Natalie Portman Workout For Black Swan

I’ve long been a fan of Natalie Portman and it seems like she just keepsВ getting better and better. Her most recent movie, Black Swan. has already won numerous awards and she’s been getting excellent reviews for her performance.

However, her acting is not the only thing which has people talking. For her role as a ballerina, she had to go through a rigorous training program called Ballet BeautifulВ in which she lost 20 lbs and developed a dancer’s like body. She also acquired many of the physical skills that ballet dancers have to be able to do most of the dance moves in the movie herself.

In this article I want to talk about Natalie Portman’s workout for Black Swan, give a bit of commentary, and talk about what this workout plan means or doesn’t mean for you.

The Natalie Portman Ballet Beautiful Workout

The goal of the workout routine Portman underwent wasn’t merely to lose weight. She had to be able to pass off as a ballerina. These dancers have very compact, tight, figures with elongated, flexible muscles. Without being an inch bulkier than they have to be, ballet dancers are strong, powerful, and flexible. Most of them train for years. Portman trained for the movie for about a year, so she had to cram a lot of progress into a relatively short time.

So, Portman trained for 5 hours a day (sometimes as much as 8 hours) for six days each week. The workout routine included a lot of swimming to build endurance (about a mile each day) and strength without placing further strain on her joints. In addition, she also did a lot ofВ resistance exercises, stretching,В and ballet practices. As you can see, this is a highly intense training routine.

To make sure the star was training correctly, the producers enlisted the help of ballet coach, Marey Helen Bowers of Ballet Beautiful in New York. Bowers constructed a personal program for the star which helped her get that dancer-like body and also gave her the ability to perform about 90% of the dance moves in the movie.

TheВ idea was the strengthen, lift, and tighter Portman’s lower body arms, give them strength while keeping them as lean and compact as possible. Obviously, it worked, Portman definitely looks the part in the movie: feminine, graceful, and fit.

Not Another Celebrity Diet and yet…

The huge media attention Black Swan has gotten, along with Portman’s obvious transformation, has led to many glowing pieces about the Black Swan ballet workout. This is certainly not one of those gimmicky celebrity diets which seem more directed at selling products than they are at actually helping people lose weight. The Natalie Portman workout is simply what needs to be done to get into this kind of shape so fast.

And yet, in case you’re getting enthusiastic about using ballet classes to tone your body, I suggest you take a moment and remember that it’s highly unlikely that we mere mortals can handle the kind of training Portman underwent. Training for 5 hours each day isn’t something that most people can fit into their schedule. When would you get any work done, clean the house, take care of the kids, shop for groceries?

In addition, hiring a personal ballet fitness coach is likely to get pretty expensive fast. So, while dancing can be a fun way to burnВ fat and get fit, don’t try to replicate Natalie Portman’s workout. I doubt that you canВ fit it into your life.

A program I recommend for women who want to get into the best shape of their life is the Visual Impact For Women В program. While this program has nothing to do with Black Swan or Natalie Portman, I feel that it’s a better and more time efficient way for you to get into great feminine shape. It’s alsoВ made for people who lead a regular lifestyle so it won’t be as time consuming.

And, in case you haven’t watched Black Swan yet, go and see it. I’m sure you’ll have a great time.

Date published: February 2, 2011. Last modified: March 5, 2011