Yoga Booty Ballet Sculpt

This workout is on the same DVD as Core Strength & Abdominals, but I haven't done that set yet. I wanted to get this down while it was fresh in my mind.

It begins with about 3 min. of "intention" setting. The weights section starts off quickly. I'm no novice exerciser, and I consider myself intermediate to advanced, but I found this workout quite challenging! I expected it to be relatively light like a lot of YBBs are. This section is about 25 min. of compound movements incorporating upper and lower body. Earlier reviewers gave good descriptions - biceps curls, shoulder raises, tricep extensions, etc. with plies, lunges, squats, etc. I started with 5 lb. weights, but dropped down to 3 lb. weights a little over halfway through. It's more intense on the upper body, but my quads and glutes were feelin' it! High reps. It has a good cardio aspect too. My heart rate was in the 75% range, pushing 80% at times, and I worked up a nice sweat.

That section is followed by a surprisingly challenging yoga session, about 25 min. in length. It begins with some kundalini warm ups like breath of fire with arms at 60 degrees, twisting and cat/cow. After that it's traditional type yoga. The poses aren't held that long, and many of them are dynamic, i.e., moving with the breath from side angle to warrior two and back, stretching from side to side, sun salutations, etc.

The session ends with a short section of mantras done in easy pose.

All in all a well-rounded, different sculpting workout with the added benefits of light cardio and yoga. A good way to get a lot covered in one workout.

This workout is about 50 minutes total, evenly divided between high rep/low weight sculpting and a vinyasa yoga practice, and bookended by short meditations. Ravi provides live drumming, and the sets are the pink amphitheater and what I think of as the "grassy knoll" overlooking the ocean. The sculpting workout is very similar to the short weighted cardio portion of Yoga Booty Ballet Basic/original, with upper body moves using light weights (1-8 lbs) done while either stepping side to side or doing plies. The fast pace and movement makes this a reasonably challenging workout. Slim Series fans will feel right at home. I had problems on carpet with the squat move where you quickly switch your feet from parallel to turn out, so I just alternated parallel and turn out with each set of squats. There were certainly enough of them!

Gillian does most of the cueing and has a tendency to cue on the move, so you may want to preview the video before jumping in. Transitions are quick. People with knee problems may want to pass with all the plies and a twisting lunge move at the beginning. Shoes are recommended for the sculpting section, and you have just enough time to rip them off and fling your mat out on the floor before the yoga begins.

The practice starts off with breath of fire and a couple of other Kundalini moves before launching into the vinyasa. This practice is not for true beginners; some modifications were shown but not explained very thoroughly. Especially after the sculpting, my shoulders definitely felt it by the end!

This video doesn't have quite the fun factor of the Advanced workout, but enough of the YBB spirit is there. The sculpting section could easily be done on its own on time crunched days, or repeated to bump up the intensity.

I did not really enjoy this workout, despite the lovely soothing background and fine production quality.

The set is beautiful. There is a live drummer.

It's an endurance workout,and I did feel worn out out at the end, which is a good thing. But I didn't feel "uplifted", which is kind of what I was looking for.

I'm not religious. I'm an agnostic. But the spiritual yoga speak appeals to me the most (as opposed to the spiritual nature of other workouts like some Tae Bos) because my family is hindu, and it makes a connection. I love the use of sanskrit terms, and I absolutely adore that at one point, she said to put your hands in Anjali (NOT prayer position), because that's the correct term - AND it's the name of my eldest daughter.

I tend to flinch when I hear 'mind-body connection', but in general, I really enjoyed what I heard.

One complaint - I kept forgetting who Teigh as, who Gillian was (kept confusing them), and they sounded so much alike, I kept forgetting who was talking.

Overall, I just didn't enjoy the workout - even though I felt like all the elements were in place for me to enjoy it. I did like the yoga part, didn't like the meditation. I do medidate, but I don't like to meditate while someone's talking to me about meditating.

The drummer... I am indian (usa born/bred) and I have been exposed to a lot of styles of indian music - bollywood, bhangra, classical, etc... I know how beautiful classical indian music can be - so there was no excuse for this music to be so boring.

Want to hear some beautiful music? Listen to the little buddha soundtrack.

Anyway - my grade is C. I was disappointed because I felt like they could have really done better.

A fun toning workout! There's no dance section as in the other YBB workouts, but you are constantly moving. The first section is about 25 minutes of high rep/low weight toning. Lot's of plies and curtsy dips with concurrent upper body work. The fatigue comes from the volume of reps not the weight. I'm probably an advanced exerciser, and I found it challenging using 5 pound dumbbells. It's a better upper body workout than it is a lower body workout. I felt like my hamstrings didn't get much work.

The second section is a nice yoga mix. It's about 25 minutes of familiar postures - down dog, warriors, cat, cow. It's nicely cued and explained. I think a yoga beginner could do it with the instructions (and occasional modifications) provided. DVD owners will be happy to see that the yoga gets it's own chapter so you could do it separately.

I did miss the dancy sections that make YBB Basic and Advanced so special, but this is a very nice toning tape. The production values on the entire YBB series are excellent so it's quite pleasant to watch. Very enjoyable and certainly worth the 50 minutes.