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

Review: Turbo Jam

Look! It's my first video review!

I started off with Turbo Jam because it's a video series that I already own, I've done a couple of the videos already (two or three years ago), and I remember having fun. I don't remember why I didn't keep going. Probably that laziness factor again.

I remembered that I had Turbo Jam halfway through May, so I was only able to do two full weeks of the routine. The recommended schedule starts out with Learn and Burn a couple times before finishing out the week with the 20 Minute Workout. Because I had done these workouts once or twice before, I was able to skip the Learn and Burn, start directly with the 20 Minute Workout (or Cardio Party on a day that I had a little more time) and finish the week with Cardio Party Mix 1.

The initial workout had my muscles burning, and I was definitely sore the next day. I did the 20 Minute Workout everyday the first week except for one morning when I had a little more time (I did Cardio Party instead). By midweek, I was still sweating, but my muscles were recovering a lot faster. Since my body seemed to take to the workout pretty quickly, I decided to throw in Turbo Sculpt and Ab Jam the following week even though the recommended schedule tosses in Turbo Sculpt a little later. Week two for me consisted of alternating Turbo Sculpt on one day and 20 Minute Workout with Ab Jam the next day (I also had a rest day).

At the end of the two weeks, there isn't too much change in my body (I mean, really, it was only two weeks). There's a little more muscle definition in my arms (probably only visible to the hubs and myself :-P), and my body feels tighter overall. I don't think it LOOKS tighter, but I definitely feel better. I also noticed that my kicks are higher and more controlled than when I started.

THE GOOD

• I really like Chalene. She's bubbly but not over the top, and her attitude really motivates and encourages me. Her personality may not be for everyone, but for me it was just right.
• The pace of the workouts was good. They were just the right amount of challenging at first, and when they started to feel a little too easy, I could just jump more, kick higher, punch harder and the intensity was right back up there.
• The arm work in Turbo Sculpt was killer for me. It honestly made quick work of my lack of muscles.
• I love that everyone gets all sweaty. It makes me feel like they're all getting a good workout, too.
• The music in Turbo Jam may not be everyone's tastes, but I loved the tempo of the jams Chalene chose. They're paced very well and got me to the point where I wasn't thinking about how many kicks and punches I just threw, I just wanted to keep to the beat and choreography. :-) Some of the songs with lyrics seemed perfectly placed to me, too. Just when I'm tired of kicking I hear "I'm gonna knock you out! Mama said knock you out!", and I think "heck ya! I'm gonna knock you out!" Or when I really just want to be done with squats I hear "it feels good, baby", and silly as it sounds, it somehow makes me keep going.
• I loved that the moves were choreographed directly with the music and tempo. Loved it. That might throw some people off, but it was perfect for me.

THE BAD

• The standing ab work is kinda of easy. The floor work is tough, but for some reason, to me, the standing work doesn't compare. I started skipping it and going straight to the floor work.
• Correct form isn't emphasized a lot. She takes you through the Turbo moves in Learn, but you're a bit on your own for Turbo Sculpt. She does try to help you out with form a little, but for some of the moves a different camera angle would have been helpful.
• There isn't a lot of stretching. I'm not sure if it's common to have a very short cool down without much stretching in workout videos, but that's what Turbo Jam is like. The Sculpt has a little more stretching, but it's the only workout that does. I like stretching.
• The Turbo Sculpt is a total body sculpting workout. It's great for getting everything worked out in one go, but it wasn't very evenly distributed. There was a ton of arm work (or did it just seem like it because I'm weak?), a decent amount of leg work, then a teeny little smidgen of chest work.

THE VERDICT

Overall, I loved Turbo Jam. It was fun to workout to. On the days when I really just wanted to hit the snooze button a few more times, I was able to push myself out of bed because I knew I was going to have fun if I did. It got my heart pumping, and I had good energy throughout the rest of the day.

This one definitely makes my list of favorites. I only have the small set (Learn and Burn, 20 Minute workout, Cardio Party Mix 1, Ab Jam, and Turbo Sculpt), so I know there are a bunch more Turbo Jam videos that can be thrown in the mix when I want more. I can definitely see myself doing Turbo Jam long term (if I get more videos) because I enjoy doing it.

Up next...Women's Health: The Wedding Workout.