BELLYDANCE FITNESS FOR BEGINNERS:ARMS - DVD Movie

Average Customer Review: ( 126 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.

If this is a direct transfer, it can't help but be wonderful :).

Neena and Veena have made my boring exercise maintenance into a fun and muchly-anticipated part of my week. I did these routines near daily for 3 months, and then transitioned them to once or twice a week (doing other things, also). But, during that three months I improved my flexibility (I can reach *past* my toes!), my muscle tone, and learned to pinpoint my muscle isolations.

These two workouts have a good mix of "traditional" exercise movements (squats, lunges, crunches, etc.) and movements unique to belly dance. I think the twins provide an almost flawless method to learn the movements, as the routines are slow enough that you don't need a separate teaching segment, but, fast enough to keep you improving once you know what you're doing. I really appreciate their teaching style. They wear snug spandex workout clothes with dainty scarves, so, you can clearly see what they're doing. Plus, there's two of them, so, if the camera angle is a little "off" on one, you can see what to do from looking at the other.

The arms and abs routine is dedicated to strengthening your arms, rotating through a variety of arm movements, and an almost yoga or pilates style ab workout. These seem to be a bit more general, in the sense that you're working your full arms and shoulders for the arm routine, and most of your abdominals at the same time, for the ab routine.

The hips, buns and thighs routine is more focused on isolated movements. There's also a good stretching section that I really like.

What's particularly nice is that they teach you "real" belly dance movements but in the structured environment of exercise routines. So, you can enjoy these workouts if you're looking for something a little different, or, to build up a basic collection of movements. However, if you want to learn to dance properly, you'll have to look elsewhere. These are exercise routines, not dance lessons.

56 of 56 found the following review helpful:

Solid WorkoutOct 29, 2004
By Laura De Giorgio "hypnotherapist"
This series of videos contains workout videos which incorporate belly-dancing moves, rather than belly-dancing itself. You could say that it is a workout that will benefit you to develop greater stamina for belly-dancing as well as give you a chance to exercise and improve your health, whether you desire to pursue belly-dancing or not - in a fun and enjoyable way.

It is one of my favorite workout videos.

76 of 80 found the following review helpful:

Buy it on video!!Jan 25, 2005
By Eibhinn
A caveat to begin:

I bought two (defective - skipping straight out of the case) copies of the DVD before getting it on video. Emails to Natural Journeys Customer service went unanswered. The "extras" on the DVD consist of bonus performance footage (the same footage at the end of each of the videos), benefits of bellydance (goes on for pages and pages - essentially every positive benefit you could ever want) and commentary. Pretty useless. Buy it on video.

I'll start with the negatives... and with the aforementioned commentary.

- Most of the bellydance exercises are ineffective if you use improper posture and form. Unfortunately, there is very little guidance as to proper form. I was hoping the commentary would provide this, but it is mostly dead air interspersed with the twins talking about buying costumes in Egypt, and saying "this exercise is great for toning...."

- The routines are very slow-paced, and could be quite boring for many people.

- Although the twins have wonderful form for dance moves, I wince watching them perform the more standard exercise moves. Ex. lunges where knees go far past the toes, bad form on crunches..

- The twins have distracting "stage smiles," and the voice-over narrator keeps making reference to how "sensuuual" everything is.

The Good:

- These are great, short exercise routines for the beginner. For someone with an interest in bellydance who doesn't mind a slow pace, they could be quite fun. The only exception to this is that the end of the ab tape is WAAAYY harder than the rest of the videos. My abs hurt for days.

- The twins have great dance form, and are cheerful. The cueing is pretty good.

- On an interesting note, one of the twins appears to be a far better dancer than the other. The camera work focusses on her, however.

A tip: when doing bellydance you should have very upright posture, with the shoulders back. If you do not do this with the arm exercises you will only work your shoulders. With the shoulders back, some of the work is shared with triceps/biceps etc.

32 of 33 found the following review helpful:

Review of Arms and Abs onlyJul 25, 2005
By Beth Cholette "doctor_beth"
Bellydance Fitness Arms and Abs (which I'm reviewing alone because Amazon no longer has a separate listing for this video) is designed to tone your upper body using bellydance-inspired movements. In the first half of the workout, you will do a variety of arm movements, most of which require you to hold the arms at shoulder level or above. Although the voiceover instruction suggests that these moves will tone your biceps and triceps, I felt them mostly in my shoulders, which quickly became fatigued. Eventually, you move on to working the chest and ribs, mainly through isolation movements. The final ten minutes of this workout are performed on the floor. You'll start with several non-traditional abs exercises--eg, leg lifts while propped on your elbows--and then you'll work on more traditional crunches. The workout finishes with several yoga-inspired stretches, and the total time comes in at about 28 minutes.

Overall, I found this to be an okay light toning routine. However, because the workout concentrates on the upper body, there is no footwork, which removes the fun factor (as well as the cardio work) that exists in other videos of this series (eg, Basic Moves). If you're interested in toning the arms and abs and are looking for something a bit different, this workout might be for you, but if you want to experiment with some fun bellydance moves, you'll probably want to try one of the other videos in the Bellydance for Fitness series.

26 of 26 found the following review helpful:

Elegant - Great Post Pregnancy workoutMay 18, 2002

I am 2 months removed from my second c-section. Situps are still very uncomfortable near my incision and I could never do them right anyway. I bought this DVD and the basic fat burning dvd mainly for the abdominal work. The instructors are VERY talented and the programs are easy to follow. If you are looking for a taebo type energy this workout is not for you. It is however very tranquil, elegant, and demanding. After my first workout I felt a burn in abdominal muscles I didn't know I had. I highly recomend this dvd for moms who are looking to strenghten and tone abs. It is also a great dvd to learn the art of bellydance. My husband loves it!

See all 126 customer reviews on Amazon.com