are balance exercises that would be enjoyed by intermediate bellydancers. Advanced bellydancers might enjoy the relaxing postures. I like the cat/cow stretching from Yoga. The undulations are easier to do while standing, so during some exercises you may prefer to just stretch or modify various positions to suit your strength level.

~The Rebecca Review

I did the Suhaila Yoga DVD tape today. It starts off deceptively easy, and then quickly works its way to things I just can't do. And I don't think I'll be able to work my way up to it, either. It all comes from my inability to have turnout at the hip. Since I have no turnout, when I sit on the floor with my legs open in a V, I simply cannot lean forward from the hip. In all other ways, I have excellent flexibility, but I'm just built a little crooked.

So I find the exercise where I'm supposed to sit in a V while doing glute isolations impossible to do correctly. Yes, I can isolate my glutes. I can isolate them very, very well. But I don't get the airtime Suhaila does, because I can't hoist my petard, so to speak. I can layer undulations over top of glute isolations (although it is a definite challenge), but I just can't do it in that position.

So maybe I'll try doing it while standing in a horse stance or something. That would certainly be an excellent workout!

I think the Yoga DVD is my favourite of the bunch. The yoga is integrally related to the dance movements drilled, and I think this video will be invaluable to people who have difficulties learning how to do abdominal isolations and camel undulations. It's also good for advanced dancers, because the one-legged mayas and figure 8s are an excellent challenge to your isolation skills and balance!

Your heart rate might not go cardio on you, but you'll definitely get a workout out of this video. Check it out!

This is indeed a tape for beginners. Suhaila gives wonderful instruction on starting undulations, starting from yoga's cat-cow combo, into seated cat-cow and beyond. If you are doing cat-cow correctly, then the transition to undulations should be easy to understand. That doesn't mean it's easy to do. I'm in my 40s, obese, with arthritis and fibromyalgia, and I can do all these moves: undulations, gluteal squeezes, hip figure 8s. I just do them at my own pace, with however many repeats I can, working towards the suggested pacing and repeats. If I can do it, then... ;)

It is natural for your muscles to be stronger for some movements. That is why she has you reverse the direction for the different moves, to vary the motions so the muscles get stronger for all movements. Suhaila and her cast are obviously all in great shape and experienced, but if you watch them carefully, you'll see they aren't all doing it the same, and they don't always do the moves perfectly. Work at your own pace, be patient with yourself, and this routine should work great for you.

I thought the yoga was ok, but the bellydance moves were not for beginners! Not too many beginners can do bellyrolls with no more instructions than she gives! But I did like watching her performance!

This was definetly not a good beginner video. I didn't like how it took along time to explain the yoga poses and then just blew into the Bellydancing with no explanation of the moves. I got so lost when they were trying to do like 4 moves at once.

This dvd and the whole series are great for working on isolations and just refining your moves in general. This particular workout and the pilates are my favorites. She works on stomach isolations and glutes. I'm an intermediate bellydancer and was able to do most of the exercises, and others were challenging, but not discouraging. The dvd comes with special features which includes a bonus mini workout, a solo performance, a performance by her entire troupe and circle dance. Her students in the video are very talented and the workout motivates you to get to their level. Oh, and strangely there is a random part where she talks about her pregnancy.
I recommend her pilates dvd in addition to this one over this one.

While I am not a fan of neither Suhaila nor Yoga, this is a great DVD. I don't dislike Suhaila, she has a style of dance that I cannot relate to, while she has some marvellous hip moves and stuff, her arms are not my type.... Anyway Yoga, I don't like Yoga either because I'm a move, move, move type of person.

I recently suffered a little bit of stress and thought that Yoga would be the go and me being a bellydancer I thought that a Yoga/Bellydance fusion would certainly be the go and this is it.... I really do like this Yoga workout, get breathing and undulating, great for the Glutes and after I've done all the work, I can relax, which is why I got it, so I could move away from stress related feelings to the slow pace of Yoga. Suhaila's Yoga/Bellydance fusion is a great way to relieve stress.