Backstage Workout: Digital DVD
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$14.99
The Backstage Workout features one hour of targeted power toning and elongating stretches build strong, sleek ballet muscles and increase flexibility. Tighten and tone the abs, butt, legs, arms, and upper body and feel that full body burn!
This video includes:
- From the Backstage DVD: Ballerina Legs & Butt
- From the Backstage DVD: Backstage Core & Arms
- From the Backstage DVD: Ballerina Stretch
Run Time: 60 Minutes
Level: All Levels
22 reviews for Backstage Workout: Digital DVD
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Meet Mary Helen Bowers
A professional ballerina by training, Mary Helen danced with New York City Ballet for 10 years before graduating from Columbia University and founding Ballet Beautiful. She personally trained Natalie Portman for her Academy Award winning role in Black Swan along with countless other A-list celebrities, supermodels & millions around the world, delivering authentic, results-driven ballet-inspired training.
M –
Great workouts!
“This Backstage Workout is fully on the mat. It’s especially great when I want to take it easy on my joints while still getting a strong, full body workout. Customer service is just as great.”
Blissfullotus –
Made for ballet dancers
“It’s a hard workout, made for ballet dancers”
Icube –
Excellent Burn with Fresh New Content!
“I have all the other Ballet Beautiful workouts and just tried this latest one yesterday. I loved it! I always find the Ballet Beautiful workouts quite similar to one another despite different sequencing and emphases, but I found this one quite different from Mary Helen’s usual. In particular, the arms segment is the first of hers I’ve done that does not have ‘swan arms’ at all. As mentioned by another reviewer, she does variations of tricep dips and ballerina push backs instead, which is a pleasant change (although I do love her swan arms series). The inner thighs segment is also different from the usual lifts, and I found the arabesque segment much more challenging than any of her other work. This workout still contains Mary Helen’s signature sweet style while she leads you through intense burning, but I personally feel that the moves are fresher and newer this time around. Definitely a must have for Ballet Beautiful enthusiasts!”
Rose A. –
Difficult but effective!
“I have all the ballet beautiful workouts. I do this along with some Tracy Anderson DVDs and have gotten noticeable results. I think the workouts compliment each other and have many similar aspects. This is a more difficult workout, I especially like the arabesque lift portion, you can feel it work the whole side of your body. The stretching segment is fantastic, I now use it after doing all her other DVDs. Everything is new and very challenging. I would say if you are already a fan this would be a nice addition and if you are new I would begin with the Total Body workout.”
songbird –
Challenging and Effective
“I cannot recommend Mary Helen Bowers’ Ballet Beautiful workouts enough. She’s changed my entire approach to fitness and I look forward to working out with her everyday. Her DVDS all offer varied, challenging, effective ballet inspired exercises.”
Stevie W. –
Mary Helen Bowers Workouts Will Challenge You.
“This is a mixed workout that you can do in sections or do all at once. Please note the tips, cues and modification recommendations. I am pretty advanced (though new to ballet) and I found this one a real challenge. I like all parts of this because I can modify according to how I feel that day. It will make your muscles sizzle! I found that it was often a challenge to walk if I skipped the stretch — so don’t skip it!
Mary Helen Bowers is a great teacher but her cueing on this video is not as slow and helpful as it has been on other videos (I have 3 other videos of hers). I bought this one to mix it up a bit since I found one video previously purchased was too fast a pace for me.
You WILL see results if you do this 2-3 times a week. Do the workout on the custom feature so that you can work different body parts on different days!”
crazy4books –
New and Creative Moves
“I love all Mary Helen Bowers workouts/DVDs – I own all by the Ballet Baby ones (which one day I will purchase anyway despite not being pregnant!) This one is definitely a challenge and I consider myself an intermediate exerciser. I have done multiple rounds of Insanity and Jillian Micheals and many Beachbody workouts and yet MHB kicks my butt! It’s a pretty tough workout, especially the first segment which basically has you balancing on one arm and one leg! I will have to work up to that because my one arm was shaking so bad I couldn’t keep my balance! But I look forward to working up to that! It’s got some new moves that made this a fun and challenging workouts. For any Ballet Beautiful fan, this is definitely a great workout to add to your collection.”
E. –
You will feel the burn!
“I adore Ballet Beautiful workouts. I’ve had this DVD in my cart for years, and I’m glad I finally bought it. I have many other Ballet Beautiful DVDs, but this one is challenging me in new ways. Love it!!”
Snowpaw –
I have three ballet beautiful DvDs, and I think this is the hardest …
“I have three ballet beautiful DvDs, and I think this is the hardest of all. I can do the body blast one for an hour without stop, but I can barely finish one set of the first movement in this one. my button and thigh are burning in the first three minutes when I do this workout.”
