Jennifer Kries
After pre-ordering this book in November and waiting over two weeks for it
to ship from Amazon.com in January, I devoured this book as soon as it
arrived. I have been practicing yoga and Pilates regularly for a little
over a year, and I've been "dipping my toe in the pool" trying to get into
dance. With my knowledge of some of the Pilates basics and using some of
the NYC Ballet Workout, as well as some classic yoga moves, I tried to come
up with the best way to synthesize the three into one routine. In many
cases, I felt like I came up short. This book does a very nice job
combining the three, although the emphasis is clearly on Pilates.
Before introducing her full 68 move routine, Kries describes how she was
introduced first to dance, then to Pilates and finally to yoga. In a
nutshell, she has been dancing since she was 9, using Pilates since she was
13 and practicing yoga since she was recovering from an injury in her late
teens. Dance provides the body with slenderness and agility as well as an
outlet for artistic expression, Pilates with strength and yoga with
flexibility, both for the body and the mind.
She next discusses the 9 essential elements that are essential in her
workout, as well as exercises to help strengthen those elements. Emphasis
in this chapter is on the breathing techniques needed for yoga and Pilates.
She also has a chapter of pre-exercises for all three disciplines to help
prepare for the complete workout. The first, the pre-rollup, is also used
as a diagnostic to determine whether you should begin at level 1, 2 or 3.
And now the workout. Of the 68 exercises presented, a little more than
half are level 1. Of the remaining, about 25 are level 2 and 8 are level
3. In other words, even an absolute beginner should be able to perform the
bulk of the workout. The workout starts with yoga breathing, then moves
onto a dance inspired warmup. Next, and for the majority of the workout,
are the classic Pilates exercises, all in (as far as I can tell) the
classic Pilates sequence. She begins with the Hundred and moves through
non-stop until Criss-Cross. At this point, Kries alternates between yoga
and Pilates. After the completion of the abdominal series, leg series
teaser series and three variations on the Sun Salutation, she begins the
Plie series (this series is very similar to her 3-D Toning tape). Next is
the Pilates Standing Sculpting Series. Weights are optional, but the
suggested range is 3 to 5 pounds. These exercises do work the entire upper
body, but a lot of stress is put on the shoulders. Therefore, I don't
recommend going beyond 5 pounds for this series. Finally, she begins the
relaxation series, consisting of alternate nostril breathing, meditation
and the corpse pose.
The last two sections of the book have routines designed to improve the
performance in eight popular sports as well as two abbreviated versions of
the workout, one for Beginners and one for Intermediate/Advanced.
Throughout her book, Kries intersperses inspirational quotes (the bulk seem
to be from William James). Clearly, a lot to think about when you're
exercising, but they definitely put you in the right mind-set. Every
exercise includes photographs as well as (for almost all of the exercises)
an "InSight" to help you refine your technique and a listing of the muscles
used in the exercise.
I really enjoy this workout and this is a keeper in my weekly (or more)
rotation. However, a couple of comments:
-I would have preferred more yoga. In her Precision Pilates video, she
uses a number of yoga poses in her lowerbody workout that could have been
effectively incorporated here (Chair, Lunge variations, etc.). Also, I
feel that she didn't draw out the need to breathe differently for the yoga
and Pilates movements.
-I would have preferred more dance. There are not too many repetitions of
each of the moves in the Plie series. Minor complaint- this is a book, and
one could easily add on another set if desired.
+/-Jennifer can be very profound, and judging from other comments about
her, this can be very off-putting. However, I really enjoy her comments
and insights.
+/-She states that this routine should take 30 to 45 minutes, and after
performing this workout three times, it's taking me an hour and a half.
That's down from two hours, so there is some improvement. Admittedly, much
of that is me stopping to look at the sequence as well as referring to each
individual exercise to look at the number of reps required. I read once in
Brooke Siler's book (which I really only skimmed) that some advanced
students can perform the entire Pilates mat sequence in as little as 15
minutes. Clearly then, this workout can be done in 30 to 45 minutes, but
that in and of itself should be considered a goal.
+Many people have questioned the benefits of Pilates for the legs and arms.
I am here to tell you they exist. After each workout, my legs have been
noticeably sorer, but not painfully so. Also, after using 5 pound weights
for most of the Standing Series (but I had to use 3 for the last two), my
upper body is definitely feeling it the next day.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who already practices Pilates and
who is also interested in yoga or dance. The yoga and dance sections
should be accessible to the beginner, but the Pilates sections may be
challenging to the absolute beginners. I plan on doing this workout 3
times a week, supplemented by some other strength training. After one
week, I already feel the difference in my legs, arms and core.
Deb
2/4/02
