Ballet Baby: Fit & Graceful Pregnancy Trimesters Two & Three

Although I am not pregnant and am not planning on being so, I ordered the two new Ballet Baby sets anyways, hoping that they'd be similar to Mary Helen's prenatal streaming workouts, which I did when I subscribed to her online service for one month. My review, then, will be geared towards those of us who are not expecting, but who are interested in purchasing these, as I was. I have only had the chance to preview these so far, but I can tell that I'm going to love these just as much as I love Mary Helen's other Ballet Beautiful workouts. These definitely do not disappoint!I have also posted a review of the entire  Ballet Baby: Fit & Graceful Pregnancy Bundle  set, which comes with this DVD and the one for Trimesters 1 and 2.~~ DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE TWO NEW "BALLET BABY" DUOS ~~~I ended up ordering both this duo and the  Ballet Baby: Energized & Elegant Pregnancy Bundle  duo directly from Ballet Beautiful before I even knew what the workouts would be like just because I love the BB workouts so much. I wasn't sure what the difference between the two sets was, but, after hunting around a bit, I found an online article (from _The Daily Mail_) that said this:"The first series is Fit and Graceful, a more gentle introductory workout designed for women who aren't familiar with Mary Helen's techniques. 'This is for people that maybe are new to Ballet Beautiful, who haven't worked out with me before and want to get started, to change their muscles but in a more sort of gentle way,' she explained."The same article also went on to say this:"For Mary Helen's more experienced students - like supermodel Doutzen Kroes, who trained with her while pregnant with daughter Myllena - there's the more advanced Energized and Elegant series. 'This is the DVD for people who've done Ballet Beautiful for a while,' says Mary Helen. 'So for myself or for someone like Doutzen, who's going into pregnancy already ultra fit and used to a challenging workout.'"~~~ BACKGROUND INFO ~~~In each workout, it's just Mary Helen, and she's in what looks to be her home studio. It's a beautiful space, with flowers in the background and a window. Mary Helen looks radiant and beautiful as always, and it's fun to see her working out while she was pregnant with her daughter Lumina Belle.As with her other workouts, Mary Helen does four sets of eight for most exercises, and she counts out each rep. This doesn't bother me and I find it meditative, but I wanted to point this out since I know it bothers some viewers.To do the workouts on both DVDs, you'll need a yoga mat, a chair or barre, and some light handweights.~~~FIT AND GRACEFUL - "Trimesters 2 and 3" DVD~~~On the main menu, you have an "Intro to Ballet Baby" one-minute segment, along with the three main segments of the DVD, just as you do with the "Trimesters 1 &2" disk:* Mat Workout -- 30 minutes* Standing Work -- 30 minutes* Gentle Stretch -- 10 minutesThere is also the great "Play All" feature on this disk, too, so you can string all three workouts together.The Mat Workout is just under 28 minutes long on this disk. She does more arm work in this one, and uses two-pound handweights to do biceps curls and arm rotations. There are also some variations on lying leg lifts on this one. The Standing Work segment on this one uses the barre or a chair, and comes in at just over 30 minutes. It includes some plie variations, along with some short swan arms work.The Gentle Stretch is ten minutes long, and is different from the one on the Trimesters 1 and 2 disk. This one emphasizes stretching the quads more, whereas the other one focuses more on the hamstrings.~~~ OVERALL NOTES ~~~In both workouts, Mary Helen does her usual stretches between moves. Although these short stretches may not seem like they're doing much, they really do help keep your legs feeling limber and long. I've also noticed that she does more stretching in these DVDs than in her previous ones; she holds the poses for longer, too.The moves are varied enough, though, that these don't feel at all like repeats of her previous four workouts, and I'm really glad that I got these. Although, as mentioned earlier, these are designed to be more beginner workouts, I can see that they will raise my heartrate and give me a great workout.I will be sure to update my review since I plan to do these for the next month or so, mixed in with a little cardio.UPDATE 11/9/14: I just got done doing this for the first time, and really enjoyed it. It's not quite as challenging as the Trimesters 1 and 2 disk from this "blue" set because she doesn't do quite as many reps and she moves more slowly, but I still felt nicely worked out. At the start of the workout (in the Intro segment), Mary Helen says that she was eight months pregnant when she filmed this disk, which I'm sure is why it's not as fast-paced as the Trimester 1 and 2 disk. Overall, I'm still really pleased with these!

I am currently 8 months pregnant and this workout video has really helped me stay motivated to dance, move and workout again. I had about two months off from barely any exercise (school hours monopolized my time) and as someone who has been very active for many years, I was feeling like I was in a physical rut. I really enjoyed the pace of this workout and it's challenging too! I did get a little lost at times when setting up into positions (I am a little rusty with my terminology) but it isn't too hard to follow when you get out of your head and just start to move. I highly recommend! My thighs are on fire and I love it!