( 5 reviews )
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( 1 of 1 found this review helpful ) Posted: Sep 16 2007
If you are looking for a Pilates challenge you may be interested in the four workouts presented on this DVD. To be honest there are also quite a few reasons not to buy this workout. If you don't mind commercial breaks or exercises being repeated throughout the short routines then you might enjoy the challenging Pilates and Yoga exercises. For beginners I'd recommend anything by "Jennifer Kries" or "Winsor Pilates 3 DVD Workout Set {Basic, 20 Minute Workout, Accelerated Body Sculpting}." The four workouts on this DVD are definitely designed for intermediate students of Pilates. Workout 1 A beautiful pool in Barbados is the setting for the first workout. After completing a version of "Mermaid" the exercises that follow present an intermediate challenge. You will be working your core muscles while focusing on the abs. A Teaser follows and then you move into Spine Stretch Forward, Roll Ups, Swan and Swimming. Workout 2 If you want more than 20 minutes you can go on to the second workout. Immediately you will notice a repeat of some of the same exercises that you learned in the first workout. The exercises include an advanced Roll Over, One Leg Circles, Bridge, Reverse Plank, Swan, Open Leg Rocker and Spine Rotations. Workout 3 The workout starts with a modified plank and then moves into a leg pull and cat stretch. At this point they start to take a lot of commercial breaks which breaks up the workout slightly. Fortunately you don't have to wait through any commercials and the exercises begin again fairly quickly. This workout is on a beautiful beach. The exercises include Scissors, Lower Back Stretches, Leg Pull, Swimming, Advanced Pus Ups and Pendulum. Workout 4 By the time you reach the fourth workout you are ready to stretch so this works out perfectly. This is a combination of Yoga and Pilates. The exercises begin with a lunge and a Yoga mat is handy at this point. There is a repeat of Arm Circles and Scissors. The advanced roll over appears again and there are some back stretches (Cat/Cow). At this point a little counting wouldn't hurt and one instructor looks like she is about to fall into the pool. The session ends with Leg Circles, a Leg Side Series (you will feel the burn), Spine Rotations and a relaxing Hip Opener. Once you complete all four workouts you will feel like you had a good full-body workout. This workout would be much better if the instructor had resisted repeating the same exercises numerous times. I would only recommend this to you if you are extremely patient and are also looking for some challenging Pilates exercises. ~The Rebecca Review
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Posted: Jul 12 2007
If you actually want to do pilates - even something on a very beginner level - DO NOT get this DVD. The workout was cheaply taken from television and placed on DVD hastily just to make some money - they even left in the commercial breaks. Leaving in the commercials totally ruins the workout - it fades in and out from these commercials into the middle of exercises - forcing you to quickly catch up and figure out which move the instructor is doing. It doesn't give you a chance to go into the move properly, and the breaks make you pause and wait between moves - which ruins the flow of the workout. There are so many great pilates workouts out there that there is no reason on earth to buy this DVD. I highly recommend either the Stott Pilates series or the Giam Pilates series. Both companys have TONS of workouts at every level, and with a huge variety of workout aides (ball, flexbands, ring) for increased challenge. This workout is literally a waste of money.
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( 8 of 9 found this review helpful ) Posted: Mar 26 2006
I recently bought this program and I'm really enjoying it. I like to do Pilates before my daily Yoga practice to warm up my core and to provide a different type of challenge than Yoga provides. These programs remind me a lot of Yoga Zone's format in that they are about 22 minutes (Yoga Zones are about 20), they are set in a beautiful tropical location(Barbados) and the instruction is creative and fun to work with. The instructors have upbeat personalities without being "rah rah" and they are inspiring to workout with. Jennifer Tilley is the lead instructor with Shelly McDonald following along and sometimes showing modifications. I found these to be something that an experienced beginner in Pilates would be able to do. The routines have moderately challenging moments but are not overly intense overall so that they aren't intimidating to work with. Either way, I'd highly recommend starting with Stott Pilates Basics (or something like that) to learn the principles of Pilates more in depth in order to stay safe and to learn where to focus your attention in Pilates. I am more Intermediate/Advanced in Pilates but found these programs to be a joy to practice with. I love having this program (which was actually part of a very reasonably priced two DVD set, which altogether has 8-22 minute workouts) as a fun way to add variety into my Pilates practice. These are taken from a TV program so there are commercial breaks which fade in and out from one segment to another, sometimes they are edited better than others, but honestly they didn't present any problem at all. This is definitely the best Pilates buy I've made in terms of what you get for your money. Still, if you want to get a really incredible, more classical program to use as part of your home Pilates practice, I'd also recommend Hilary Burnett's Intermediate DVD which is a 30 minute program that has the complete Intermediate Pilates series (as found in Alycea Ungaros "Pilates, Body In Motion") as well as several exercises from the Advanced Series. Highly recommended!
