BalleCore is unique in that it combines three tried-and-true disciplines into one optimal workout. Pilates strengthens and stretches the major muscles, activates your core (the band of muscles below your chest), and energizes your body. Hatha yoga helps quiet the mind through breath, fortifies the nervous system, builds stamina, and produces mental equilibrium. Ballet increases blood flow, develops poise, promotes good posture, and improves balance. Fitness dynamo and faculty member of the Boston Ballet for the past seven years, Molly Weeks is the woman behind BalleCore. She has chosen an array of effective exercises from each of these three disciplines to create a fulfilling workout that can easily be done in your own home and in under an hour. The results? • Reduce backaches and stress • Develop stature, support the spine, and feel steady on your feet • Sculpt your arms, legs, hips, and core–and look trimmer than ever • Loosen those tight spots in the shoulders, neck, and joints • Gain an incredible sense of ease throughout your body • Experience inner calm, self-confidence, and renewed optimism With step-by-step instructions and profusely illustrated with helpful photographs, The BalleCore Workout® is the ultimate path to good health, longevity, and mind/body wellness. Remember: 50 minutes a day can change your life!

The ultimate dance resource.

Not everyone can have the body of a dancer, but the program featured in this title shows how to achieve a strong, flexible spine; a toned, stable midsection; shapely, defined muscles; and sleek, graceful posture. It is written for people with no formal ballet training.

Ballet-inspired fitness for every woman! You don't have to be a professional ballerina to look like one! With Mary Helen Bowers' Ballet Beautiful, forget beating yourself up in the gym and suffering through starvation diets for some unattainable goal. You can achieve your ideal body and develop the strength, grace, and elegance of a dancer by following Mary Helen's proven program-one that's got everyone from celebrities to busy moms to executives raving!Ballet Beautiful is a fitness method that blends the artistry and athleticism of ballet with an easy, accessible eating plan that works for every body - and absolutely no dance experience is required. Created by professional ballerina Mary Helen Bowers, this transformative approach to fitness and health will reshape your body and your mind!Ballet Beautiful's three-fold approach is not an extreme workout nor is it a radical diet for an overnight fix; it's a roadmap to achieving and maintaining your ideal health, shape and size-all with the elegance and strength of a ballerina. Part One of the book introduces the program's empowering mindset, the key to supporting and guiding you through lasting change. Part Two, the Ballet Beautiful Method, consists of challenging, effective, and fun workouts that sculpt and tone sleek ballet muscles and build beautiful posture. Whether you have a full hour or only 15 minutes, you can tailor the program to your own schedule and needs. Part Three shares the Ballet Beautiful Lifestyle, a healthy, balanced approach to nutrition. With meal plans, shopping tips and quick but delicious daily recipes that will satisfy and nourish your entire body, it's a stress-free, diet-free plan that will help keep you feeling as strong and healthy as you look.

Barre Fitness provides 100 at-home barre exercises from the fundamentals to more complex moves with a focus on building strength and improving technique--no barre required!

A comprehensive guide to the hottest new fitness program in the country-Cardio Barre-a dance-based workout that combines cardio, strength training and stretching, in one fast-paced, fat-burning, body-lengthening session. With a full nutrition program as well, you'll see life-changing results in only eight weeks. While yoga, pilates, aerobics and weightlifting are all successful, popular fitness routines, each one of them is missing something that the others offer. And with our hectic lives that leave little time for sleep, let alone hours of daily exercise, the Cardio Barre workout is the perfect combination of cardio, strength training and stretching—achieving multiple desired results from one fast-paced workout. Richard Giorla is a classically trained dancer who has learned from his decades of training that the key to strength and endurance is developing core muscle—the center of the body must be strong in order to support the other areas of the body. In Cardio Barre, you work from your core—maintaining your balance using a barre, a countertop, a chair, or even your own strength—then repeat low-resistance motions such as plies, arm extensions, and leg flexes. With no kicking, jumping, or punching, this effective and complete workout leaves participants with long, lean muscles, flexibility, and endurance. With the success of the Cardio Barre workout in LA, where it has gained celebrity adherents and a long waiting list of others, as well as the recent launch of Cardio Barre in New York, this is poised to become the new "it" workout. And unlike past fitness fads, Cardio Barre sets realistic goals, including following a healthy eating program, and offers the desired results of both cardio health and strength in only eight weeks.

This DK visual guide to ballet history goes beyond other ballet books, with beautiful photography that captures famous dancers and key stories. Discover more than 70 of the most famous ballet dances, from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake to The Rite of Spring. Learn the stories behind renowned companies such as The Royal Ballet and the Bolshoi Ballet. Explore the lives and achievements of dancers across the centuries, such as Margot Fonteyn, Carlos Acosta, and Darcey Bussell. Meet composers and choreographers, from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to Matthew Bourne. From its origins at court and the first national ballet companies, to the contemporary scene and extraordinary venues that stage the productions, this book covers an impressive history of ballet and provides an invaluable overview of the subject. Filled with rarely seen photographs covering all the key figures, pieces, and performances, and compelling facts about each dance--the sources they draw from, their production history, and their reception over time--Ballet: The Definitive Illustrated Story is an essential gift for all ballet enthusiasts.