Total Body Training Pilates

I will start by saying that the title of this workout is a little misleading. I wouldn't say it's a total body workout, but rather one that focuses on the lower body. There are some push ups thrown in for good measure, but for the most part you should expect your inner thighs and backside to do most of the work.

Total Body Pilates is a 50 minute workout that requires a mat and a pilates circle/ring. The first 7 minutes is a gentle warm up with some stretching (that I honestly thought should come at the end of the workout), and then you move on to some inner thigh work using the pilates circle/ring by placing it between your legs and squeezing away. She also incorporates some ab work and then moves into bridge work. Just when you think your inner thighs had enough, you remove the pilates ring and do some more inner thigh presses in and out while lying on your back. This whole segment lasts about 15 minutes. Karen then moves in to some side lying inner thigh work (yup, with the pilates ring again!) and some leg pulses to work the buttocks. Some positions she has you in during this segment felt a bit awkward to me, but I pressed on. Karen moves on to do some butt work while on all fours. There are attitude lifts and donkey style kick variations. Your butt will feel the burn. This segment lasts about 20 minutes. After a set of push ups and some plank work, you start the stretch, which is quite thorough!

I'm sad to say that I was underwhelmed with this workout. To put it bluntly, I was bored and watched the clock almost the entire time. Also, maybe it's because I'm used to tackling very high rep workouts like Tracy Anderson and the Dream Body workouts by Fusion Fitness, but this didn't seem like much of a challenge for me. If you're looking for a gentle workout that will target the inner thighs and butt, you might want to give this a try! I am an intermediate exerciser and would consider this more beginner-ish, but that's not a bad thing on a low intensity day! If I enjoyed it more I would definitely do it again, but alas this one is not for me!

Instructor Comments:
While Karen's cuing was good, her personality was a bit dry in this one, but then I really didn't expect her to be too peppy in a pilates workout.

furmomof4