Category Archives: pilates

Review of Jennifer Gianni’s Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Pregnancy

Jennifer Gianni is a pilates instructor and doula, and she has a number of DVDs out that offer pilates-based exercise programs for women to use while pregnant, after giving birth, and even with a baby in tow! Her most recent offering is a 3 DVD Box Set offering all of these options but using the Swiss ball (or “birth ball,” as it’s sometimes called) to guide the exercises. I received the set as a review copy, and since I’m still waiting for my little one to arrive, have worked with the first video in the series, Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Pregnancy.

Modifications for different trimesters are often shown and explained

Gianni’s expertise in crafting careful prenatal workouts really shows in this program. The first section, “Fusion Essentials,” is really a long introduction to working out with the ball, doing pregnancy posture checks while sitting and standing, safe abdominal work, and pelvic floor exercises. This isn’t a workout: it’s more like a lecture interspersed with exercises you can do. Some sections, like “ab curl safety,” were not relevant to me yet, but I found the pelvic floor section really interesting. This is the first video I’ve ever seen that has suggested different pelvic floor exercises for different periods of pregnancy. More precisely, Gianni gives you exercises for strengthening and tightening the pelvic floor during the first and second trimesters, but for the end of the third trimester has you segue to practicing the relaxation of the pelvic floor. Kind of makes sense, no? Most of the pregnancy is about keeping the baby in, and the very last bit is about getting it out!
The workout itself is composed of careful, small movements that work a variety of muscles. However, the point is not to feel the burn. I did this workout at 36 weeks and on a day when I really wasn’t feeling very strong, and still didn’t really feel “worked out.” Instead, the program seems to be more about using the ball to complete movements safely and veeeeeery precisely. Most of the workout is performed by a model who is well into her third trimester — and I think this would be the best target audience for the video anyway — but modifications are often shown in an inset window.

I think this program is really ideal for women in their third trimester, or women having pains or other difficulties during pregnancy. Jennifer Gianni is clearly aware of a pregnant woman’s potential limitations, and no exercise feels like it would be unsafe or jarring in the slightest. Some exercises are really delightful variations on moves you might know from other workouts — for example, doing squats with a ball behind you gives you a much more controlled movement that feels secure in late pregnancy.

That said, it’s really best called a “program” and not a “workout,” because if you want to sweat or feel muscular pain the next day, this is not the right video for you. I didn’t feel anything the next day — but I also didn’t feel any pain. It was a good way to get moving on a low-energy day, and to feel that I did something for my body without pushing too hard. It wasn’t a good way to tone my butt, even though there was a cool pilates leg exercise that did use those muscles.

Finally, a few small details about the DVD setup both positive and negative. I really liked that the sections are individually titled and divided, so you can skip easily to the beginning or end of a section. Also, the DVD has an index that has all the sub-chapters in both “Fusion Essentials” and the “Main Workout.” So if you want to work on “Releasing the Pelvic Floor,” you can jump right to that without the pelvic floor intro or strengthening exercises. Great.

My complaints have to do with the setup in my home, and how I do video workouts. Most of the ball exercises required a wall, and most of my walls are covered in bookcases! It was pretty hard to find a spot in my apartment where I could see the screen and have access to enough wall to make the workout work. Also, the exercises often require a bit of setup, but the section begins with ball and sometimes blankets already in place. In practice, this meant I had to get up, pause my computer, set up most of the stuff, rewind to the beginning of the section, then get quickly into position so I could do the exercise. And at 36 weeks, I just don’t move that fast. If I were watching the video on a regular tv and had a remote control, it wouldn’t be so bad, but again, my particular situation, in which a laptop is how I watch DVDs, made the video less convenient to use than it could have been.

Fusion Pilates Birth Ball for Pregnancy is also available from http://www.fusionpilates.com/.

Review of Eva Bondar’s Pregnancy Workout

Eva Bondar’s Pregnancy Workout has one major strength, one major flaw, and is generally just fine in betweeen.

Eva showing you how to conduct your kegels

The strength? Its kegels workout. First of all, it’s one of the longest I’ve seen in any video. Eva uses her hands to help you visualise the muscular contractions, and it’s helpful. What I particularly like about this kegels practice is that it also focuses as much on kegel muscle relaxation as on it’s tension. I’ve always wondered about all these kegel exercises that are all about tensing the muscles, when what you’re really preparing for is conscious relaxation of those muscles during labour. Now, I know that’s easier to relax a strong muscle than a weak one, so these practices do make sense, but why not exercise the relaxation itself? The birth prep books have you relax every other muscle, and yet this is hands down (erg…) the most important one on the day of birth!

