I live with a fitness professional and lifelong athlete, I on the hand am a lapsed athlete and fitness procrastinator. I used to be a long distance runner and once my knees and hips would not cooperate anymore I quit cold turkey. I hadn’t exercised in years until recently, my husband had finally broken me down and got me to start again. We have been doing a TRX suspension band type work-out which I am really enjoying and now I have decided to dip my toe into exploring other options. One discipline keeps coming up (and a lot of you have mentioned it in one form or another) and it’s the ballet barre method. When Sarah of Truly Smitten Instagrammed her copy of Ballet Beautiful I had to research more. Professional ballerina Mary Helen Bowers is behind the movement and if I could look like her I am totally in, you? Bowers offers multiple ways to get started on her program from DVD’s to on-line streaming classes to the most innovative which is the remote live-classes. I can’t even get into how genius I think this is. Bowers will teach her class remotely, you can be anywhere in the world near your computer and she will be able to correct your form, give you feedback and of course it would be nice to have the moral support to know you are not working out alone–brilliant! I definitely would like to try one of the live remote classes one day but I think I might just try a couple of the on-line streaming classes first to see if I can even do the exercises being the exercise novice that I have become. How about you? Have any of you tried Ballet Beautiful? I know a few of you are doing versions of the barre method I am anxious to here your feedback on this!
P.S. How gorgeous is this girl? I can’t even get over it!
Miss Tristan B. is the proprietress of Besotted Brand and the writer of this delightful blog. She recently re-located to the country with her handsome husband and two pups and will be re-locating back to the city in the very near future.
UGH!!! I hate how she’s got miles and miles for legs and arms. I am about to start a 60 min session dvd of hers this weekend! I used to do Bar Method and loved it! However, after the promo was over, I wasn’t too happy about paying $175/month plus on top of my gym membership. My friend highly, HIGHLY recommended Ballet Beautiful dvd. I watched it first and thought…wow…I can see why people will get results in a week if you do it consistently! I’m excited to start! Well..forcing myself to be excited lol! =) Happy Friday, Tristan! xoxo
Sarah, please let me know your thoughts! That is very steep $175! I used to work with a specialized Pilates class and if I didn’t do the exchange for classes rate I honestly wouldn’t be able to afford it, it was in L.A. and the prices were INSANE!!!
tristan: i’ve been doing ballet beautiful for a while now, and am really seeing results. i started with the online streaming blasts, and have also downloaded her dvd workouts through itunes, which is great as they’re on my ipad, portable, and i don’t need wifi. if you like pilates, i think you’ll really like ballet beautiful. xx
Well, if you are doing it then it MUST be good;) I did not know you could download from I Tunes, I am so going to do that, thank you!
I have been flashing back to my ballet classes in high school and college and watching my daughter take ballet has inspired me to start just the basics again. I remember how smooth my amazing I felt back then…I need to start doing it again. My body memory keeps pushing me when I’ve tried some things that it can’t get to that point yet. I miss my flexibility for sure!
Oh, you should, how fun to be able to share this with your daughter!
How funny, I came to your blog for the stamp giveaway but had asked my social network what pilates videos they recommend earlier today. Someone suggested Ballet Beautiful and after reading the comments in this post, I’m excited to give it a try. :-)
Briana, let me know what you think!
They have just started the barre movement over here (Australia) and a few of my friends are totally into it (I’m more of a runner myself…I definitely wouldn’t use graceful to define my exercise style so it’s maybe not for me). Apparently though, they love it and it gives them a really beautiful way of increasing activity with something really enjoyable. If you do eventually do it, make sure you post an update…let us all know what it’s like!
I’ve been taking Barre 3 for 6 months and I definitely saw results on my upper body strength and posture!
I live in the PNW in a suburb outside Seattle. The neat thing about Barre 3 is that it works out muscles that you hardly work out and then you build up stamina as the classes go. I’m on a barre hiatus due to the cost but I saw a groupon for it so I might go back :) Thank you for posting this! You are a trove of information and you have inspired a lot of my recent work. All the best!
This looks great. I read your post and immediately ordered 2 o the DVDs. Thank you so much for sharing this. I’ve been looking for something different to start working out again.
Terri, let me know what you think, it seems that everyone that has tried it loves it!
She is a knockout…I’m definitely jealous of those limbs! I just ordered the 60-minute DVD and it’s coming today. SO excited! I have the Bar Method DVD and like it, but it sometimes hurts my back. There are two Ballet Beautiful blasts (around 15 min long) available via YouTube. I tried those first and really liked them. It’s definitely challenging (my inner thighs are still sore) and I’m interested to see what the upper body workout is like. Will you be doing any cardio with this?
Let me know what you think!
And yes to cardio! I haven’t been great physically lately but I am walking and doing lots of hill + stair work. Although I try to keep stairs to a minimum only because I don’t want to ruin my knees (like I did from running for years) and also my quadriceps get super muscular really fast which is so not a good look, lol! If ind the hills are great for low impact but still getting your heart rate up and you really feel like you have worked out.
Hi Tristan! I was looking up for ballet beautiful results and came across your blog. If you are very fit already, then this will make a great work out addition but if you are not, then I would suggest take the live class (despite the steep price). the only reason why I’m not signing up for it is that I live in a completely different time zone from the time table like 12 hours time difference so its not making much sense. As in results, I have tried Ballet Beautiful for about one month now and my friends have noticed that my posture is better and I don’t clunk around as I used to. I don’t really see much improvement myself, although I don’t really do an all-out diet stuff…
I hope this helps :)
Thank you Audrey for the suggestion! I do want to try it:)
Hi Tristan, I just want to say I love your post! I also live with a serious athlete and am a bit of a anti-athletics type person. I want to try one of our Barr work out studios but I also still love some yoga! Nothing too spiritual, I’m not very serious about it but even doing some down dog in my living room after work makes my whole body feel better. I know they have pregnancy yoga, I’m sure it could be a little corny but once you know the motions it’s so easy to do it in the comfort of your own home!
Find the activity you love and commit will come along.
Lorna
http://www.atuairestudio.com (ballet adults Barcelona)