Yoga Booty Ballet

Yoga Booty Ballet is a fun workout in which you'll target your entire body with a variety of different exercise styles; like the title suggests, however, the emphasis is on the lower body, particularly the "booty" area. The workout begins with a 5-minute warm-up that includes dancey-type moves as well as stretches; the warm-up is led by Teigh with Gillian and 3 others in the background. Next comes a 7-minute ballet segment, filmed by a pretty pond area with Gillian and Teigh alone. Gillian leads here, doing front, side, and back leg lifts and concentrating on the glutes all the while; there are also some 1-legged squats between the moves. I liked this better than other ballet workouts I've tried, mainly because you don't use a chair for balance and because you're focusing more intently on the "booty" area.

Teigh leads Gillian and the lone male participant, Andy, for the following segment. Although she describes it as cardio work, it might be better thought of as aerobic weight training, as you are moving quickly enough to get your heart rate up while using light weights. The exercises in this section include plies, squats, and various arm moves such as bicep curls, shoulder presses, and triceps french press for a total of 9 1/2 minutes. The following segment, yoga, was my least favorite, which is surprising since I enjoy yoga and practice it regularly. I think part of the reason I didn't like this section because I found Gillian's voiceover cueing to be poor. Also, the yoga is vinyasa-style, which means you keep repeating a series of linked postures, and after the weight work, I found this very tiring. The full class is back for this segment, which is 8 minutes long.

Teigh again takes the lead over Gillian and Andy for a short (6 minutes) but intense section focused on abdominals. They use a "squishy ball" held between the legs to add extra resistance, and I found my Pilates fitness circle to be an adequate substitute. The moves are tradional crunches, but the use of the prop makes the work more difficult. To end the workout, Teigh leads the full class in some simple stretches, beginning on the floor and then moving to a standing position. The stretch segment is 4 1/2 minutes long, bringing the entire workout in at 40 minutes. Although the overall workout is relatively short, you will feel thoroughly worked out by the end, and both my buns and abs felt it the next day. I would have prefered the segments to be arranged a bit differently--e.g., I would not have had the yoga come right after the strength/cardio portion--but overall, I really enjoyed this video. Highly recommended to anyone looking for a fun workout with a "booty" focus.

My background: I am advanced in cardio, low-advanced in weights, and high-intermediate in yoga (favorites are Cathe, Christi, FIRM, TLP, Eoin Finn). I try to vary exercise intensity so that I include both high-intensity and lower-intensity workouts in my routine.

I enjoy YBB Basic on days when I don't feel like exercising, have had a rough day at work, or when I'm not feeling like a killer cardio or strength workout. I finish feeling lightly worked out and nicely stretched - and it's fun!

I especially like the modern-dancy warm up, and I was pleased to find that the Advanced YBB workout on the same DVD is mostly comprised of a long dance section. I often use the approximately 5-minute YBB Basic warm up in place of the warm up in other workouts or as a warm up for weight work.

To enjoy this workout, one needs to have a fairly high "woo-woo" tolerance and be comfortable with moving the body in a "funky," "release your inner goddess" kind of way. YBB definitely won't appeal to everyone, but it's a blast if you like this sort of thing (I do). :)

I enjoyed this workout a lot - it's one of the few fusion videos that flows well from segment to segment.

After a brief section of breathing and coming up with an "intention"/goal for the workout, Teigh leads the warmup. It's outdoors on a hilltop and it features female exercisers (one of whom is plus-size) and one man. The warmup is invigorating and fun - lots of total body stretches, arm sweeps and rollups to awaken the spine, back and core. The dance elements are easy, like hip sways and hip rolls.

Next, Gillian leads the ballet section - this is just her and Teigh on a rocky ledge overlooking a koi pond. The ballet consists of leg lifts to the front, sides and rear. It really works the glutes.

The sculpting section is next, led by Teigh, who calls it the "cardio" section. This is misleading as the moves aren't vigorous enough to get most people near their heart-strengthening or fat-burning cardio zone. The set is some sort of pseudo-amphitheater. The moves are side steps, plie squats and the occasional squat, all with light upper-body toning moves: lateral and front raises for shoulders, hammer curls, overhead French press, kickbacks. I used three-pound dumbbells, which worked my shoulders but was not heavy enough to work my biceps or triceps. I will fault Teigh for some sloppy form on one of the moves - in the squat/front raise move, she squats down and leans way forward, with her chest almost touching her quads. The second part of this move is questionable too: coming out of the squat, she tucks her hips under to squeeze the butt while sweeping the arms to shoulder height in a front raise. The tuck-under is so exaggerated that she actually leans her upper body back, which makes the front raise even more ineffective, as she uses momentum instead of shoulder muscles to get the weight up.