The weakness? Eva is frustratingly unspecific in her instructions. She will often start a movement and only later tell you verbally what the movement should be doing. She’ll tell you to lift a leg or do something on a side without specifying which. (Which is actually not so bad.) She’ll tell you to do something for one final rep, and then go on doing it for three or four more reps. If I’m face down in some awkward position, and heavily pregnant to boot, I don’t want to have to crane my neck to look at the screen to figure out what I should be doing!

For the most part, Eva Bondar’s Pregnancy Workout is a nice, very stretchy, quite gentle, pilates-based prenatal workout. There were a few moves I hadn’t done on other videos, and generally lots of delicious-feeling side stretches. There is also a back segment, which is a very good idea for when you’re starting to carry extra weight in the front. I can imagine doing it again, especially on days when my other pilates prenatal workouts seem too hard (this is by far the easiest), and perhaps the second time around I won’t be so annoyed by the vague instructions!

Review of Suzanne Bowen’s Long and Lean Prenatal Workout

Suzanne Bowen’s Long and Lean Prenatal Workout is one gorgeous pilates-based workout. Actually, to tell you the truth, it doesn’t feel like a prenatal workout at all. Suzanne herself is not visibly pregnant in the video, and there’s almost no “baby” talk. She does tell you to take rests and get water more frequently than you’d hear in a normal pilates workout (rather than the “keep going, you can do this!” typical of exercise mavens). And those of us who have watched lots of prenatal workout intros can tell that the workout does not involve any exercises dangerous for pregnant women — not much bouncing, and nothing done on the back. But given all that, this is the first prenatal workout I’ve done during which I repeatedly forgot I was pregnant — and at seven months, that’s a feat.

The workout is divided into three main sections:
Standing – 20 minutes
Mat – 20 minutes
Stretching – 10 minutes

There is also a 10-minute postnatal abs section taught by Leah Sarago that I haven’t, for obvious reasons, looked at or tried yet.

What’s the scoop? The standing segment was ballet-inspired but eminently doable. There are light squats and lunges, but all done so precisely that even my usually-weak knees didn’t protest for a moment. (And have been fine all day afterwards.) Most of the leg series are accompanied by arm movements that will really warm you up. This section felt really beautiful, and gave me a feeling of lightness I haven’t had in a while.

The mat work segment was, frankly, challenging. I don’t have an enormous amount of upper-body strength anyway, and found I simply had to take breaks here and there. And there was an oblique exercise that I could have done easily before pregnancy, but at seven months was just not going to happen anymore! But, to my surprise, the abdominal exercises were much easier to accomplish without strain than in other prenatal videos.

Also excellent was the stretching segment. While it helped to be warm for this, I would recommend it as a stand-alone program to anyone who is pregnant or has back pain. The leg, hip, and back stretches were extremely effective and satisfying, even though Suzanne warns you not to push yourself too hard or too far. I could feel my prenatal sciatica slipping into nothingness…

The workout closes with the invitation to relax while sitting on or your side, while music plays for a while. I wound up not finding this music all that relaxing, but when I turned off the video I realised I was surprisingly refreshed given the practice. The Long and Lean Prenatal Workout is a program I expect I’ll be using even when pregnancy is only a memory!

Review of Patricia Friberg’s Belly Beautiful Workout – Prenatal

Patricia Friberg’s Belly Beautiful Workout – Prenatal Fitness for a Beautiful Pregnancy is an excellent addition to a prenatal workout collection. While most prenatal workouts are yoga-based and focus on stretching, Belly Beautiful Workout is Pilates-based and will make you feel some burn, but it is also gentle and precise enough to be done even by a seven-month pregnant woman!

I received a review copy of this program, and was excited to try it because of the props. Patricia uses a Swiss ball and an elastic band in her exercises, and suggests you set up on a sticky mat. Now, this could be annoying if you don’t have the items, though the mat is really optional and the Swiss ball can be replaced in most cases with a chair. But I was glad — for a while, every exercise DVD I bought came with a free elastic band, and I somehow have acquired two Swiss balls I don’t quite know what to do with. So I’m happy to play with a program that teaches me how to use them.

The workout is divided into several sections:

A segment on Pelvic Floor Work (separate from the full workout)
Warm Up
Upper Body
Lower Body
Stretch
Relaxation

There is also an intro and a section on Diastitis recti, and Patricia tells you throughout the workout which moves to avoid if you have the latter.

