51 of 53 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Review of Basic segment only, November 18, 2005
This review is from: Yoga Booty Ballet: Total Toning Basics / Advanced Fat Burning (DVD)
The following review is for the Basic segment only; I will come back and reivew the Advanced once I have tried it.
Yoga Booty Ballet Basic is a fun workout in which you'll target your entire body with a variety of different exercise styles; like the title suggests, however, the emphasis is on the lower body, particularly the "booty" area. Instructors Gillian Marloth and Teigh McDonough are very enthusiastic, constantly smiling and frequently encouraging you to "get funky" or simply grunting "uh-huh!" They take turns leading each segment, sometimes with a class of participants, sometimes just the two of them on their own, in various outdoor settings.
The workout begins with a 5-minute warm-up that includes dancey-type moves as well as stretches; the warm-up is led by Teigh with Gillian and 3 others in the background. Next comes a 7-minute ballet segment, filmed by a pretty pond area with Gillian and Teigh alone. Gillian leads here, doing front, side, and back leg lifts and concentrating on the glutes all the while; there are also some 1-legged squats between the moves. I liked this better than other ballet workouts I've tried, mainly because you don't use a chair for balance and because you're focusing more intently on the "booty" area.
Teigh leads Gillian and the lone male participant, Andy, for the following segment. Although she describes it as cardio work, it might be better thought of as aerobic weight training, as you are moving quickly enough to get your heart rate up while using light weights. The exercises in this section include plies, squats, and various arm moves such as bicep curls, shoulder presses, and triceps french press for a total of 9 1/2 minutes. The following segment, yoga, was my least favorite, which is surprising since I enjoy yoga and practice it regularly. I think part of the reason I didn't like this section because I found Gillian's voiceover cueing to be poor. Also, the yoga is vinyasa-style, which means you keep repeating a series of linked postures, and after the weight work, I found this very tiring. The full class is back for this segment, which is 8 minutes long.
Teigh again takes the lead over Gillian and Andy for a short (6 minutes) but intense section focused on abdominals. They use a "squishy ball" held between the legs to add extra resistance, and I found my Pilates fitness circle to be an adequate substitute. The moves are tradional crunches, but the use of the prop makes the work more difficult. To end the workout, Teigh leads the full class in some simple stretches, beginning on the floor and then moving to a standing position. The stretch segment is 4 1/2 minutes long, bringing the entire workout in at 40 minutes. Although the overall workout is relatively short, you will feel thoroughly worked out by the end, and both my buns and abs felt it the next day. I would have prefered the segments to be arranged a bit differently--e.g., I would not have had the yoga come right after the strength/cardio portion--but overall, I really enjoyed this video. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a fun workout with a "booty" focus.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent workout - BASIC section, March 12, 2006
This review is from: Yoga Booty Ballet: Total Toning Basics / Advanced Fat Burning (DVD)
This DVD offers a great versatile workout. It includes separate segments that fit your schedule for a particular day. You can do warmup alone, or add aerobic, toning with weights for upper/lower body, yoga style exercises or abs section. There's a segment for every body part. An added bonus is the beautiful music/Tabla that Ravi plays in the background, the beautiful surroundings, serene backdrop and inspirational beginning at the beginning of the DVD.
It is recommended prior to starting this workout that your body is warmed up and that the workout is started at a slow pace as you will be *sore* after the lower body workouts. You may want to cut down a few minutes and end early to allow yourself to resume the next day. Once you are very sore the tendency is to skip workouts altogether for a few days which would slow down the results. You have the DVD and you can always do it as often as you want so go slow and steady. Once you are accustomed, you will be less sore and able to complete and enjoy the workouts.
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39 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Favorite from the entire set, November 21, 2005
This review is from: Yoga Booty Ballet: Total Toning Basics / Advanced Fat Burning (DVD)
This is actually my favorite from the set. I'd tried the lives and they were too goofy for me. This set also comes with another workout that I'm not as fond of.
The Basic and Advanced REALLY work on your buns .. and I like that. It's different than other exercises. Although I like the toning from this... I cannot do it stand alone-- It's fun.. but my heart rate never rises. I'm not sure tht it was supposed to.. That might ruin how relaxing this dvd is overall. I'd compare it to yoga moreso than ballet.. because in ballet-- you do sweat and your heart rate does rise. In yoga.. You tone.. your heart rate doesnt go up-- it's relaxing.
If you are trying to improve your cardio (which is what I'm doing) then you might need a little something extra. I'm not overweight... but I can see this as being a nice add on for someone that is attempting to tone up and loose weight... If you're looking for variety. I loooove variety-- and So does the body!
What Workouts I'm comparing this to: Any of my workouts that had "butt" exercises where I only felt them in my thighs -- Step aerobics, squats lunges... I was even lifting up my toes to try and REALLY feel it in my butt-- but no. I did deeper lungest.. lower squats.. still nothing in my butt. I still love those programs.. but this one was a nice extra something.
But Again-- I didn't really like anything else from the YBB set. I know they have a Master Series that just came out.. but I'm not jumping to buy it because I really didn't enjoy their other workouts. Not to mention.. beachbody is oh so difficult! I haven't had an order that arrived in less than 3 weeks -- or abnormal charges to my credit card that I have to hastle them to refund (which they also do slowly)....
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