Bellydance Fitness for Beginners – Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns & Thighs

Great buy, but not for everyone.
short version: I’ve owned this for three years. Product works if you use it. The music is wonderful and even you, yes you, the one that has no rhythm. Even you will start to intuitively/instinctively move to the music. It’ll take a few times, but you’ll be a natural in no time. Buy Basic Moves + Fat Burning if you want to get moving with bellydance moves and are completely new to the idea of dancing to lose weight. Buy Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns, Thighs if you are a little more familiar to the concept. Buy both if you want some variety. Do not buy if you are respectably in shape or you not a beginner to bellydance.Long version:When I bought this, weighed at least 298 pounds (135 kilos). I had seen a late-night infomercial for some sort of dancing for fitness thing. Anyways, since then I’ve lost 50 pounds so far and I have another 100 to go (23 kilos lost, 46 to go). I want to share that with you to brag a little bit, but also more importantly show that when you eat right and use this DVD, you WILL LOSE WEIGHT.I was extremely out of shape from desk jobs and I wanted to do something fun and not feel embarrassed at a gym like Curves, but also low-intensity so I didn’t feel like dying after two minutes. My very first time following AAHBT was about the 5th time with the twins’ video (I had been using BM+FB up to that point). I sort of followed along a little bit, but the exercises were just too much for my weak flabby body. I was very unhealthy and couldn’t even keep up. Around my fourth or fifth time, I was able to complete it one of the workouts. Around my 7th time, I could do both consecutively.’Arm and Abs’ is low-intensity exercises based off of bellydance for your arms and midriff. ‘Hips, Buns, and Thighs’ is medium-intensity exercises based off of bellydance for your lower half. Obviously, you should know that this is for unhealthy people who need to stick their toes into exercise and ease into it. You will not learn how to bellydance, per se, but you will definitely feel like you are.The narrator’s voice is quite pleasant and it is not either of the twins. You can turn it off if you want. The narrator is less ‘exercise-y’ about it. By that, I mean she is not continuously repeating the numbers of the reps, nor is she explaining HOW to do the moves very much. Since the twins do not speak throughout the video, you will either love or hate this. Basically, the narrator is there is keep you motivated to complete the workout in a calm way. I prefer it like this, but I did find that about my sixth time of working out, I then had some muscles and those muscles realized I had been doing half the workout in a bad/lazy way and then I really felt the burn one I self-learned the right way to do it. If you have a full-length mirror you could pause and compare I guess.I lost weight (~20 pounds) and built muscle over two months with this through exercise alone (totally was still eating garbage food). Girly muscle is great, being ripped is not! I stopped caring though and gained it all back. About two years passed and then I renewed my determination to be healthy. This time I’ve lost about 50 pounds and I’m still not tired of BM+FB and AAHBT bellydance videos.Since I own all three, this next part is to compare this one to the other two. I do Arms, Abs, Hips, Buns, Thighs 2-4 times a week and it is a little more ‘workout’. It has some more focused exercises compared to Basic Moves. In other words, BM+FB is closer to actual bellydancing than the AAHBT video. I still have been unable to complete Fat Burning of BM+FB; I’m still 100lbs. overweight and there’s some intense jumping/bobbing moves in it and my fat rolls just can’t handle it. So in my opinion, I’m only got half a video with content I can’t use yet. I do Basic Moves 2-4 times a week. The whole third video, Slim Down, I can’t say much. It falls into the ‘too fat for it’ like Fat Burning. I’ve tried to follow along because I paid for it, but it’s too much. Also, in Slim Down the narrator changed and she’s all… exercise-y and stuff. She counts the reps and takes all of the fun out of it, making it a workout chore instead of a fun dance. I only play Slim Down with her voice turned off and unfortunately, without a mellow voice to keep me going, I quit before I’m tired.You can search for these videos on YouTube and they have been uploaded in ten-minute intervals. If you like what you see, consider the purchase. I am grateful that I purchased BM+FB and AAHBT. I do recommend them to others. However, you might find this easy or boring if you are doing fast-pased workouts like calisthenics.

I love both these routines
I don’t technically have the DVD yet (it’s in transit as I post this), but, I have both routines on video.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.

Great exercices and fun to watch the twins since I am a twin, which makes this super special to me.

I love this DVD. The girls make the moves easy to understand and even though I am not that skilled at the dance moves, I felt good in myself that I had managed to achieve some of them. I will keep using the DVD as it is fun exercise to do when you have a spare 30 minutes. Pleased with my purchase. Thank you

I found this dvd helpful. I found it very difficult but very rewarding. Even if you are not getting it right all the time it doesnt matter as its all good fun and you still feel the results. This dvd is good for beginners to bellydancing and fitness