Balance with ballet

THIS WORKOUT INVOLVES ALL COMPONENTS OF PHYSICAL FITNESS AND IS A GREAT WAY TO GET INTO SHAPE

Who says that fitness workouts have to be all about the pain you can’t endure and spending time you don’t enjoy? The growing trend of ballet training is all about bringing together grace, posture improvement while helping you destress. Ballet training involves all components of physical fitness — cardio vascular endurance, muscle endurance and flexibility. Typical ballet training not only helps you get in shape, but also helps you improve your posture, gait, agility and coordination. Essentially, this training is a mix of pilates, dance and functional training, and the moves are choreographed to motivating music. In each targeted workout, you’ll use the barre and exercise equipment such as mini-balls and small hand weights to sculpt, slim and stretch your entire body. These exercises can be done even by beginners, and the same moves can be modified to higher levels of intensity. You can improve the way you walk, fix the problems in your posture and eliminate the pain in any one part of the leg through this workout.

One need not be a dancer to follow and practice these exercises. All you need to do is pay attention to the instructions and follow them to the T. If you are bored with the same routine of treadmills and weights, this might just be the workout for you!

— (The writer is a ballet trainer and artistic director at The School

of Dance, Chennai)