Search - Belly Twins: Bellydance Core Conditioning on DVD

Great Workout!

PriyaAngel224 | Illinois, USA | 05/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is definitely a great workout. It has everything from toning your arms, abs, hips, buns, and thighs. They incorporate belly dance as well, like snake arms, and shimmies. Since I've been bellydancing for a while I feel it's great practice for me. If you have never bellydanced it will be fun to shimmy the first time. Don't expect it to be a ALL bellydance routine, it has several exercises that are meant to workout different muscle groups. The whole DVD is about 70 minutes long, so if you don't have time to do the whole workout, skip to the abs or cardio. They have stretching in the end as well. I think its a great overall workout and I do recommend it to anyone who wants to get results overall."

Bellytwins quality

Basbenee | USA | 11/03/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you have a lot of the Bellytwins other tapes-dvds, a lot of this will be familiar. The cardio segment has a lot of stuff that's on their "slim down" workout, and it incorporates other elements from other dvds, with a few tweaks, more time spent on individual areas, etc. It incorporates some dance moves with more traditional toning exercises (bicep curls, etc). It's not quite as much fun or dancy as their other stuff (for more dancy fun, try the Discover Bellydance instruction tapes -- great too if you like to use the moves you learn and improvise or work on the routine they teach you, and for more of a workout, I'd recommend "slim down" as well, which has more moves for cardio and working the whole body and it's more entertaining to do, in my opinion -- you feel like you're dancing a bit and working most of your body). The other tapes in their workout series are all about half an hour and are pretty good, though I have never warmed to the fat burning one (too repetetive and too much jumping around barefoot). The production quality is excellent, as is the case with all the twins' stuff, and with the dvd it's nice to be able to choose chapters easily, so you could just do stretching and arms, if you're in a rush, for example). The set isn't as fun as the ones in the older dvds, though. This has some eastern touches but there's also weights and balance balls in the background, along with towels rolled on a table. Nice looking, but I like the getaway you experience with a more fanciful set, so I'm enjoying dancing and getting a workout without it feeling like so much work. But it's still good stuff."

Slow paced, some great areas, others boring for light days

Lena, LMT | Nassau, NY | 01/10/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I agree with the review : Some sections are OK but too short, others are boring, 9/21/06
The menu options are good, chapter choices, in 3 diff languages & music only. The bonus dance of both the twins is very cute/fun, but only minimal basic moves which disappointed me. The production is good overall, but not as good as their old GREAT Discover Belly dance series. The music is a fast-tempo Eastern but boring, doesn't help you to exercise & is annoying after a while. They teach as they do the moves, not narrative & cue YOUR left & right. They don't give much of any detailed instruction on most moves, so if you don't know how to already do it, you might get frustrated.
Warm-Up - 5 min which contains very easy basic stretches that even people who never exercise could do easily, barely worth doing.
Cardio Belly Bast - 11 min & a lot of basic step touch bouncing (silly just to burn calories), some arm movements, hip bumps, hip slides, hip circles & hip circles turns. It's always at a very slow pace.
Core Weights - 10 min & uses 2-5 lb weights. Very basic belly dance moves (wrist circles, snake arms, shoulder rolls, etc.) & regular slow movement gym free weight moves. All moves are done slowly.
Core Abs - 10 min & does hip circles, pelvic drops, basic camels & builds up to a chest circles, but never does it. The music has now changed to clubby music which is better, but the tempo is fast & makes you want to move faster then they move. If you know the moves, move faster then them. They give more instruction here on how to do the move but still not like they used to.
Lower Body - 10 min & does hip lifts & drops, traveling hip drops, leg lifts (good balancing exercise) They move super fast once they teach it slowly which I was happy to see. The music had changed to a good fusion clubby & Eastern fast tempo.
Shake it off Shimmy - 10 min which has 3 min of full speed shoulder shimmies (my shoulders were very tired), & never stopping basic shimmies focusing on bending the knees, shimmies while moving the torso, on toes & traveling on toes. Egyptian shimmies (using knees) while bending torso to work obliques & turning & hip shimmies while on toes & walking & turning.
Belly Workout - 5 min, on mat kneeling, one sister standing for those w/bad knees, hip bumps, chest horizontal circles, then laying down holding up body 1 arm, leg shimmy & leg fwd/back w/uludation
Cool Down - 5 min, basic side stretching, good leg stretch. The music is ambient w/nature sounds.

This is best for people w/time & light days or those who don't work out often. For those who do, maybe skipping the weight portion, FFwing the bouncy step touches in the beginning & doing this workout on full speed when they go slow & continuing doing harder moves when they do easy moves will make it more your speed & enjoyable. If so, add a star.
I do love the belly twins, they give great instruction & you can see they truly love to dance. They also have more of a fun tongue-in-cheek humor then any other belly dance workouts which makes it feel like you're working out with a friend. You never feel frustrated if you can't do the moves as gracefully as they do.

Preview can be found at collagevideo com
"

Some sections are OK but too short, others are boring

A woman | 09/21/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"
"Warm up" - boring. Mostly walking in place with some hip slides. A few stretches.

"Cardio" - very boring. Just walking/bouncing in place. Periodically a few very easy dance moves are thrown in for a few seconds. There is one nice and difficult dance move, but they never break it down, so it will be frustrating for beginners.

"Weights" - rather boring. Some bellydance moves with weights. Some "conventional" exercises with weights.

The next 4 sections, "Abs/Upper body", "Lower body", "Shimmies", and "Floorwork" are not bad. But they are too short (except "Shimmies"). Some of the moves they used in their older videos, but there are some new moves/variations. Some moves might be a bit too challenging for beginners, and the fact that the instructors rush through them can be frustrating. A few moves, though tricky to coordinate, don't look sophisticated/attractive.

"Cool down" - boring. Just stretching.

The music is not like on their previous videos. This time it's fusion of Arabic music with... lots of cheese. Some of it is so monotonous that it becomes more of a hindrance than help. The commentary is horrible (mostly counting, and extremely loud), but there is an option "music only".

The set is rather nice, mostly cozy brown colors, but I wish they hadn't thrown some gym equipment in there. The outfits are the same as on the cover. The hip scarves (on the cover on one of the sisters) are added for the "Shimmies" only.

The bonus dance is funny: one of the twins moves very awkwardly and her face is extremely tense."