Iron Apple –
This workout will kick your ass!
“The workout is quick, efficient, and enjoyable.”
Lilly –
Great body workout as ballet preparation
“Great body workout as ballet preparation. It can be a bit straining but is until you get use to it. Is very intense.”
MandiDandy –
Lower quality video
“Not as good video quality as others but 5 stars for different moves and equal difficulty to get your muscles burning fast. Love her videos always challenging. Start with 2-3 sets then go for the whole 4.”
ADZ –
Worth it
“A very challenging but fun workout, loved it!”
Robbie –
I’m a Mary Helen Bowers fan for life
“Mary Helen is awesome..enough said”
Rennie –
Great workout!!!
“Great Video!”
Lake Ontario Upstate NY –
Superb in everyway!
“Excellent workout! …a favorite of mine bar none.”
Leanne –
Another wonderful BB DVD! If you love the Classic/Total Body workout, you’ll love this one, too!
“The Backstage Workout is a must-have if you love her Classic/Total Body DVD! I have all ten of the BB DVDs, and this one reminds me the most of the Classic ones in terms of how it’s structured. I bought this back in January directly from the BB website, and have done this one many times since then. It’s quickly become one of my favorites!
There is a Play All option on the main menu, or you can choose individual segments to play, one at a time. (You can’t select more than one to string them together.)
There are also three audio options: play the workout with music and Mary Helen’s voice, play just with Mary Helen’s voice, and play just with music.
It is an all-mat workout, so all you need is a mat to do this and perhaps a small towel, which Mary Helen uses in a few places under her knees when she’s on all fours.
Most of the exercises are done in four sets of eight reps, as Mary Helen usually does in her workouts, but there are some exercises where you do more or less than the four sets.
Mary Helen is in a beautiful purple leotard against a white backdrop with some palm plants as color. The music is her standard piano classical music, which I find so soothing.
The audio on this echoes a bit, as it has in some of her other more-recent workouts. Truth be told, though, I stopped noticing it since I was working so hard in the first section!
The segments are:
• Arabesque Extensions – For this segment, you’ll be on all fours, but will be balancing on one side since you’ll be using one arm and leg to do various leg extensions. This is one of the hardest for me since it requires a lot of balance!
• Ballerina Arms – You’ll start by doing triceps dips. From there, she has you lay on your stomach and do a variation of what she usually calls her Ballerina Push-Backs. I really felt my arms in new ways!
• Abs with Core Twist – Starts with two sets of 12 reps of a crunch-type move, using your arms. Then you’ll go into oblique twists.
• Ballerina Legs: Inner Thighs – These are done on your stomach, and she has you moving your legs outwards. This was such a different variation on her inner thigh lifts, and they really burned in a good way!
• Staggered Bridge: Legs, Butt, and Core – You’ll be doing bridge exercises, but with your legs staggered, one in front of the other.
• Elongating Stretch – Up until this point, the other sections take up the first 40 minutes of this workout. The Elogating Stretch is 20 minutes long.
Throughout the workout, Mary Helen takes her usual stretch breaks, but she mentions a few times that they are quicker than they usually are since we’ll do the longer stretch at the end of the workout.
Speaking of the stretch segment, I’m still a bit disappointed that it wasn’t an add-on as it was on the Ballet Baby DVDs. I would rather have a full 60 minutes of toning exercises, followed by a bonus 20-minute stretch. That being said, the 20 minutes of stretch goes by quickly. I usually hate stretching on its own, which is part of why I love Ballet Beautiful (because it incorporates stretching between sets), but this segment is really pleasant, and I actually enjoy doing it.
The core segment is also especially tough. This is the first BB workout I’ve done that has left me sore deep in my core muscles the day after I do it.
Overall, I really love the Backstage Workout! If you love her Classic/Total Body DVD, you’ll love this one, too!”
Springblossoms –
In love with ballet beautiful
“m a ballet beautiful fanatic, love this dvd!
Just a bit on ballet beautiful in general- I think it’s magic. As a naturally thin person who doesn’t use exercise for weight loss (no dieting for me) it’s easy to give up on exercise when it makes only a moderate change in your physique. A lot of exercises I’ve tried make no real visible difference to my body so it’s easy to think “meh I’m thin anyways why bother with this” and give up. Ballet beautiful is different; every time I get back into these dvds, within a couple weeks my muscles take on a way more beautiful form and I feel tall, long, elegant, I feel like I just move differently too! Another thing I love about ballet beautiful is that though it’s incredibly challenging and feels taxing on your muscles in the moment, I still feel refreshed afterwards. Other types of exercise I’ve tried leave me feeling wiped out and exhausted for the rest of the day which is not a nice feeling and another contributing factor to me giving up. Ballet beautiful makes me feel GOOD. I have no idea why or how this works this way but am eternally grateful to have found a form of excise that works for me!
