November rain, December ice. Inevitably, physical activity moves more indoors. Here’s an at-home workout that will strengthen your muscles, improve your posture and balance, increase your suppleness and flexibility and provide a bit of cardio as well. Tapping into the beauty of classical dance will also make you feel good — like a graceful performer walking tall rather than a fitness drudge sweating over grunt work.

To get you launched, Canadian Health attended a class at The National Ballet of Canada’s Walter Carsen Centre in Toronto. We caught up with the acclaimed company in early August as it started training for the 2008 season of its timeless Christmas classic, The Nutcracker. Our aim was to suss out some simple ballet moves that could help non-dancers get toned and limber. Ballet, after all, is not all gravity-defying leaps and impossible feats of equilibrium; it includes a lot of basic stretching and strengthening.

Place your left hand on your support, an arm’s length or so away, and drop your elbow slightly. Keep in mind that your barre acts only as a steadying support and should not be relied on to hold your weight. Your muscles will do that.

Rotate your hips and the balls of your feet outward with your heels touching. Although ballet has five basic starting positions, in this beginner’s workout, this will be your starting position for each exercise. Make sure your ankles are not rolling forward and your weight is evenly distributed on both feet. Extend your other arm fully above your head.

In the same starting position as above, with one arm on the barre and the other extended horizontally to the side, bend into a plié, then slowly lift up onto the balls of your feet, keeping your legs and knees straight and extending your arm upwards. Your stomach muscles are engaged, and your back is straight. Do 10 relevés in this position, then 10 more with your feet turned out and shoulder-width apart (known in ballet as second position).

“In this exercise, you’re automatically working your calf muscles, and also major muscles in the feet, such as the tibialis posterior, which supports the arch, and the flexor hallucis longus, which is a strong flexor of the big toe,” says Papoutsakis. “ As well, you’re contracting the glutes to help you rise. But try not to let your ankles go inward. Go up with your heels straight.”

Place one hand on the barre, keeping the leg on that side straight. Extend the opposite leg and arm to the side. Take a deep breath, then bend your torso and extended arm as far as you can toward the barre. Straighten. Do nine more, then 10 on the opposite side. For a more challenging exercise, instead of extending one leg on the floor, place its ankle firmly on the barre and perform the stretch bending the torso down toward the toes of the raised leg.

This stretch will work the torso muscles, back muscles and abdominals. “Remember always to stabilize your pelvis so you don’t tip your weight onto your hips,” warns Papoutsakis. “With your leg mounted on the barre, you’ll feel a stretch in the hamstrings and in the adductor muscles of the inner thighs as well.”

In heels-together starting position, place your left hand on the barre and extend your right arm to the side. Extend your right leg, with toes nicely pointed, in front of you on the floor. Draw it around to the side, extending the leg out as far as possible, then to the back, as though you’re outlining something between a circle and a semicircle on the floor. Leading with your heel, bring your foot from behind back to your starting position. You can keep your free arm extended to the side or move it in a semicircle as described in the plié. Do 10 on each side.

For a more demanding rond, raise your foot, with toes pointed, to approximately knee height and trace circles with your leg in the air.

“This exercise works the hip flexor muscles as the leg goes forward. As it rotates around and back, it works the tensor fasciae latae — the muscle on the outside of your hip — and, again, the glutes,” says Papoutsakis. As always, the movement should not sit on the hip joints.

Heels together, feet turned out, face the barre and place both hands on it. Rotate your right leg outward, extend it to the back, and lift it off the ground as far as is comfortable, bending forward slightly toward the barre. Do 10 with each leg.

Ready for something a bit more difficult? Make a deeper bend toward the barre and extend your leg high in the air behind you. Keep your back straight as you return to an upright position.

“The arabesque works the gluteus maximus in the buttocks and the hamstring muscles at the back of the thighs,” explains Papoutsakis.

Here comes the cardio and calorie-burning part of your ballet workout. Step away from the barre. Place your arms in front of you at the top of the thighs, with the fingers of both hands almost touching. With heels together and feet turned out in the standard starting position, bend into a plié, then jump straight up as high as you can with both legs. Land as gently as possible in the plié position. Do five sets of four sautés. Try a few jumps in second position, with your feet shoulder-width apart.

To make things more interesting, experiment with adding changements (alternations) to your sautés. Cross your feet in front during one jump and in back during another, landing each time with one foot in front of the other.

“In sautés, you get eccentric loading, or lengthening of the muscles, in the quads and in the calf and lower-leg muscles. This involves rapid stretching and contraction,” says Papoutsakis. “The calves do the work in takeoff and landing, but the quads work, too, because they keep both legs straight.” You also experience deceleration in the ankles. Deceleration is also an eccentric contraction, in which muscles lengthen rather than shorten while they contract, just as your thigh muscles do when you walk downhill. The Achilles tendon and calf muscles in each leg stretch out as you land and recoil, then help you to re-accelerate and take off again. A similar process occurs in the quads. If these muscle groups are strong, deceleration will help maintain control of your feet and knees. “This is a good low-impact plyometric exercise,” he says.  Plyometrics train you to make powerful movements with rapid changes, which improves balance and coordination and stands you in good stead in any sport.

Visit The National Ballet of Canada website at www.national.ballet.ca and see Karen Kain’s A Beginner’s Guide to Ballet.