Beyond Balletone : Cardio ballet workout

I never judge a workout by the amount it makes me sweat. There’s so many parameters to a session of good exercise and the sweat factor can vary for many reasons, including how hot it happens to be in my very hot city that day.

But with this particular cardio ballet workout, led by Shanon Fable,  I can’t help noticing because halfway through it I’m covered in sweat and my heart rate is up and all I can say is this is the first review I’ve written in a state of collapse on the floor. And I haven’t even gotten to the two bonus cardio workouts at the end of this workout yet! Not today, please not today!

Beyond Balletone is another one of the wonderful ballet based workouts I’ve discovered this past year. I have loved, loved, loved working out with the ones I’ve used. That would be Standing Pilates, Angles, Lines and Curves, and Elise Gulan’s Element Ballet Conditioning although I do have quite a few others. I’ve noticed that if I just stay regular with these and reduce the junk I eat, the effects begin to show. Unfortunately, I tend to get too many breaks in the exercise schedule (most of them my own doing) and once I’ve succeeded in cutting back on junk food, I go back to it. Ouch.

But back to Beyond Balletone, which is part of a series of videos, all of which I don’t have. They don’t need to be worked on together. Beyond Balletone works on balance, muscle conditioning, strength and endurance, and cardio. The amazing thing is that it looks dead easy – and turns out to be a killer! I think what makes it so solid a workout is that large movements are used. These are kept up without a break – not even between segments – and include participation from the whole body. It’s a beautifully conceptualized and innovative workout. Fantastic for the posture as well, as you have to reach tall with all your energy for every other move.

There are six segments on this DVD. The warm up starts with your feet and toes, and I really like that. I wish all dance and exercise videos did a little bit of that because I’ve personally suffered from ankle twists and minor (but annoying and disruptive) toe injuries from stepping nice and vigorously before the muscles are ready for it. So, here we begin with exercises that get you to explore balance on different parts of your feet –the ball, both inside and outside part of the foot, etc. A particularly nice exercise is when you pick up each toe and set it down separately in a rolling and flowing sequence.

The warm up goes on to plies and leg lifts, shoulders etc, but all of it is unusual; different from others I’ve seen.

Pretty soon, you find you’re ready for the first muscle conditioning pattern. This is a “fall – back to up – tap – tap” exercise where you reach and fall forward a little and then get back straight and lift the leg and tap down the pointed toes twice. The reaching and going back are large moves and toe taps require balance, which immediately means you use your core. Before you even realize, your heart rate is already way up. Large arm moves help to make that happen as well. For each segment, there’s a “Power” session where you do a portion of the movement pattern faster. Whew. It’s great stuff.

Those who have done full-fledged ballet before may not find it challenging – in fact, they’re sure not to – but for someone like me who’s only done ballet-based workouts, it’s enough work and I haven’t been able to tackle the whole one-hour workout at one go yet. In fact, I started small, with two segments, and then four. I’m yet to go for the cardio segments which are sure to make me collapse in a total heap. The whole one hour has got to be something.

The three parts that follow the fall – back – tap – tap pattern involve side lunges and reaches and passes. The moves are very skillfully arranged in patterns and it’s jus tone pattern for the whole segment. That means repetition, which is good because you’re not wasting time learning new moves and sequences. I’m not sure if it would annoy some people, but as I see it, no one works with just one workout, so when you’re bored just do something else the next day. Should I choose to a ballet workout every day of the week (not really necessary), I now know quite a few. You can also put on some nice music and make up your own sequences. I do that sometimes, to tango chill music.

The four patterns you work with teach a lot of coordination – no doubt about it. Come to think of it, it isn’t that the movements themselves are so unusual; it’s the way they’ve been put together and the seamless non-stop moves sustained for a whole hour.

The cardio segments involve large walks forward with turn out (more toning), large side reaches, lunges, leg lifts, and pivots. She doesn’t require you to maintain a “pretty” form, but if you try, the challenge increases as you hold proper form throughout. The addition of the walks and some chase moves give the extra cardio benefit, although as I said, the workout is already quite cardio effective. And I exercise often enough, to notice.

At the end, there’s an express workout “Allegro” that uses all the patterns with fewer repetitions but in one big sequence. Very thoughtful and really nice for those who want to do a shorter but more frequent workout. It’s actually meant to finish the main workout, but I wouldn’t hesitate to use it with the warm up as an express.

Two important things about this DVD. One, the music is used beautifully to keep the workout going. It isn’t just random music but fitted well to the workout.

The second point about this program is the absolutely fantastic instruction, cuing, pacing and preparation from Shanon. So many other DVDs, including dance instruction, could learn from how this one has been cued. Shanon will count out or use the music to keep you going through the moves, but in addition, she’ll prepare you for what’s coming. I use a little test to see how well the cuing has been done on a DVD. Just listen to the audio only and try to work with that. If you find you understand pretty well what’s wanted and you keep pace, the instructor has done an excellent job. Well, this one passes the test hands down.

For non dancers, I’d recommend going through the video several times and trying out the moves slowly before going in for the actual exercise session. There’s a lot of coordination involved in these moves and you can get nice and mixed up if you don’t try them out slowly first.  I also recommend building up one or two segments at a time because it’s tougher than it looks and there’s never any point barging into a whole exercise program and then finding you’re just too tired to do it again for the next 3 days. So,, build up the stamina and the proper form and then keep it up for several months. That’s what I’m going to do!