In general, this is the kind of video that looks super easy to do when you watch it on screen, and is in fact much more challenging. The warmup is probably the only one I’ve done on a prenatal video that really warmed my muscles. The upper body segment uses the elastic band. Most of its moves are not terribly strenuous, but you will definitely feel some of them. (And the upper body tends to be neglected on prenatal workout videos, so I think it’s valuable.) And the lower body segment has some moves performed leaning sideways on the ball that are very difficult by the end. Patricia makes leaning on that ball look easy, but I fell off multiple times while trying to perform the exercises! The one thing I would say is that if, like me, you have weak knees, you should be careful performing these exercises and the lunges in the lower body workout.

This is much harder to do than it looks

The stretch segment is short, but effective (it also uses the ball, to my surprise!), and it leads to what I think is the real gem of the program: the relaxation segment. Now, most programs, even the yoga ones, tell you to relax during shavasana, or in a best case scenario, tell you to picture something relaxing or to relax particular body parts. Patricia sets you up in a position safe for pregnant women and then guides you through a progressive relaxation that is very similar to one in Preparation for Birth: The Complete Guide to the Lamaze Method. It involves tensing each muscle for five seconds and then relaxing it, which is much more effective than just “trying to relax.” How effective? Well, let’s just say that by the end of the relaxation segment, I had relaxed right out of consciousness. Even though I had been awake and alert just a few minutes earlier! I wound up having a wonderful nap on the floor (yes, right on the yoga mat) and will use that segment again just to practice guided relaxation.

I only did parts of the pelvic floor segment, but exercises do teach you how to access the Kegel muscles in a slightly different way than I’ve seen elsewhere, and I can imagine them being very useful. Most of them could also be done sitting at a desk.

You will love this video if:
– you want a bit more of a challenge than prenatal videos usually offer
– you like using props
– you like Pilates-based movements
– you want to focus on your upper body
– you want to practice deep relaxation as recommended by some natural childbirth methods
– you want practice building your Kegel muscles

You will not love this video if:
– you are primarily looking for stretching
– you have weak knees
– you hate having to buy or use props

You can get the video at bellybeautifulworkout.com/.

Review of 10 Minute Solution Prenatal Pilates, with Lizbeth Garcia

I’ve been feeling pretty fit and pleased with myself lately, but 10 Minute Solution Prenatal Pilates pretty much kicked my butt tonight. Maybe it was my body telling me to take a day off, or maybe it was the fact that I was working with the video pretty late in the day. But while I meant to try all five prenatal segments (there is also one postnatal workout), I only did two full ten-minute parts and about half of two others.

Lizbeth shows how it’s done

Despite the fact that this program made me feel, well, weak, I think I’ll wind up a fan. It’s one of the most strenuous workouts I’ve tried so far, without leading to overheating. Both the “Standing Pilates” and “Total Body Pilates” segments have significant arm work, with light weights, which not only feels pretty good for the upper back but reminds you that you can work out more than my hips and back during pregnancy! The “Core Pilates” segment has you prop yourself up with pillows and then do modified pilates abdominal work, and trust me, you will feel this, especially if your other workouts have avoided the abdominal muscles. “Pilates for Buns & Thighs” will give you serious burn in the aforementioned regions, and “Pilates for Flexibility” offers some really delicious stretches. Basically, the pace is fast enough and the exercises challenging enough that you could do just one ten minute segment a day and feel that you had done something for your muscle tone. The DVD allows you to customize your own workout, so you can decide how much you want to do and in what order.

Pregnancy, it turns out, is no excuse to ignore your inner thighs

Lizbeth Garcia is visibly pregnant throughout the exercises — though also visibly buff! I’m easily annoyed by too-peppy workout instructors, but she is just cheery enough without grating. (And there’s something a little rough about her voice that I really like too.) And — I think this is kind of adorable — although the picture on the DVD has her perfectly styled, in the actual video her workout shirt is too short for her belly. I think pregnant women can sympathize!

Review of Annette Fletcher’s Prenatal Stretch & Strengthening

If anyone had told me that pregnancy would make me more likely to exercise — and not just to obsessively buy workout DVDs but to use them too — I would have called them crazy. After all, how could the discomfort of a growing belly make me more energetic? It turns out that at least when it comes to light, yoga/pilates/stretching type workouts, the small aches of pregnancy actually make working out a must!

Stretch with movement

There seem to be a ton of prenatal videos out there (I have about 13, and will try to review them all!), and one of the newest is Annette Fletcher’s Prenatal Stretch and Strengthening. I received a review copy from World Dance New York, and I wager I’m one of the few people to have used this program already! When I first received it, I did the warm-up, lying down moves, and final stretches. It was a weeknight and I was too tired to go for the standing moves too! But today I had a chance to work with the whole program.