Next comes yoga - back to the grassy hilltop. Gillian instructs through a voice-over. I think this is the weakest part of the workout - the yoga is actually quite good but there is NO instruction at all. Most of the moves flow from down dog to plank, then lowering yourself to the floor, moving to updog/cobra and back to down dog. If you are not familiar with the moves, you should go to a beginner's yoga tape or buy a yoga book to get tips on form - how far apart the legs should be in down dog, where the hands are in cobra. Gillian's "instruction" is along the lines of "arch your back" when doing cobra/updog...a better instructor would mention hands under the shoulders, hips pressing to the floor, collarbone wide. Get those kinds of formpointers elsewhere, you won't get them here. Having said that, the sequence of poses has a nice flow and is very invigorating.

Gillian leads the abs section too - she uses the YBB squishy ball to do inner thigh squeezes while performing crunches. Again, some of the instruction in this section is incomplete - Gillian says placing the ball between your legs just below the knee and pressing inward will engage the lower abs. Well, eventually and with lots of concentration, it does...but first and foremost you'll use your inner-thigh muscles. There is some dubious form on the abs work: Gillian tells you to tuck your chin to your chest AND bring your elbows forward before doing a crunch, both of which are bad bad bad for the neck. When she does reverse crunches / lower ab lifts, she also demonstrates such a wide range of motion, it looks like she's just pulling her bent knees to her chest and releasing them, not using her lower-abs muscles at all. An experienced exerciser will know how to use proper form; a novice might not.

The final section is a Teigh-led stretch - it's brief and effective. The workout closes back at the koi pond with a little more deep breathing and affirmations.

I was surprised to find myself sweaty after this workout, and feeling very invigorated. It's a great no-impact workout with targeted butt work and nice stretching and lengthening moves.

Normally, I wouldn't buy an intermediate video and the title of this put me off a long time. Until I read a thread in VF about keeping your easier workouts around for lighter days, coming back from injury or illness, so after reading some comments on this video so I looked at the Collage clips, and wanted it right away. I am glad I bought this video.

I loved the scenery and music best of all, and also how I felt when I was done. I started out feeling stiff, before I put in the video. After the warmup, I felt really loosed up. This section would make any non-exerciser laugh though! They do alot of swinging themselves around and it does look a little wild. The warmup is on what appears to be a cliff out in the grass with a guy playing the drums.

The second section is ballet moves, but some are altered by the direction your toes are pointed to give the "booty" more work. This part was by a waterfall on some rocks. I liked it, too.

The next section was full of compounded moves: plies with upper body, squats with legs closer together & upper body, and so on. The triceps and shoulders parts I felt the burn in the most. There isn't time to change weights, so I didn't really feel it as much in my biceps.

The next section is yoga, with a move I haven't seen before, the beetle squat. They said it is thousands of years old though. I liked the yoga section as well. Very soothing. I wish the video ended with this section, because it seems soothing then goes into abs.

The ab section uses a ball, but you can use a pillow. The exercises are pretty standard and effective.

I loved the stretching at the end. It made my back feel great as well as the muscles worked. The workout lasted only 40 something minutes. I wished it was longer, but it will be great to do in summer when I don't want to drip in sweat, since it is already hot out, or for a light day. I'd highly recommend it for intermediates- grade A.

Dawn did a great job breaking the video down, so I won't go into all that. Just so you know where I'm coming from, I started taking Iyengar-style classes in 1997, and have amassed quite a collection of yoga videos, most of them power yoga variants.

I usually do not like fusion yoga videos, and I didn't really expect to like this one, but my curiosity got the better of me. Surprise--I liked it! Loved the music and the outdoor sets. The cueing could have been a little better. I used 7# weights during the sculpting section and was pleasantly challenged. This was a nice "first thing in the morning," relatively brief (40 minutes) workout
and I'm sure I will be doing it again soon.

Dawn already did a great job of breaking down this tape so I will just add my impressions. I did Yoga Booty Ballet on a day that I had planned to do FIRM strength, but just didn¹t have the will or energy. I wanted something kinder and gentler that would make me feel good. This fit the ticket perfectly. It has a little bit of low-impact "cardio" in the form of step touches, but you can do this workout barefoot; in fact, they recommend it at the beginning of the tape. I liked the variety of exercises ­ each section went by quickly. I only used 3 lb weights for the strength section. My shoulders are not very strong and because there were so many reps they were worked to exhaustion. I might try 5 lbs next time, and I think they said you could go up to 8. This isn¹t a workout that will build arm and shoulder strength because of the high reps, compound movements and fast pace, but you will touch on the major muscle groups.

