Ballet-inspired workouts for a fit and healthy pregnancy! Work out with celebrity trainer and new mom Mary Helen Bowers during her pregnancy, with exercises and stretches designed for the first and second trimesters. A gentle combination of mat work and toning, low impact exercises at the barre, and light stretching to keep the muscles lengthened, toned, and strong! This DVD has been designed specifically for the first and second trimester of pregnancy with exercises and stretches designed to support a healthy, strong pregnancy and birth. DVD INCLUDES: two 30-minute workouts and a relaxing 15-minute stretch with a fun mix of toning and mat exercises, light cardio and stretching. LEVEL: All levels, always check with your Doctor before beginning any exercise while pregnant or after having a baby. ABOUT THE BALLET BEAUTIFUL METHOD: Created by professional ballerina and celebrity fitness guru Mary Helen Bowers, the Ballet Beautiful workout mixes the athleticism and grace of classical ballet with targeted exercises and stretches that sculpt a dancer’s toned, lean physique. Mary Helen personally trained Natalie Portman for her Academy Award-winning role in Black Swan. Sought after by A-list celebrities, supermodels, Victoria’s Secret Angels and thousands of other women around the world, Ballet Beautiful is the chosen workout of today’s modern woman.
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This "Fit & Graceful" workout is a great, gentle intro to Ballet Beautiful
Although I am not pregnant and am not planning on being so, I ordered the two new Ballet Baby sets anyways, hoping that they'd be similar to Mary Helen's prenatal streaming workouts, which I did when I subscribed to her online service for one month. My review, then, will be geared towards those of us who are not expecting, but who are interested in purchasing these, as I was. I have only had the chance to preview these so far, but I can tell that I'm going to love these just as much as I love Mary Helen's other Ballet Beautiful workouts. These definitely do not disappoint!I have also posted a review of the entire Ballet Baby: Fit & Graceful Pregnancy Bundle set, which comes with this DVD and the DVD for Trimesters 2 and 3.~~ DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO NEW "BALLET BABY" DUOS ~~~I ended up ordering both this duo and the Ballet Baby: Energized & Elegant Pregnancy Bundle duo directly from Ballet Beautiful before I even knew what the workouts would be like just because I love the BB workouts so much. I wasn't sure what the difference between the two sets was, but, after hunting around a bit, I found an online article (from _The Daily Mail_) that said this:"The first series is Fit and Graceful, a more gentle introductory workout designed for women who aren't familiar with Mary Helen's techniques. 'This is for people that maybe are new to Ballet Beautiful, who haven't worked out with me before and want to get started, to change their muscles but in a more sort of gentle way,' she explained."The same article also went on to say this:"For Mary Helen's more experienced students - like supermodel Doutzen Kroes, who trained with her while pregnant with daughter Myllena - there's the more advanced Energized and Elegant series. 'This is the DVD for people who've done Ballet Beautiful for a while,' says Mary Helen. 'So for myself or for someone like Doutzen, who's going into pregnancy already ultra fit and used to a challenging workout.'"~~~ BACKGROUND INFO ~~~In each workout, it's just Mary Helen, and she's in what looks to be her home studio. It's a beautiful space, with flowers in the background and a window. Mary Helen looks radiant and beautiful as always, and it's fun to see her working out while she was pregnant with her daughter Lumina Belle.As with her other workouts, Mary Helen does four sets of eight for most exercises, and she counts out each rep. This doesn't bother me and I find it meditative, but I wanted to point this out since I know it bothers some viewers.To do the workouts on both DVDs, you'll need a yoga mat, a chair or barre, and some light handweights.~~~FIT AND GRACEFUL - "Trimesters 1 and 2" DVD ~~~On the main menu, you have an "Intro to Ballet Baby" one-minute segment, along with the three main segments of the DVD:* Mat Workout -- 30 minutes* Standing Work -- 30 minutes* Gentle Stretch -- 10 minutesThere is also the "Play All" feature so you can string all three workouts together.The Mat Workout comes in at just under 30 minutes long. It has such classic BB moves as inner and outer thigh lifts, along with a shorter swan arms segment. The Standing Work section also comes in at just under 30 minutes long. You need a chair or ballet barre to do this segment. It includes gentle lunges and lots of releve work. The Gentle Stretch workout is just over ten minutes long, and I can see myself using this one a lot in combination with Mary Helen's other Ballet Beautiful workouts. It contains some nice hamstring and hip stretches. All three of these do not require weights at all.~~~ OVERALL NOTES ~~~In both workouts, Mary Helen does her usual stretches between moves. Although these short stretches may not seem like they're doing much, they really do help keep your legs feeling limber and long. I've also noticed that she does more stretching in these DVDs than in her previous ones; she holds the poses for longer, too.The moves are varied enough, though, that these don't feel at all like repeats of her previous four workouts, and I'm really glad that I got these. Although, as mentioned earlier, these are designed to be more beginner workouts, I can see that they will raise my heartrate and give me a great workout.I will be sure to update my review since I plan to do these for the next month or so, mixed in with a little cardio.UPDATE 11/9/14: I just got done doing this for the first time, and really enjoyed it. It's not quite as challenging as the Trimesters 1 and 2 disk from this "blue" set because she doesn't do quite as many reps and she moves more slowly, but I still felt nicely worked out. Overall, I'm still really pleased with these new Ballet Baby workouts!
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