Review: Yoga Booty Ballet

Yoga Booty Ballet is a pretty cool concept. They combine dancing with basic yoga and ballet leg lifts to give you a lean, more dancer-like physique than more traditional workouts. I loved it.From the descriptions, I thought that it was going to be more of a fusion of yoga, ballet and dance, but in reality, the workouts include a dance section, a ballet section and a yoga section. They're all in one workout, but they're still separate sections of the workout. The end result is a workout that doesn't feel overly intense, but still gets you results.

THE GOOD

• If you like dancy workouts, the cardio videos are a lot of fun. The first time or two, you're more into learning the choreography. Once you learn the moves, though, you're free to embellish and add intensity. I like that you get out what you put in.
• The ballet moves really target the booty. Really, the "ballet" is just leg lifts, but Teigh and Gillian altered the moves a little to get you results in the areas you want it.
• The music is very rhythmic (mostly drumming), and the moves always follow the rhythm of the music.
• The cooldowns always include a bit of stretching, and I really saw a difference in my flexibility after doing these workouts.
• The ab workouts utilizing the squishy ball are great for working your inner thighs and targeting your lower abs a bit. I was surprised when I started feeling the burn.
• I enjoyed working out with Teigh and Gillian. They're happy and encouraging. And for the most part, their cuing is good. They name different moves and call out the name before the move comes up so that you know what you're about to do.
• They dont put a lot of emphasis on reps (when applicable), so half the time you don't know how many of something you did. That doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me.

THE BAD

• Every workout starts and ends with meditation/mudras. Some people find these encouraging (you set intentions for yourself at the beginning of each workout), some wont get into it. Personally, I skipped them.
• Teigh and Gillian are kind of kooky. During the workouts they tell you to "aspire to your highest potential" or "imagine your heart is sparkly". I thought it was cute. The hubs made fun of it.
• Some of the editing in the Basic workout is pretty off. During the cardio sculpting portion, they frequently cut into close ups of Teigh's arms so that you can see her muscles working. These aren't done very well and are often off count or off beat. It threw me off the first time I did it. Every time after that I just followed the beat of the music and ignored the close up that was playing. The voice over for the yoga workout in Basic is also not the best. It didn't screw me up as much, but it could have been done better.
• Teigh sometimes mixes up left and right while she's cuing. There's even a time where she doesn't think fast enough, so instead of calling out which hand to use, she just lifts up her right hand (which would mean your left hand) and calls out "this hand! this hand!" It's understandable since her right is your left, but that may throw people off.
• The cardio dances aren't really the style the claim. Cardio Cabaret is cabaret enough, but I didn't find it burlesque except for a few moves. I found little to no hip hop in the Hip Hop Abs. They're fun workouts, and they're still very dancy. Just don't expect to bring those moves to the club.
• You need a squishy ball. I attempted to do the ab workouts with a pillow at first, but I really didn't feel it. Once I got myself a cheap baal to use, I saw the beauty of the squishy ball.
• Teigh and Gillian use really light weights (2#). They say you'll feel it anyway, but I have my doubts about that. I was using 4#, and while it was a definite challenge for me during the tricep and shoulder exercises, the bicep and back exercises were way too easy at 4#. I can't imagine you'd feel anything at all with 2#. I have very weak arms, btw. If you have relatively strong arms, I would recommend more weight.
• The ab workouts are very crunch based. If you like crunches, you'll like it. The crunches ended up giving my stomach a 6-pack-ish look. Most people like that. I'm one of the few that don't.
• While they do name the moves, some of them are just kooky. Like "hand thing".

THE VERDICT

I really enjoyed YBB. It had this weird quality of feeling intense while working out, but afterwards I didn't feel like I worked out super hard. At first I thought it was a bad thing, but I kept it up because it was fun and I didn't want it to go the way of The Wedding Workout. Surprisingly, I started seeing results. My stomach got noticeably flatter and my arms toned up a bit more. I also increased my flexibility, which was really important to me.

I would add this to my list of favorites because I think it's a nice change from more intense workouts like Turbo Jam. The emphasis on flexibility and lean muscle would make a nice addition to a rotation of videos. Plus, it's fun. And what better motivator is there to keep workout out besides actually having fun?

Up next...Hip Hop Abs