After all the introductions (easily skippable), the main program consists of:

Warm Up
Full Body Movements
Standing Exercises
Deep Stretches

No times are given for these segments either on the box or on the menu, which I would have liked so I could time my workout. However, the entire workout is about an hour long.

Annette Fletcher does some classic floor pilates, but well supported

The moves are basically pilates with a bit of yoga thrown in. The only props are two yoga blankets that Annette folds in various positions to support the poses. Nothing is particularly taxing — only in a few of the lying leg exercises are you likely to feel any kind of burn, and warrior poses are held long enough to strengthen but not to the point of exhaustion. The program is great for stretching your entire body while also working on some strength, but moderately enough that you don’t really notice. (I could tell that my endurance had improved by the second use of the video however!)

What I really liked:

– Annette is clear and not annoyingly peppy.
– A number of the positions combine stretching with gentle movement, which really helped me to relax.
– Time is spent on the neck and shoulders — you wouldn’t think these get particularly tense during pregnancy, but they do.
– Some unusual positions or combinations of positions.
– Generally good cueing. For example, there is one adjustment she has you do during a forward lunge that is simply perfect for getting the right stretch.
– An exercise for working on Kegel muscles that is about as clear as such exercises get, considering that it can’t really be viewed on a DVD!

What I didn’t like:

– I know it’s more pilates than yoga, but I missed having a relaxation segment at the end. Then again, it was easy to just turn the computer off and do my own.
– There are a few moments where Annette gives safety cues for knees (“if your knees are uncomfortable, do this”) while the exercise is underway. These guidelines should be introduced right at the start.

Overall, I think the video offers a complete, accessible workout program that tones and stretches without causing discomfort at any point. It’s not broken down by trimester, but Annette offers gradations of difficulty for many of the exercises. I’ve already done it twice in one week, and can see myself returning to it throughout pregnancy and afterward.

A method to the barness – The Bar Method: Change Your Body

During one of my little forays to Half Price Books, I noticed two of the Bar Method DVDs. They were priced a little higher than their other workout DVDs, so I let them pass, but once I got home and saw how well-reviewed, pricey (and nearly unavailable on Amazon) they are, I went right back and snapped them up.

I’m a sucker for these ballet-inspired, little-tiny-movement workouts. I think it’s because I’m inherently lazy, so I don’t like to jump around a lot, but also because I like workouts that make me concentrate on what my body is doing. I love how thoughtful yoga is for the same reason. So I began by trying what seemed to be the easier program, The Bar Method: Change Your Body!.

What’s interesting about this system is that it uses light weights, which means there’s a bit more focus on arm work than in my beloved Callanetics. Almost every movement is followed by an appropriate stretch. The glutes and legs are worked in a variety of ways. And there are truly challenging abdominal exercises. Now, these use very few crunches, but the focus is on pelvic tilts. My guess — and I hope I’m not getting the anatomy wrong — is that they’re working the Psoas muscle, which is generally quite hard to reach. This isn’t discussed on the video per se, but the effect of working the Psoas muscle is, I’ve heard, to pull in the abdominals — which you can’t get just by doing crunches. I haven’t seen this kind of focus on the Psoas in any other workout video so far.

By the time the workout was done, I didn’t really feel I had done anything. Sure, the individual exercises had been challenging, but none were exhausting. Still, I thought I’d wait a day or two to see how I felt the next day, if the exercises had really worked my muscles.

The next day: oh lord. And the day after that — I could feel leg, butt, hip, and arm muscles still pleasantly hurting. Now that I know its effects, I can’t wait to do it again!

Quickie Review: Annette Fletcher’s Perfect in Ten Pilates

Annette Fletcher’s Perfect in Ten: Pilates is a nice little whole-body workout, including light warmup and stretching.

First, a clarification: there are five segments. I suppose that the first one wasn’t advertised as a workout segment since it’s more of a warmup, but it does consist of pilates moves. Also, doing all five segments adds up to about 57 minutes of exercise. Somewhere, the math is off.

Fletcher is straightforward and clear — no perky encouragements here. I like that every single move and breath are cued. I also like that, for tougher moves, she will have you do a preparatory movement sequence, and that she sometimes shows modifications. (This is especially the case for ab work.)

The movements are indeed difficult, especially to do precisely. Still, except for the abs section, I can’t say I really felt much of a burn. Doing the arm, leg and glute work felt more like pleasant stretching than strength training. I’ve had a more intense workout from other pilates programs.

All in all, I’ll probably do the program again, though probably when I want a wake-up and stretching regimen with some mild strength training.