Doing Ballet Pilates with Ellen Barrett or any other pilates instructor is an excellent idea, as the benefits for dancers are wonderful and beneficial. Pilates lengthens, strengthens and tones the entire body, and that is why it is so good for ballet dancers.
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Who Is Ellen Barrett?
Ellen Barrett is a well-known workout video creator, with best-selling titles like Crunch: Fat Burning Pilates, Prevention Magazine’s Walk Off Belly Fat, and Ellen Barrett Live: Grace & Gusto.
She’s the author of four wellness books, including her latest, The 28 Days Lighter Diet.
Her Website can be found at http://ellenbarrett.com
Is Ballet Pilates Ellen Barrett For Ballet Dancers Only?
Ballet Pilates is excellent for ballet dancers, but the best thing about Pilates is that it is beneficial for everybody, dancers, and non-dancers alike.
Pilates helps you to condition your body without punishing your body. As you get older you will find that this is a very important aspect of your exercise training.
Pilates is a series of exercises that places intense concentration on your abdominal and core muscles, particularly the deepest layers of muscles in the abdominal. Not only do you get a beautiful flat tummy, but having strong abdominal muscles will improve your balance and coordination, as well as help you to perform other exercises properly and with ease.
In addition to the abs, Pilates helps to strengthen the entire body, thus helping you to stand taller. The aim is to develop lean, long and toned muscles similar to that of a dancer. Imbalances in the body are corrected, which, will in the long run, help your back to stay strong and healthy. The saying goes ‘you are only as old as your spine‘.
Anybody can benefit from Pilates, no matter what your fitness level or health condition is. Whether you are overweight, have bad knees or are just super unfit, there is a Pilates exercise program for you.
How Did Pilates Come About?
Pilates was originally invented by Joseph H Pilates, hence the name, who was a gymnast. He invented the program more than 80 years ago, but it as only become really popular in recent years.
Joseph Pilates intended Pilates originally to help rehabilitate bed-bound patients during World War 1, as he worked in a hospital in England as a nurse during that time. Pilates helped patients to regain their strength. Springs were attached to their mattresses for them to pull and push against for resistance.
Eventually, after the war injured dancers would come to him for rehabilitation, and he put them through their paces on a machine that he called the Reformer. Did you know that Martha Graham and George Balanchine, both renowned teachers, and choreographers, were among his first clients?
Because Pilates wanted to help as many people as he could, during the 1960’s he developed a series of exercises that could be performed on mats without any machines and accomplish the same benefits. We still do those exercises in Pilates classes around the world today.
My Personal Experience With Pilates
When I first began with Pilates a few years ago, I found it to be torturous. I realised just how weak my core muscles were, even though I thought I was pretty fit at the time. It took a few weeks to get into it, going twice a week, but I found myself being able to do exercises that I could not previously do as my strength improved. I actually started to miss it if a class was cancelled.
Pilates also makes you think about what you are doing with your body throughout the day and helps you better utilise it without causing injury.
Here are two great resources to add to your Pilates collection, especially if you are not going to Pilates classes:
Ballet Pilates Ellen Barrett
The grace of a ballerina and the strength of an athlete is the essence of Ballet Pilates.
By integrating beauty principles with fitness philosophy, Ellen Barrett has created a program that is both functional and gratifying.
This 50-minute routine requires no equipment.
It begins with 25 minutes of fundamental ballet training followed by 25 minutes of mat pilates work.
Ballet Pilates
Body Weight Pilates
Here is another Pilates program that you can buy online, and it is quite popular. It is also known as the 45 Day Pilates Meltdown and if you follow the daily exercises you can’t go wrong. Click on the link below to read the review.
Click Here!
Please feel free to leave any comments you may have about your experiences with Pilates. Ballet dancers, you are also free to comment on your experiences with Ballet Pilates.
Nice post I myself do Pilates since a couple of years now and indeed the first period I also was astonished about the weakness of my body, but I pushed through and now it became a daily routine. But there is something more about doing Pilates and exercise in general I have a much better control over my diabetes, So I can truly say I love pilates.