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Element: Ballet Conditioning Posters
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Rating:  -
I was very pleased with this video. I'm taking an adult ballet class for exercise and I bought this video to supplement that class, since that only meets once per week. This workout is great. It concentrates a lot on the legs and butt, which are needed areas for me. I feel that doing this workout during the week has really helped me improve in class too. It's a great value.
Rating:  -
This is a solid workout for toning, lengthening, and balancing. It's fun and not too long. It's essentially a basic barre class with some pilates at the end. I did it for the first time yesterday and am really feeling it today - it's hard to sit down, but in a good way. I know if I keep at it it will make a difference in my body! My only dissapointment is that I did not break much of a sweat. Would be great after a two mile run.
Rating: -
I have mostly been doing Pilates workouts so I thought I would try this after reading other reviews. This is fantastic! I love all of the leg exercises like tandu, plie, releve. You will hold onto a chair for balance. The leg exercises in the beginning really strengthen your thigh muscles. It is hard to keep doing them until the very last one. That's a good workout to me.
Towards the end, you will do jumps without using the chair, plus some other standing exercises. I cannot stand in the same place on these jumps the way that Elise does, but it still gives me a great cardio workout.
Before the cool down, there are exercises on the floor that will work your legs and abs. In this part, you can build up to where you don't use your arms to catch your legs and that uses your ab muscles more.
I don't know much about ballet, in fact, I have never been to a ballet class. Although, it is gorgeous to watch and I would love to have the dancer's physique. This workout will definitely improve your shape if you continue to do it.
Rating:  -
I'm trying to find a good DVD to exercise, and I thought I'd try ballet - hey, who doesn't want to be more graceful, lean, and strong? All the other DVDs I saw reviewed on Amazon seemed to be for an existing dancer (which I'm not!) to refine technique, or a mix of ballet-Pilates or ballet-yoga.
So you know who's doing this review - I'm very tall, 235 lbs, 30 years, good athletic background but not in great shape now. I am certainly NOT one of those women whose reviews I read here on Amazon who complain that an exercise video spends TOO MUCH time demonstrating moves, and gives too much of a break between moves. Nope! I need things simple and paced so that I can actually do it. So with that in mind, here's my review of Elise Gulan's Ballet Conditioning:
Pros:
1) Gorgeous Pacific background (someone's beautiful house)
2) Gulan has an amazing figure and is very graceful - gives me something to which to aspire, and trying to imitate her grace took my mind off the difficulty of what I was doing - a tiny bit at least.
3) I found the moves very difficult, and I was working hard let me tell you!
4) For a complete ballet newbie, I guess there was a good element of introduction to ballet moves and terms.
Cons:
1) I was distracted by the fact that she kept on referring to long, lean dancer's muscles - but she's a beast. Great figure, yes, very graceful movements, yes - but slender and delicate no. Her thighs could not only crack walnuts - but could crack a walnut DESK! With a little self-tan and a tiny bikini, she could compete for body-building, I'm actually serious here.
2) I have to say this - since I volunteered at a fire station I probably (unfortunately) know more about soft-core pron than most women... I am willing to swear blind that the production company mixing the music does mostly soft-core pron. It was so disconcerting, and distracting - in the first section there was even the classic 70s pron "bow-wow" every now and then. With that ocean background, contact-paper "wood" platform, and fake cultured voiceover - it really was set up like soft-core pron.
3) Gulan's voiceover is freakin' annoying. I know she's trying to sound soft, musical, warm, and classy - but it sounds unnatural and forced. And she has a VERY weird, distracting habit of "warming" nearly every line (the only explanation I could find for the weirdness), so that it sounds like she's making a dirty innuendo; my mental image is of her constantly wiggling her eyebrows and winking creepily. What the heck?? This really adds to the creepy soft-core pron feeling of this video.
4) As to the actual exercise - the segment was too long, and impossible for anyone other than a dedicated gym-rat or ballerina to follow. It was very discouraging to me. She just never stops, and never gives you even a second's rest, and rather than switching muscles just sticks with the same ones, nonstop. Yes I know I have a remote, but I think a good choreographer builds exercise programs in segments, and switches muscle groups.
5) Her instructions tend to give important info a little too late to be helpful - not until the very end of the last leg of moves where she's casually lifting her leg to her ears (ok, I'm exaggerating) does she mention that it doesn't matter if you only lift it an inch, practice will increase flexibility, yada yada. My pulled groin would have appreciated that little tidbit a bit earlier! :)
My verdict:
If you really want to do ballet conditioning, and are willing to kill yourself every day until you can actually follow her moves, go for it. If you want to have a reasonably paced, uplifting workout session, go elsewhere. You'll end up discouraged and feeling inadequate, instead of proud of your hard work. And maybe a little creeped out and dirty.
Whereas I've put in Tracey Mallett every day, this is only the second time I've put in this DVD... and probably not too many more times. Ebay here I come!
Rating: -
This video is deceptively intense, but an amazingly simple workout for the effort. 40-45 minutes of intense muscle toning for legs, with incredible stretches and resistence work for arms that leaves you feeling leaner, taller and stronger every time. Another 10-15 minutes of intense abs work to round it out. I highly recommend this video for casual dancers (like, if you took ballet classes as a pre-teen) and those who never have danced to really challenge your muscles in new and unique ways. It gets easier over time as your flexibility develops (and it does), but never stops being an exhausting workout.
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