Ballet Baby: Fit & Graceful Pregnancy Bundle

I love most of Mary Helen's workouts. I've done the streaming workouts on and off for the past few years, and I have her Classic workout as well. I bought this set after finding out I was pregnant, along with Tracy Anderson's Pregnancy Project.Workout Breakdown:Disc 1: Trimesters 1 & 2Mat Workout- Seated core work: Similar to classic exercises that require you to engage the core muscles and twist or pulse, but in this video she has you support yourself by leaning back on your elbows or hands.- Outer thigh exercises: some extensions, circles, and raises. 4 sets of 8 reps, per usual for MHB. Stretching in between each set.- Inner thigh exercises: raises, little circles, some more complex patterns. 4 sets of 8 reps each. Stretching.- Seated swan arms. 4 sets of 8 reps. Stretching in between.Standing Work- Standing stretches.- Workout from the plie and lunge positions, using tendu, degage, and arabesque raises. Releves at the end in sixth position.- Stretching.- Standing arm exercises with light weights. Swan-arms based exercises (arms in first, second, etc.) using 1-2 pound weights.- Stretching.Gentle Stretch- Some simple, relaxing stretches for the upper and lower body.Disc 2: Trimesters 2 & 3Mat Workout- Seated arm workout with light weights. Swan arms based movements using the 1-2 lb. weights from Disc 1.- Seated core workout: core exercises with additional modification options depending on the size of your bump.- Outer thigh exercises: similar to those on disc one, with extensions and attitude raises added in.- Stretching when switching between each leg.- There's one mistake on this DVD: she stretches laying down in between two outer thigh sets on one side, but doesn't do this when repeating on the left leg.- Stretching at the end.Standing Workout- Passes, releves from 1st and 4th positions mostly. Some lunge variations and isometric plies.- Standing stretches.- Standing arm work with light weights.StretchingGentle Stretch- Similar to the stretching workout on the first disc. Gentle stretching for upper and lower body.PROS:- Mary Helen's presence is soothing (Attack of the Clones reference...). I've always enjoyed her personality as a trainer, but she's more personable in these workouts than in her original classic workout. This is probably due to increased experience-- her more recent streaming workouts also demonstrate a more engaging persona.- You can easily see how she performs each move due to attire. She wears a leotard, tights, ballet slippers and warm-up shorts in each workout so you can clearly see her form.- She consistently offers modifications for form in each exercise. Seated core exercises, prone parallel, seated arm exercises-- there's always a modification offered.- She includes extensive stretching after each set of the exercises. These don't seem like much, but they're extremely helpful when you tire more easily early on in pregnancy.- Speaking as a former ballerina, her form and posture are excellent, and she frequently reminds you not only to maintain good posture, but how to do this (lengthen through the neck, shoulders down and back, core pulled in as much as possible).- Explains how you might still be able to engage certain core muscles even if you can't feel others later in pregnancy.- Upper body exercises help develop arm and back strength and encourage good posture. Very helpful during pregnancy.- A gentle set of workouts that are excellent particularly if you don't really workout but want to start in your pregnancy.CONS:- 1 mistake in the mat workout on disc 2 (stretching one side and not the other). Not too much of a problem if you remember to pause and complete the stretch on your own.- It's not that difficult a workout. It did burn a great deal the first few days I used it, but I strengthened up pretty quickly. This might be because I used to do a lot of her workouts and danced before that. You can increase the challenge by doing more sets though.- There's not much variety, which doesn't bother me but might be tedious for other exercisers. Dancers are accustomed to repetition with the goal of perfecting a movement, so the constant sets of 8 structure doesn't bother me.- There's no bridge work, which is good because that's not always good in the second/third trimesters, but I would have liked some of it in the first trimester mat workout (even though morning sickness has made the bridge work nauseating...). There is a Ballet Beautiful Baby Bridge workout on Ballet Beautiful's website though.CONCLUSION:Overall, I would say it's excellent. On days when I'm not feeling good or feel too fatigued I'll just do one of the 30 minute workouts (either a mat or standing workout). Other days I do a full hour (both mat and standing). I took off from exercises for a while before becoming pregnant, and these exercises were a little tough at first (they burned so bad!), but she's very encouraging and right there with you and that helped me keep going. The workout does seem like it will get too easy after a little bit, so I'm going to purchase her BB Baby: Energized & Elegant set as well. As another reviewer mentioned, the Fit & Graceful is aimed at those with less experience in her workouts or with exercising, so I purchased it based on that guideline (thanks for the heads up, Leanne!). I imagine I'll use the two sets interchangeably for as long as I can.As other reviewers have mentioned, the cardio isn't necessarily that strenuous, but my OB/GYN told me that it's not recommended to let your heart rate go over 140 during pregnancy, so a gentler cardio isn't too bad. I supplement with swimming and walking on a high incline on the treadmill a few times a week though.Overall, I think this set is excellent. The exercises are helpful to improve strength, stability and flexibility, and they seem like they'll help be get back in shape after delivery/before I'm ready to go back to my classic Ballet Beautiful workouts.

I am not pregnant, I am menopausal w/fibromyalgia and hypermobility. But I find the Ballet Beautfiul series to be very helpful for those conditions; precisely because her exercises use small muscles that normally never see the light of day. These muscles, as they tone up, seem to hold my ligaments in place better than any other kind of exercise I've tried. I was doing a lot of yoga, but my physiotherapist told me to lay off of it because of the hypermobility.So the first DVD I tried was the Classic Ballet series. It was very difficult, but I enjoyed it, and I was looking for something a little less strenuous to do on days when my energy was low, or I had done weights at the gym and just wanted some movement in the evening ( I find I have a lot less fibromyalgia pain if I move around). This DVD is much gentler than the Classic Ballet series. It involves a 30 minute mat session, 30 minutes standing session, and a 10 minutes stretch session, covering the different trimesters. Having sweated and cursed my way through the Classic Ballet and the Ballet Blast series, this was much easier- but it contains different variations, so I still feel it. Mary Helen has grace, a soothing voice, and an engaging smile; this is no drill sergeant, which I like. The last thing I need is someone yelling at me if I can't lift my leg up; I like someone to encourage, not lambast me. Mary Helen gives a very gentle clear instructions for pregnant ladies, so I would imagine this would be very helpful. The only thing that I didn't like was no explanation of the ballet positions and the correct form in the standing exercises. I am not a dancer, by any stretch of the imagination, so in trying to emulate her foot positions I tweaked my knee. Nothing major, and I'm going to look up what the ballet positions are and see if I can teach myself better form before I try to do the standing series again. That's the only reason I'm deducting a star here, because she gives such good instruction in modification for pregnancy, but I would have liked a little instruction on where my feet should be and proper form. I think you can injure yourself if you try to imitate her without a basic knowledge of the terms and foot positions.But for anyone who, unlike me, has actually taken a dance class, this is a great workout, and a nice introduction to her series, even without a baby bump!