by Beth Pierpoint
This inexpensive book/audio cd set is part of the “Morning Cup of…” series, which I have positively reviewed in the past. Each title features a short, adorable little book illustrated with cartoons and a 15-minute follow-along cd that talks you through the routine presented. A Morning Cup of Yoga is one of my favourite fitness finds, ever. The sequel, A Morning Cup of Stretching, was equally well-done, but I still prefer the original, perhaps for sentimental reasons.
This routine unfortunately does not live up to its predecessors. The book has the same look and feel with the cute little cartoon lady demonstrating a basic strengthening routine. Unfortunately, Little Cartoon Lady does not have exemplary form on some of her exercises. During the optional hamstring stretch, her non-stretching leg hangs off the side of her chair, her foot turned under in a way that made me worry she would fall over. She does shoulder shrugs with no counter-stretch to unlock the neck, and her shoulder flexion is basically a front lateral where you raise your arms not to shoulder height, but all the way over your head. The author is a physical therapist, so perhaps she is coming at this from a different set of form guidelines than a weight lifter, but after all my years of drilling in “never go above shoulder height” this alarmed me. The form pointers in the book are also somewhat sketchy. The best parts were the supplemental chapters on good posture.
Lillyvette Montalvo leads the 15-minute follow-along cd. She has a soothing, even tone although she does tend to enunciate noticeably precisely in a few places. She introduces each exercise, cues you through the first rep, then says “now, do 8 more” as tinkly music plays. There were a few exercises where, even going slowly and carefully, I finished far ahead of her. For some of these, I did extra reps. For others, I sat there twiddling my thumbs. All in all, it did leave me a little impatient.
All in all, I am disappointed with this one. I don’t think someone who is not a beginner would get much use out of it. I had planned to send it to my sister, but the lack of proper form instruction (even in the companion book) combined with somewhat iffy cueing on the audio (as with the other titles, you really do need to read the book first) and a few exercises that had alarm bells ringing for me are really making me reconsider. So if it’s too easy for an advanced person, and too unreliable for a beginner, who would be using it? Heck if I know. I thought it might be an okay travel routine, but the audio cueing is so basic you really would need to cart the book with you too. Seems like I’d be better off just dubbing one of my videos which does have proper instruction onto a tape with me.
This is not a horrible routine per se. Lillyvette has a lovely speaking voice, the routine is of a good length and does not require a change of clothes, a mat, or much in the way of equipment. But I just can’t figure out where this somewhat blah and not terribly well-instructed little thing fits in to the grand scheme of things.
Joanna
8/29/04
