Thursday, December 22, 2011

ballerina in training

I tried a new workout this morning! Ballet Beautiful, by Mary Helen Bowers. Mary Helen danced at the NYC Ballet for 10 years and trained Natalie Portman for Black Swan. Just the Black Swan part is enough =)

I love the idea of ballet workouts, with barre workouts becoming more and more popular. I like this one - but it is tough! (which is good). Mary Helen leads you through the workout in a bare white studio, with very serene classical music playing. She seems to effortlessly progress through 5 bazillion inner thigh, outer thigh, arm, and..gosh, I've blocked it out..oh yes, arm, core, and cardio/strength moves. All with the extreme grace of a professional ballerina. And then when she stretches, oh so casually, and pulls her foot to her nose. Ahhh, yes.

But I digress - I do like this workout. It will take me a while to work up to the speed and number of reps she's doing. Ballerinas are bad ass, apparently - because I've been hanging with P90X for 3 months and this? Yep.

If you've ever wanted to know how ballerinas can hold their arms up for a whole performance, so elegantly? This will demonstrate just an iota of the arm strength needed.

I do highly recommend it - and I'm going to be trying some other ballet-inspired workouts too. I think I'll keep doing this one mixed in with my p90. I do think my posture is a bit better for having done this workout this morning!

Here's the link to the Ballet Beautiful site: link






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