Callanetics is the name of a fitness regimen developed by Callan Pinckney that incorporates ballet with various forms of traditional exercise. She created a system of low-impact movements to quickly tone muscle and improve cardiovascular endurance. Callanetic exercises stress various muscle groups separately, then employ slight shifts in movement to intensify the workload placed upon them. Doing this requires the muscles to work on many levels, thereby developing a deepened and more "well-rounded" degree of strength and conditioning.
Burning Fat
Performing Callanetics builds lean muscle and, as a consequence, improves your body's ability to burn fat. Over time, your metabolism picks up and fat also becomes harder to gain. This process of simultaneously toning muscle while shredding fat results in a rapid "re-sculpting" of your body. This is why Callanetics practitioners often experience a dynamic improvement of appearance in a short time.
Advances
In the mid 1990s, Pinckney joined with fitness professionals Sara Kooperman and Kathleen Horstmeyer. Their union initiated a process that integrated yoga with Callanetics. Pinckney's aim was to design something that would mimic the yoga concept of "meditation in motion," though at a much slower pace. This new system would removed the strenuous impact placed on the joints during traditional aerobics.
Significance
The Callanetics Management Company, CMC, says that Callanetics practitioners will observe visible physical improvement in days and, possibly, within hours. While the degree of truth in this claim has not been fully determined by science, it is touted by a number of fitness enthusiast and professional trainers. On her video review website, fitness blogger Natalie Belford writes "After just a few times doing the workout I could see and feel a difference." This "rapid effects" idea is heartening to many, who would otherwise become daunted by the idea of seeing results only after several weeks of training. The low-impact style of Callanetics also makes the regimen appropriate for people of both genders and all ages.
Instructors
CMC offers the Callanetics program as a franchise and certifies others to teach the system worldwide. You can become certified to teach the Callanetic method through an exhaustive DVD home study course. Students are taught fundamental Callanetics and any augmentations made through time. Included is access to the expertise of a master trainer through phone consultation. At the course's end, each student must submit, to CMC, a DVD showing himself instructing a class of at least three others in the method. If the master trainer considers the student to be competent, he is then given a plaque of certification and full rights to use the companies name, logo, and promotional materials.
