Gliding Graceful

Set: FitFlix Productions (Mindy Mylrea's company) produced it. Muted gray walls & carpet with interesting pictures/color blocks on the walls. Very nice!

Music: Instrumental.

Chapters:

Warmup
Point Front
Swing
Point Side
Leg Circles
Point Back
Reach
Point 2
Curtsy Lunge
Core
Stretch

This is a ballet inspired total body workout:

Warmup: Shannon begins with no discs to prepare you for the moves to come. You'll start with overhead arm stretches and deep breathing with arms going up and down. Mini cat/cow stretch follows. Shannon adds a peddle motion with the feet to stretch the calves. With heels grounded, feet together, you'll perform knee bends then you'll bend and open feet to the sides keeping heels together. Holding the plie position, Shannon adds arms. A nice stretch side to side follows. A balance move, similar to tree, is next. First you'll begin the move slowly then pick up the pace. Shannon varies the move by holding the tree pose and then rotating the knee forward all while remaining balanced. A full plie is next with multiple arm patterns. A trace the clock stretch follows. Next Shannon rehearses a pattern that she'll be using on the discs. She begins with a lateral plie sequence. This will begin to raise the heart rate. This concludes the warmup which runs almost 12 minutes.

Disc work: Heels together, toes on discs, you'll start with plie. Point front begins. You'll point the right toe forward then bring disc back to start position. Repeat left lead. The reach is a one legged squat with a turnout and this follows the point front. You'll repeat the point & reach each side moving more quickly. You'll then begin to slide the plie from side to side, often adding a knee for balance. Shannon does a tough move where you move the discs out and back in with both legs at the same time while circling the arms. She'll use this move between segments. (she gives the option of doing the regular slide if the double slide jump is too hard) Lots of reps will help develop the fundamentals of each ballet move. Section 2 begins with the swing. You'll point toe to front and swing it directly back behind you, finishing with toe pointing to rear. Next is a slide with toe brought diagonally across the body. Shannon progresses this sequence adding arms and bumping up the pace. You'll repeat this sequence several times before moving on. Section 3 is the point side. (same pattern as point front but this now moves to the side) Nice and slow to learn it, then you'll up the pace and intensity. (you'll always repeat the slide to side with knee and double slide jumps between all the patterns, creating an interval effect) Section 4 is the leg circles. Shannon uses arms almost immediately to help with balance. Next is a move where you'll take foot off front disc & reach the leg back into a lunge position. Section 5 is the point back, pointing toes on discs and pushing straight back. You'll add a bend to the knee and arms forward to make it more challenging. Do the interval and repeat point back several times. Section 6 is the reach-you'll push the disc front, raise leg up off disc, return to disc, push disc to side, raise leg, return & finish the pattern to the rear. Rehearse to the left. Section 7 is the point 2. This begins with the toe pointing to the side and repeats several times. Onto Section 8 which introduces the curtsy lunge. You'll lunge back and circle it around to the front using a big range of motion. Core work follows these 8 ballet patterns. With toes on discs, Shannon performs several pilates roll downs into planks (from here you'll balance one knee into chest, open knee out to side, bring it back then repeat with other leg). After performing the roll down/plank sequence 4 times through, you'll stretch. Basic stretches, mostly for the lower body, using the discs complete this 55 minute workout.

Instructor Comments:
www.fitflixs.com

DeniseR