Instructor comments ­ both instructors are very friendly and encouraging. At times they get a bit New Age-y with their comments, especially during the yoga sections, but I don¹t mind. There are three background exercisers ­ they are all present during the warmup and yoga, but only the male exerciser joins Gillian and Teigh in the strength workout. I like that they included a background exerciser who is not skinny.

This is not the type of workout that will leave you feeling pumped up, but you will feel energized. You will get a good workout for your abs and "booty" (I just love that word)Sthe ballet section really works your glutes differently from traditional weight lifting and left me pleasantly sore by the evening. This is a keeper!

This workout is done outdoors to the same type of music you would find in the Method tapes, the beating of the drums. The music is loud enough to enjoy during the workout without drowning out their voices. I really liked both instructors, very upbeat personalities.

This tape starts out with a very active warm up, moving side to side with your feet, arms swaying side to side, hip rolls, lots of active movements to get your body warmed up and you end this segment with some stretches for the upper and lower body.

The first segment is BALLET. This segment starts out by having you point your toes and tap your foot on the floor, tiny taps and then you raise the same leg straight out in front of you and you keep it up while you slowly raise and lower your leg just a few inches. Using that same leg you take the leg to the back to work your glutes in the same manner, with the small movements up and down and you continue to do that movement but you change your arm position from front to side to straight up in the air before lowering the leg back down. You repeat this whole secquence on the opposite leg. Next you do one legged squats but you do it in such a way that you are stretching your hip before you contract your muscle, this is done on both sides and then both these segments are repeated one more time. Next you lift your leg out to the side with toes pointed down and foot flexed to really work your glute muscles. You repeat this on the opposite side and then repeat the whole segment one more time through before adding in one more set of one legged squats.

The next segment is STRENGTH and uses hand weights....they are using 2 lb weights but I think you can go up to 5 lbs. You start out by doing a set of plie squats with the weights at your side. Then as you are doing the plie squats, you start adding in side lateral raises for a count of 8 and then you stand up and do side to side steps while continuing the side lateral raises for a count of 8 and then back to the plie squats with the side lateral raises and then back up to the side to side steps with the side lateral raises. Next you move on to plie squats with overhead military presses for a count of 8, then the side to side step with the overhead press, back to another set of plie squats with the overhead presses and then back to the side to side steps. Next you do hammer curls with the plie squats for a set and then the side to side step with the hammer curls and then back to the plie squats for a count of 8 and then back to the side to side step with the hammer curls. Next you put both weights together for overhead tricep extensions with plie squats for one set, then you move side to side for a count of 8 with the tricep extensions, back to the plie squats for a count of 8 and then side to side step again with the tricep extensions. Next you do a set of plie squats with the weights at your side. Next you go in to a set of squats with the weights at your side, after one set you start adding in front raises to the upward movement of the squat, you do two sets of this movement before doing pulsing squats with the weights at your side. Next you do close legged squats with a skiing movement with your arms doing triceps as you go down into the squat and then biceps as you come up, then you stay up and do bicep pulses at the top of the movement, then you do tricep extensions with toe taps.....you go through this sequence twice. You end with an active stretch of swaying side to side to loosen up your body.

Next is YOGA: This section begins with Sun Salutations, moving into Down Dog, then you go into a plank position and hold for a breath or two, lower down into the updog position and then you go back into down dog position and jump into what's called the "Beatle Squat," this is where your hands are on the ground in front of you and your legs are bent into a squat position and you slowly bend and straighten your legs while your hands stay on the ground. You repeat this segment two more times through. Next you are back in the down dog position, you slowly raise one leg to the sky, hold, bring knee in towards chest as you bend your arms slightly, take leg back up to the sky, bring knee back in towards the chest and hold, take leg back to down dog position, go into plank, updog, back to downdog and repeat on opposite side. Ends in Child's pose.

Next is ABS using the Weighted ball: You start out with the ball between your knees and you start out by sqeezing and releasing the ball quite a few times and then you add in upper body crunches to the movement. Next you put the ball between your quads and squeeze and release the ball and then slowly add in upper body crunches to the movement. Next you place the ball under both knees and do lower abdominal crunches, then you slowly add in upper body ab crunches to the movement. You stretch your abs and back by doing roll ups with out the ball.

Next is the final YOGA stretch: You start by continuing with the roll ups a few more times and then you go into the butterfly stretch, slowly lowering yourself to the ground in front of your feet. Next you go into the straddle position, hold the move and add in a side stretch, slowly lowering yourself to the right side with the opposite arm towards the sky, then you turn towards the same leg and lower your head towards your knee....slowly come up and repeat on opposite side. Next you lower yourself down to the floor in the middle of the straddle stretch and hold. Ends by going into down dog and slowly raising yourself up into a standing position.

I am really impressed at the variety in this tape. The whole workout is only 42 minutes long but there is so much going on that you won't be bored.