Article Link NYT article on ballet workouts

[Sophie]

Originally Posted by desertMermaid

And her ballet beautiful seems to skip both of these muscles (based on the quote). Is it a good idea to neglect muscle groups?

From personal experience? not for my body, no.

[desertMermaid]

Originally Posted by Tan

I just did one of her butt downloads and she slayed me. Its more Tracy Anderson-ish - large range movements on all fours, but about a million reps. her voice is a bit irritating but I will put up with it for the killer workout. Makes Leah look like a walk in the park. I'm tempted to get the arms one now.

Oh don't say that. I'm so loving Leah right now, but all of a sudden I'm tempted by these workouts. But the idea of neglecting certain muscles makes me a little cautious. So maybe I'll just stick with Leah, she's never steered me wrong.

[SharonNYC]

Originally Posted by Sophie

Odd - makes me think that's a workout instructor I'd skip. I turned to barre to help build my quads, since it was quad weakness that has contributed to my knee issues. For me, those have been the most helpful aspects of workouts like Ballet body and P57 - bringing back the quad strength I had lost. And I rejoiced when my quads became strong and visible again - I'll take knee health over long and lean any time.

Oh, me too!

[daisysunshine]

she does work the quads a bit (in bridge work).
but she mostly focuses on the other muscles.

[glamgal]

Her quote re: working all other muscles except the quads sort of sounds like Tracy Anderson and "accessory muscles." Or maybe it's just me?

[Casswoman]

There was this thread from a while ago about another ballet teacher talking about "barre" style classes and bulky thighs from the arched foot position that many, if not all, barre style classes teach.

http://forum.videofitness.com/showth...t=ballet+quads

Now, I've seen some ballet dancers with quite developed thighs. Not to break the rules here on VF but in Ballet Conditioning, Elise Gulan, has some quads that a reviewer on Amazon said "could crack a walnut desk".

[runnermom]

Originally Posted by Casswoman

I found her quote: For example, to replicate a dancer’s leg, she has clients strengthen their inner thighs, calves, and tops and insides of knees, but skip quads. “You can’t target your quad and expect it to be long and lean,” very interesting. I know many people find that certain of the barre workouts target the quads excessively.

My issue with her comment is that to me, the "tops and insides of knees" ARE the quads. Maybe she meant that she focuses on the whole leg as opposed to just the quad muscles (?).

[Jane C]

sorry - I posted to the wrong thread - deleting here.

[Tan]

The Ballet Beautiful workout I did was twenty minutes all focused on the outer hip and bottom, large range movements. I liked it but there was no quad work. It combined beautifully with Leah's new knee dancing segment and her bridge work segment, which was my lower body workout from yesterday. Leah's work is way more creative, fun to do, has more form pointers and hits more muscles. I don't think you need these, Leah gives you everything you need, but a bit of variety is always a good thing - spoken like a true vidiot.

[desertMermaid]

Originally Posted by Tan

The Ballet Beautiful workout I did was twenty minutes all focused on the outer hip and bottom, large range movements. I liked it but there was no quad work. It combined beautifully with Leah's new knee dancing segment and her bridge work segment, which was my lower body workout from yesterday. Leah's work is way more creative, fun to do, has more form pointers and hits more muscles. I don't think you need these, Leah gives you everything you need, but a bit of variety is always a good thing - spoken like a true vidiot.

Thank you, this is helpful. I'm pretty happy with Leah right now. So I will stick with Leah. I have enough variety with all the downloads right now. And then the DVDs later this summer woohoo