21 Day Fix Pilates

Autumn works out with a group of backgrounders, one provides beginner modifications for some poses You will not need any equipment for this 32 minute pilates routine.

After the warm up, exercises include hundred, single leg stretch, supine scissors, leg drops, C curve drops, knee pulls, plank tap outs, side lying leg sweeps, side lying bike, side lying leg circles, side lying front & back taps, superman adding sidereaches, swimmer, low plank, and plank hip drops.

I rate this a higher intermediate pilates routine. Great core & floor leg work. I enjoyed this routine and Im not a huge pilates fan. Autumn is a great lead as always. I received this DVD to review.

lindseylu8

The 21 Day Fix system is a series of seven workouts (plus several optional routines) plus a nutrition plan designed to change your body when followed as specified for 21 days. The workouts are led by Autumn Calabrese, who teaches each routine live with a group of approximately six background exercisers. In general, Calabrese sets up each move and then walks around the room, offering words of encouragement and pushing the class members to perform.

Pilates Fix comes up on Day 4 of the Rotation. The theme (each workout has a theme) is "Believe in Yourself Right Now." Calabrese explains that the class will be more intense than traditional Pilates matwork (although during the routine, she also refers to it as a "recovery" workout). The class begins seated on their mats (wearing shoes!), and Calabrese leads them through a 4.5-minute warm-up. She starts with simple seated stretches, gradually coming on to all fours for some slightly more intense movements.

For the matwork, Calabrese moves rapidly from one exercise to the next without rests. One exerciser, Cat, does show modifications for some of the moves, which are listed below.

Hundred
Single Leg Stretch
Scissors
Double Leg Lowers
High Plank Series: alternating leg lifts, alternating knee pulls, alternating toe taps
C-Sit Series: c-crunches, c-twists, knee-ins
Side-Lying Series: leg front/back, bicycles, big circles, small circles, taps forward/back
Superman Series: supermans, rotation, swimming
Elbow Plank Series: plank hold, hip drops, bonus hold/release

All of the cool-downs for the 21 Day Fix are basically the same. This one is about 2.5 minutes and starts on the floor with child's pose (L-R), seated forward bend, butterfly forward bend, wide-leg forward bend, and finish standing with a shoulder, chest, and quad stretch.

I like Pilates, but I wasn't crazy about this routine for two main reasons: 1) I HATE when Pilates is shown wearing shoes, which throws off form (I did the routine without shoes), and 2) I didn't like all the plank work, which bothered my wonky right shoulder (and no modifications were shown for this).

Instructor Comments:
I find Autumn's instruction to be just okay. She does mirror cue, which is nice, and she offers decent form pointers at times. But I'm not a fan of the walk around the room style of instructing, which comes across more like a drill sergeant to me; I find it much more motivating when the instructor does the workout right along with me the entire time. Also, I don't like the ways in which Autumn says things that could unnecessarily lead you to push yourself to injury, such as "you can do anything for 60 seconds!" (no, sometimes you can't!).

Beth C (aka toaster)

The 21 Day Fix is a program from Beachbody which combines portion control, color-coded containers with a series of 30 minute workouts. The program and workouts were developed by Autumn Calabrese, a personal trainer and bikini competitor. The review below is for 21 Day Fix Pilates Fix.

Pilates Fix is a pilates inspired workout that lasts 30 minutes. You’ll need a yoga mat, especially if you’re working out on a hard surface. Water and a towel are also recommended.

Autumn leads 6 background exercisers in the workout, one of whom modifies throughout. Autumn is wearing a black athletic bra top and black and purple capri-length fitness pants. The other backgrounders are also wearing athletic tops and bottoms.

The set is reminiscent of a brightly lit fitness studio or gym cardio room. The music is all instrumental and I found it neither enhanced nor detracted from the workout. There is an option from the menu to turn the audio off.
The workout consists of a warm up of about 4:30 minutes, the main body of the workout, and a cool down of about 2:30 minutes.

Warm Up: seated twist, seated side stretch, forward fold (regular and reverse), cat-cow stretch, all fours neck stretch, bird dog lift and lower, and bird dog knee in crunch.

Ab series: 100s, single leg stretch, scissors, leg lowers.
High plank series: alternating leg lift, alternating knee pulls, alternating taps.

C-Series: c-center, c-twist, knee drivers

Side lying series: two way kicks, bicycle (front and back), mix the bowl (forward and back), stir the pot (forward and back), double taps. Repeat on the other side.

Superman series: superman (variations shown), lift and rotate, swimming.

Low plank series: plank hold, hip drop, 10 second plank/3 second drop.

Cool down: child’s pose & variations, forward fold, butterfly stretch, straddle stretch & variations, shoulder stretch, chest stretch, and quad stretch.

Autumn says this workout is not meant to be super intense as it’s used as an active recovery workout during the week (if you’re following the 21 Day Fix rotation). I would rate this as an intermediate workout. The modifier does show easier options that would make this suitable for a beginner. There are a lot of crunch and plank variations in this workout which may make it uncomfortable for someone with neck and/or shoulder issues. I am not a Pilates enthusiast so this pilates inspired workout was perfect for me. Overall I enjoyed it and would give it a solid B+.

Instructor Comments:
Autumn is a very pleasant instructor. In this workout she gives a lot of form pointers and offers the background exercisers encouragement. Whereas in other workouts in the collection her talk can focus more on body image (look great in that swimsuit, etc.), there is not much of that in this workout.

Sabine Reuter