Thursday Eve - Ballet; Friday Morning - Kickboxing

[Guest guest]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to post my review of Element Ballet

Conditioning (which I did get to do on Thursday night

after everyone was in bed and/or asleep! - woo hoo!)

but I needed to finish up my shopping for DD on-line

and then I just was sick of being in front of the

'puter. So, here is my review:

First off, this one will give you new respect for the

strength and control of ballet dancers. Yikes! This

was a hard workout and made me realize how much

flexibility and control I like compared to those

dancers!! There was nothing terribly unusual in this

workout - if you've done a ballet style toning workout

before you will have seen all or most of the exercises

in this one. There were a few moves that were Lotte

Berk-ish/Bar Method-ish, but w/out the pelvic tuck

(which is the thing that bothers my back the most, I

think!) The workout is structured as follows:

after a brief warm-up, it is on to standing " Barre "

type work - again, nothing really different from a

traditional ballet-style workout, but it is tough and,

like I said, will give you new respect for dancers'

strength and control and flexibility. I was pretty

humbled by it! After the barre section - which is the

longest - you do some moves without the barre and with

a bit of a cardio effect - various jumps. Then it is

a short Pilates-inspired matwork session - this was

also pretty intense. The workout is beautifully

filmed (outdoor setting), the instructor (Elise??) is

very good - and the cueing is done via voice-over. I

highly recommend this one if you like dance-inspired

toning workouts and really want to be humbled! I

definately felt worked by it and will do it again - I

think it is one of those that you have to keep doing

if you want to improve. I might consider alternating

P90X's legs & back with this one -both work me hard

but in a different way.

This morning, I got up a bit later (went to bed later

and DD had one of her infamous nightmares just as I

was getting to bed) but I did my T-Tapp Basic Plus

Workout and then I did an oldie from my collection -

Lankford's Power Kicks. I highly recommend this

one if you like basic drill-style kickboxing workouts

(for my P90X rotation, I'm trying to stick with more

athletic and drill-style kickboxing, since that is

more in line with what Kenpo is) I think this tape is

out of print, but maybe someone on ebay will have a

copy. At times 's pace is too fast for me to

keep good for, but since the choreography is so basic,

it doesn't matter - I just go at my own pace. The two

background women don't look very happy to be there -

but one of them is supposedly a black belt (at least

it said so on the credits!). After the cardio there

is a short section to practice and work on form for

your kicks (like in the Kathy kickboxing

workout)- they use a chair for balance, but I didn't

feel like stopping to go get one here, so I worked on

my balance as well. Then, on to the floor for ab work

and push-ups, and a final stretch.

I really must remember to pull this one out more

often! Oh, and although I don't have a bag, I think

this one can work very well with one, so for all of

you luck enough to have a bag - give this one a try!

Anyway, hope everyone has a good day!

Donna

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