Book Review: Ballet Beautiful: Transform Your Body and Gain the Strength, Grace, and Focus of a Ballet Dancer

Book & Exercise DVD Review: Ballet Beautiful: Transform Your Body and Gain the Strength, Grace, and Focus of a Ballet Dancer, by Mary Helen Bowers

Mary Helen Bowers, the ballerina responsible for Natalie Portman's lean dancer physique in Black Swan is the author of an exercise and lifestyle manual, Ballet Beautiful. She gives great advice on how to achieve balance in your life. There are three sections in the book: Mindset, Ballet Beautiful Program, and Lifestyle.

Mary Helen Bowers has also created amazing workout DVDs that promise a tight, toned and elegant body workout that are ballet inspired total body workouts. The workout DVDS are laid out in an easy format, with the exercises explained clearly, and great motivation from May Helen while doing the workout.

Mary Helen inspires a mindset to empower you; a mindset to believe in yourself and all that you can accomplish. Part is inspiration and part is a system for setting goals and to not set up obstacles for yourself. There is help on setting realistic goals and changing a negative attitude. A way to live with grace, strength, and beauty.

The Ballet Beautiful Program is influenced by Mary's love of ballet and are her own personal exercises. There is a 60-minute workout and 15-minute Ballet Beautiful Blasts workouts. The workouts can be customized for your body and your schedule. The program is adaptable with workouts that can be created that vary in length from 15-minutes to over 60-minutes.

The lifestyle section is not an extreme diet. It's diet advice with five principles to help guide your food choices. Extreme diets do not work and most of the time you will gain the weight back and more.

It is about balance, a balanced lifestyle, eating habits and exercise. It is not about a extreme diet or extreme workouts. The workout pictures and descriptions are pretty detailed but to correctly grasp the exercises the DVDs might be needed.

The book is a wonderful companion to her exercise DVDs with healthy eating, exercises, and inspiration. The book isn't a must if you have the DVDs.

Mary Helen Bowers DVDs can be long workouts or short 15-minute workouts. She also offers live classes via Skype. The workouts require the barest minimum of space. This makes them perfect for traveling or in your home. There is no need for any special equipment besides a towel or a mat, dance slippers (or non-skid socks) and a water bottle. The workouts promise to produce a toned, strengthened, lean looking body, and emphasize the importance of stretching and posture, all with a ballet twist. Gain grace and elegance and improve your posture. A great workout that will inspire you to keep going. Happy...Healthy...Rewarding.