Ballet Beautiful: Transform Your Body and Gain the Strength, Grace and Focus of a Ballet Dancer (24 page)
Authors: Mary Helen Bowers
d
Now lift and stretch again through Tendu Front into the air, with your front foot off the ground.
e
Keep your neck long and remember your posture—do not let your upper body collapse as you lift and lower.
8 counts, 1 set.
Stretch
:
Standing Stretch.
Repeat the entire Tendu Front Series on the other side.
Congrats on finishing such a challenging workout! We will close with a final stretch to release your muscles and cool down and also with a reverence.
Stretch
:
Classic Hamstring Stretch and Hip Opener. Let’s finish this stretch-out with a center split (remember, it doesn’t have to be 180 degrees). Hold this position for just a few seconds (or a few minutes if you have more time), and then stand for the reverence.
Begin the reverence with a port de bras of the arms to fifth position. Lift your arms up over your head, keeping your center engaged and your posture very erect. Now take your right leg to Tendu Front, with your arms in third position.
Lift through your upper body and engage your stomach. Bend your supporting leg as you take your left arm into port de bras low. Lift back to tendu with a straight knee and change sides. Repeat on the other side. Now take a tendu in arabesque with the arms in third position.
WHAT IS A REVERENCE?
A reverence in ballet is like a curtsy or a bow. It is a way of saying thank-you through movement and of showing respect to your teacher or trainer. But please don’t do this bow for me—do it for yourself! You worked hard today and I’m proud of you!
Lift up high through your hips and legs and pull your stomach in tight. Take a breath in, bend your standing knee as you move your arms down toward the floor with your upper body. Your front knee is bent, and your back knee stays straight in arabesque.
Slowly lift your body back up as you straighten your knee and port de bras the arms back to third position. Change sides and repeat.
This 60-minute Classic Ballet Beautiful Workout targets all areas of your body and even incorporates some cardio. You can do the workout all at once, or in sections. As you will see in the next chapter, you have many more options for doing single 15-minute workouts, 30-minute combinations, or more challenging 45-minute or 60-minute versions. Onward!
15-Minute Ballet Beautiful Blasts!
T
his chapter introduces my Ballet Beautiful Blasts with Cardio Series in four highly focused and challenging 15-minute programs that will get your heart rate up as you target and transform your arms, legs, abs, and butt.
As Clara shared, “I really love the Ballet Beautiful Blasts! When I’m rushed for time, I do just one. If I have more time, I mix and match the workouts to suit my needs. The Blasts are just genius! I’ve done them everywhere from hotel rooms to outdoors in a park. I love them and want them to keep on coming!”
As with the Classic Workout, each one of these Ballet Beautiful Blasts targets and defines lean ballet muscles, offering whole-body conditioning—with cardio too! This is a really fun standing workout that makes you look and feel beautiful. My standing work is terrific for strengthening and improving your posture and your center of balance. It is a challenging, comprehensive workout that gets your heart rate up with very little impact and achieves great results.
Think of these exercises as steps in a ballet class. Each one has an important purpose and specific role in transforming and expressing movement in the body, and they can all be woven together to tell a beautiful story. The Blast Series offers options to accompany
a longer workout such as the Classic, or you can use them to alternate individual movements in the Classic. It’s all up to you! If you find that making room in your schedule for a full hour is impossible, this is the workout for you! I designed the Blasts to be flexible, interchangeable, and high-impact.
You can do the Blasts as single workouts when you are short on time, combine them into a powerful 30- or 60-minute workout, or split them into segments—do one 15-minute workout in the morning and another in the afternoon or evening, depending on your availability. The Blasts are portable—you can do them anywhere—and they incorporate all the principles of the longer series and the program itself: flexibility, balance, posture, and grace. And as you saw in the section on goal setting in
Chapter 2
, doing a 60-minute workout three times a week can give you major results!
Even if you only have 15 minutes a day to work out, you will still see incredible changes. When you are able to make more time, your results will be even more noticeable and exciting! I believe that every little bit makes a difference when it comes to taking care of your body. I encourage you to squeeze in one of the Blast workouts on days when you may not have more time to stay connected with the program and your goals.
The Blast Series includes four 15-minute Ballet Beautiful workouts:
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Remember to refer to your Ballet Beautiful Principles as you move through the Blast exercises. They will ground your alignment and help you stay in position.
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Series
The Ballet Beautiful Swan Arms Series is a graceful workout that tones and sculpts lean, feminine arms while building upper body strength and posture. You won’t use any weights, and once you try it you will understand why you don’t need them—this is a challenging workout that uses the body’s own weight to transform the arms and upper body. You can practice your Swan Arms anytime, anywhere, so get ready to have fun!