{"id":6895,"date":"2010-12-10T17:12:04","date_gmt":"2010-12-10T17:12:04","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2010-12-10T17:12:58","modified_gmt":"2010-12-10T17:12:58","slug":"4-Ballet-Moves-For-A-Beautiful-Body","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=6895","title":{"rendered":"4 Ballet Moves For A Beautiful Body"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary Helen Bowers, who trained Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Every good workout begins with mat work! Ballet Beautiful founder Mary Helen Bowers shares a few of her favorite exercises from her new video series, debuting online next month.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Lengthen Your Bod
\n<\/strong>\u201cStretching before and after every workout keeps muscles supple and helps elongate the lines of a ballerina\u2019s limbs,\u201d says Bowers. \u201cBegin by lying on your back and bringing your leg above you, pulling the ankle gently toward your head. Work toward stretching your knee all the way straight over time. Change legs.\u201d
\nIf you are tall and have long limbs, you are already blessed.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/strong>
\n2. Be Ab-Fab:
\n<\/strong>\u201cFor a ballerina, the center of balance is everything\u2014creating a strong center of balance begins with building strong abdominal muscles,\u201d says Bowers. \u201cLie on your back with your knees slightly bent and the arms open wide in second position. Lift the body up, contracting the abs as you close the arms to first position\u2014a wide yet graceful circle with the hands\u2014just above the abdomen. Pull the stomach in, closing and opening the arms as you lift up and lower. Repeat 30 times.\u201d
\nA toned abdomen is KEY to great posture!
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Firm Your Behind
\n<\/strong>According to Bowers, ballerinas are known for their \u201ctight, toned butts!\u201d To work on your derri\u00e8re, begin on your hands and knees and make sure you have plenty of cushion underneath. \u201cBring one knee into your chest and then extend the leg straight back, into arabesque,\u201d says Bowers. \u201cStretch the knee all the way and be sure to pull in through your stomach. Repeat 30 times, then change legs.\u201d
\nLotte Burke Method is known for creating the best butts in the business! You can literally bounce a quarter off any butt in her class.
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/em><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

4. Tone Those Arms!
\n<\/strong>Ballerinas are known for their elegant posture and strong yet graceful upper bodies. \u201cSitting down on the mat, extend your legs out straight and place your hands just behind your hips, with the fingers facing the outer edge of the mat,\u201d says Bowers. \u201cLift your hips off the mat as you stretch the elbows, keeping your chest open and your neck long. Pull your stomach in tight and then bend the elbows slightly. Repeat this 30 times.\u201d <\/strong>
\nToned arms are very sexy. Make sure not to make them too muscular though. Alot of men complain that it looks masculine.<\/p>\n

<\/em><\/em><\/strong>These are great to do at home. I go to STEPS in NYC for ballet class whenever I get a chance but it is a little expensive. <\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary Helen Bowers, who trained Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Every good workout begins with mat work! Ballet Beautiful founder<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1213,"featured_media":72448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-highlighted-post":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-medium":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-featured-post-small":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x90.jpg","colormag-featured-image":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-default-news":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg","colormag-featured-image-large":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-block-extra-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-small-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg","colormag-elementor-grid-medium-large-thumbnail":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"Joshua","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ee23f8f40307578d1f284ecd823d77f32da8ea35541e7dbdafeb5da1a4e877?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"Mary Helen Bowers, who trained Natalie Portman for Black Swan, Every good workout begins with mat work! Ballet Beautiful founder","magazineBlocksPostCategories":[],"magazineBlocksPostViewCount":124,"magazineBlocksPostReadTime":3,"magazine_blocks_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"medium":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u.jpg",113,170,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/u-113x150.jpg",113,150,true]},"magazine_blocks_author":{"display_name":"Joshua","author_link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?author=1213"},"magazine_blocks_comment":0,"magazine_blocks_author_image":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62ee23f8f40307578d1f284ecd823d77f32da8ea35541e7dbdafeb5da1a4e877?s=96&d=mm&r=g","magazine_blocks_category":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/72448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}