Review: Tune in, tone up with dance DVDs
Who says you have to lift heavy dumbbells to build muscle?
These days, more exercise instructors are building strength through dance-inspired toning moves, using little to no extra weight -- just your body and a high number of repetitions.
While exercise physiologists say that using additional weight recruits more muscles and builds bone density, the makers of these videos say that long, streamlined muscles are better obtained without the 10-pound weights. One thing’s for certain, the high repetitions in these workouts will provide you with more of a calorie-torching cardio workout than a session on the gym’s weight machines.
We picked four of the best of this new breed of dance-toning videos to review.
But beginners beware: Though these workouts use little to no weight, they are difficult and therefore probably better suited to intermediate to advanced exercisers.
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Tracy Anderson Method Mat Workout
Price: $29.95
tracyandersonmethoddvd.amazonwebstore.com/
Former dancer Tracy Anderson is best known for shaping the bodies of celebrity clients such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna. Here, in a total-body workout, she shares her plan for getting a “teeny tiny” dancer’s figure through a series of high-repetition toning moves that target the legs, arms and abs from a variety of angles.
Some of Anderson’s claims are a little dubious. In the arms sections, for instance, she says that the moves will pull hanging skin back to the muscle. She also asserts that no woman should ever use more than 3-pound weights lest she become bulky.
Anderson is the DVD’s biggest strength and weakness. Her moves are effective, but she doesn’t devote much time to technique or cuing, and the camera work focuses more on her lovely face and physique than on proper alignment.
Still, it’s hard not to like this fluid and graceful workout, which is paired nicely with a mellow electronic pop. You leave the one-hour routine feeling energized, and your leg and arm muscles will tell you how effective it is the next day.
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Element: Ballet Conditioning
Price: $14.99
Available in retail outlets and online.
This workout, led by Elise Gulan, a former principal dancer with the Virginia Ballet Co., leads you through a 49-minute series of classic ballet moves -- plies, tondues and ronds de jambe -- to tone the lower body.
Most of the work is done behind a chair, to the accompaniment of Gulan’s soothing voice and some low-key jazz music. High repetitions and subtle variations of each move make for a graceful but difficult leg series. And the Pilates mat workout at the end will challenge even the most experienced practitioners.
Just don’t expect a total-body workout. There isn’t much cardio here and no arm work to speak of, other than keeping your arms elevated in classic ballet postures.
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Exhale: Core Fusion Body Sculpt
Price: $14.99 www.acaciacatalog.com
Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp of Santa Monica’s Exhale mind and body spa have gained a following for their popular Core Fusion classes, which use the exerciser’s body weight and the lightest of hand weights -- 2 pounds for women and 5 for men -- to deliver an intense toning workout.
This DVD, set in a Zen-inspired studio space, runs viewers through four short but intense workouts for the upper body, legs, butt and abs before ending in a 10-minute stretch to lengthen the muscles you just worked.
There’s nothing revolutionary here -- just straightforward strength training for the arms and dance-inspired leg lifts, squats and plies for the legs and rear. Nor are DeVito and Halfpapp the most charismatic of instructors, providing only cues and proper instruction on form.
But the workout won’t waste your time, and the combination of high repetitions and lengthy holding of poses makes these simple exercises gruelingly effective.
The workout delivers results in a short period of time, and the stretching at the end of each segment makes it easy to divvy up the work to do on alternate days.
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Jeanette Jenkins Sexy Arms, Abs & Legs
Price: $19.95
www.collagevideo.com
This hourlong video, led by Jenkins, leads intermediate exercisers through a hodgepodge of dance-inspired toning, from ballet grande plies to vampy hip circles, with short bursts of classic strength moves, yoga poses and boxing punches mixed in along the way.
This workout will probably disappoint hard-core dance fans. The “sexy” cardio moves won’t impress anyone on the dance floor and Jenkins -- a Hollywood trainer, not a dancer -- bobbles her way through the ballet arabesques right along with you.
However, the combination of these silly moves, Jenkins’ engaging personality and the mix of old ZZ Top, Blondie and Romantics songs playing in the background serves to distract you from just how hard a workout you are getting.
Just when you have gotten your fill of one-legged squats or standing abdominal work, the action shifts back to the Laker Girls-type dance steps, giving you a break.
A set of 2- to 3-pound weights is all that’s needed for the arm and shoulder exercises and a mat or carpeted floor will handle the Pilates floor exercises.
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