The opening sequence I found incredibly hard at first (arabesque on hands and knees similar to one of her body blast sequences but in this one you keep only one hand on the floor- the balance required works your whole core in a very intense way!!) At first I simply could not hold that position for the life of me but it only took me maybe 3 attempts of the dvd of just keeping up as best as I can, dropping out when I need to to work up to completing the whole sequence. So don’t get discouraged at how hard it is, do your best even if it feels like you can hardly do it at all and very soon you will developpe the core strength!
I love the abs series- I prefer it to the abs series in the classic 60 min dvd because in this one she does one set of 12 plus a hold for the challenging positions unlike in the classic where she sticks to 4 sets of 8 + 4 sets of 8 pulsing formula. That works well for legs, butt and arms but for the abs I think it’s way too much.
The arms sequence I find quite doable, starts with high repetitions of a sort of modified mini pushup pulse then tricep pushbacks lying down.
The inner thighs sequence is killer by the time you get to the end and she instructs you to hold the position, I’m just shaking every time! However, I don’t really feel this in my inner thigh, more back of the legs. That doesn’t bother me, that’s an area I definitely want to work, just not sure why it’s called an inner thigh workout, maybe I’m doing it wrong!
The bridge series is a variation on the bridge series in the classic dvd and very thankfully a shorter version- it’s very challenging at the end of all the extremely tiring sequences that come before it!!”
x –
Best
“Excellent. This is a brutal workout. It is all done sitting, laying down, or kneeling on the mat… great for anyone in a small apartment with limited space who doesn’t want to make too much noise.
The workout is no-nonsense and gets to the point targeting each area, all in sequential order. I like that she doesn’t waste time talking too much in between positions. Mary Helen isn’t trying to reinvent the wheel with a bunch of spastic, erratic moves. The moves are simple, small, and controlled… but they KILL! Just wait until the next day, you will feel it.
Mary Helen makes it look so easy. I believe she is a Nexus-6 model replicant manufactured by the Tyrell Corporation, possibly a Cylon robot. She remains so cool throughout the workout. No human could make these moves look so easy. She looks like a willowy, featherweight pixie… do not be deceived… she is a BEAST. She will kick. your. A.
Audio: The background music is gentle classical music. It is tasteful and not off-putting. Mary Helen has a calm, collected voice. So many workout DVDs put me off with obnoxious music and over-the-top instructors barking. I don’t like loud music and I don’t like being screamed at… so this is perfect.
Direction/Production: The minimalist set design, camera shots, and lighting are beautiful. There are no visual distractions in the background and you have a clear, well-composed view of all of the moves. I like that Mary Helen is the only person on screen (no sloppy panning or jump cuts between too many people). No bloat, no hype… just elegant and seamless. This is how you make a workout DVD.”
Devon Rex –
By far the best and hardest of all Ballet Beautiful workouts
“This DVD is the holy grail of Ballet Beautiful exercises. I highly recommend it for anyone who has been doing Ballet Beautiful exercises for awhile and need a fresh set of exercises. I found the workouts in this DVD to be the hardest of all Ballet Beautiful workouts. The results are incredible, of course. The bridge and arabesque extension workouts are so good for toning the back of the legs and butt.
The inner thigh workout is quite different from the other Ballet Beautiful inner thigh workouts I’ve seen. My hip turnout is almost non-existent, therefore I felt I was working more of my butt and back of my legs rather than the inner thighs. Nevertheless, it is still a great workout and I was shaking throughout.
The triceps exercise is so effective for combating problematic back-of-the-arm flabs. I can’t praise it enough.
This DVD is your ticket to Victoria’s Secret model legs and arms. Unlike the other Ballet Beautiful DVDs, the content of this DVD is available as part of the custom workout subscription. So if you’re planning on subscribing to the custom workout, you can skip buying this DVD.”
Labernatty –
Backstage Workout
“This is an excellent workout DVD if you are a fan of Mary Helen’s workouts! I have all but her prenatal DVDs and this one is in my top 3 with the Original Total Body and BB Body Blast. I don’t mind that the workout portion is only 40 minutes because the leg segments hit you at ‘every’ angle I’d hope to hit with this type of workout and I’m more than ready to stretch it out at the end! I want to add that this is NOT a beginner DVD. I do yoga/crossfit/Pilates regularly and I still had to do the ‘beginner’ modifications frequently to make it through this DVD but that is what will make me keep working on it! Be patient with yourself when you do this routine.”
Sarah Tondevold –
A++
“That using relieves my joint pain and makes me feel good.”