Rating difficulty and quality of ballet/barre type workouts
 

Hi all! I'm new to ballet/barre type workouts and interested in feedback from you on the level of difficulty and quality of some of the instructors/programs mentioned on the forum. I've bought a few and traded for a few more and am interested in some others :), but I don't know where to start.

Can you tell me where you would rank the following roughly on level of difficulty?

Ballet Beautiful Series (Mary Helen Bowers)
Ballet Body Signature Series (Leah Sarago)
Ballet Physique set
Physique 57
Booty Barre set (Tracey Mallett)
The Dailey Method
Element: Ballet Conditioning
Ballet Body (Jennifer Galardi)
Xtend Barre - Lean & Chisled
Core Fusion Series

There may be some others that are just awesome that I haven't listed, so feel free to add them in. I would just like some recommendations on which would be the best to start with, easiest to learn, etc.

Thanks for your advice! :)

Ann

Hi Ann!

I will have to think about this a bit to offer my opinion, but I would first suggest distinguishing between ballet-based workouts and barre workouts that are derived from the Lotte Berk technique - IMO, making that distinction makes it easier to compare.

Ballet-based workouts:
Ballet Beautiful Series (Mary Helen Bowers)
Element: Ballet Conditioning
Ballet Body (Jennifer Galardi) - based more on jazz than ballet
Kari Anderson Center Floor
Balletone

Lotte Berk-based workouts:
Ballet Body Signature Series (Leah Sarago)
Ballet Physique set
Physique 57
Booty Barre set (Tracey Mallett)
The Dailey Method
Xtend Barre - Lean & Chisled
Core Fusion Series
The Bar Method
Pop Physique
Barre3

Although, I guess I tend to think of Booty Barre as more dance inspired. I was thinking she had a dance background and the movements are larger than Lotte Berk type stuff. Been a while since I did Xtend barre, but also thought her background was dance and to me it felt more dance based. However, maybe there needs to be another category since while I think their backgrounds are dance based and the movements are not Lotte Berk, I don't really feel like they are ballet based either.

This is very rough, and very subjective -for the DVDs I own:
(I had Ballet Body by Jennifer Galardi but didn't care for it at all)

More challenging to least:
Booty Barre set (Tracey Mallett) - Exception for her begginer DVD
Ballet Body Signature Series (Leah Sarago)

Physique 57
Core Fusion series

Ballet Beautiful Series (Mary Helen Bowers)
Xtend Barre - Lean & Chisled

I agree with Fuzzie, that it can help to differentiate between ballet based and Lotte Berk. But, I think there are some in the middle... Xtend and The Booty Barre dvd that I have do not feel like Lotte Berk, I think they are kind of mixing lotte Berk and ballet--they seem to use a bigger range of motion to me. The workouts that use a bigger range of motion get my heart rate higher and the ones with lots of pulses and isometrics make my muscles shake more. So rating them from easier to harder is a little difficult.

i deleted the one's I haven't tried. In my perception...

Core Fusion series (more Lotte Berk with yoga based, but moves slowly and there are the breaks between segments) seems easiest to me.

The Dailey Method next (I rented this one, lots of small isometric moves if I recall. More Lotte Berk)

Xtend Barre and Booty Barre (these give me more of an aerobic effect, I think they are more like a mix of dance and pilates, maybe some LotteBerk?)

Ballet Body and Physique 57 -- I find both of these challenging musclewise in different ways. I think Ballet Body's upper body is one of the hardest barre upper body workouts I have tried (the other in a different way is Squeeze Stronger). I think they are similar with the lower body. My heart rate gets higher in the 30 minute express P57's than with the split Ballet Body workouts, but lower than from cardio.

My favorites so far are P57, Ballet Body, Xtend, and Squeeze Stronger. I also like Tracy Anderson's workouts. I want to like Core Fusion, but they don't do it for me. I imagine their classes are probably great though. I also like New York City Ballet and Micheal Olajide's Aerobarre for more ballet based or fusion workouts. ETA: Another ballet workout I like is Ballet Blast-Ballet Fitness by Jennee. I haven't tried Ballet Beautiful yet or the other mentioned, though I am interested.

Thanks, Fuzzie. I appreciate the distinction between the two methods, though I'm not sure I understand it completely.

Thanks for your feedback, Kitty. So the ballet has larger movements than the Lotte Berk method?

Very helpful feedback, all. Thank you. I'm wondering now if Leah's Ballet Body Series is a bit ambitious to start with. :confused:

Ann

I agree with this ranking. Booty Barre to me was the most difficult, with Ballet Body coming in a close second, with Physique 57 being third.

In my opinion though, I think the easiest to start with would be Barre3. I have just recently started doing Barre after taking about a year long break. I knew that doing Ballet Body, Booty Barre or Physique 57 would probably discourage me if I tried them to start with, so began using Barre3 workouts instead. I have been very happy at how it can challenge me, yet is easing me into the more difficult workouts. I am combining the barre with a kettlebell rotation so really wanted my barre workout to be more relaxed. I think Barre3 has been a great fit for my needs.

Hi - Lotte Berk is known for small pulsing movement. So in general, range of motion is small.

I would say Leah's DVDs were more advanced and probably not the best starting point. (Although I will add that I haven't got around to doing her newest DVD yet.) Her upper body workout I don't really think of as barre. It is fairly tough with a lot of body weight work in it.

I started with Core Fusion. I have not done Barre 3 so can't comment on that.

Don't forget BarreConcept and Pop Physique, Bar Method, Pure Barre.

Here's how I rank the ones I have tried, roughly easiest to hardest, easy vs. hard meaning an overall impression of deepest muscle work and most reps with faster pace and less rest.

Bar Method (except Dancer's Body)
Element Ballet
Core Fusion
Pure Barre (later ones)
Bar method-Dancer's Body
Ballet Physique
Booty Barre (only have the first one)
Dailey Method (especially first DVD)
Physique 57
Ballet Body Leah Sarago (this is a range; I do find all of her stuff more challenging then any of the others except maybe P57, however many of her downloads, depending on how they are sequenced, are more challenging yet then her DVDs. I can do her LB DVD without pausing to stretch; but there are some DL sequences where I have to stop before going on to the next movie).

Also I just got BarreConcept from the UK. I haven't done the floor work section yet, but sort of a LB/ballet combo at a quick pace. I still need to do it again and do the floor work, but so far I think it's on the higher end of the list for pace and intensity.

Thanks everyone. You've given me a lot to think about. There sure is a lot out there! I am reading the Physique 57 book I checked out at the library and I was really interested in the set, but maybe I'll just work with what I have right now and see how it goes. I have the two Ballet Beautiful and Ballet Physique DVDs. Maybe I'll start with them before tackling Leah's Ballet Body DVDs, since everyone seems to agree hers are some of the hardest. I might pick up the Element Ballet and Xtend Barre - Lean & Chisled, if they're a little easier.

Thanks again for all your feedback. :)

Ann

That's a wonderful list to have on hand, Fuzzie, thank you! :)