The Everything Pilates Book: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Body Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier [Paperback]

Amy Taylor Alpers (Author), Rachel Taylor Segel (Author), Lorna Gentry (Author)

Book Description

Series: Everything (Sports & Fitness) | Publication Date: September 2002

Explore the fitness craze that’s right for everyone!

Whether you’re a ballerina or a couch potato, a mountain biker or a fitness novice, you can do Pilates-and reap its amazing benefits. Perfect for building stronger, leaner, more flexible muscles, relieving stress, and achieving full body health, the Pilates method is a revolutionary program that has the power to transform lives.

Written by the founders of the internationally renowned studio, The Pilates Center, The Everything® Pilates Book gives you all you need to start doing Pilates in your own home-and choose a studio that’s right for you. The book provides step-by-step instruction on how to do such incredible exercises as the Spine Stretch, the Roll-Up, and the Swan, as well as more than 100 clear photographs that make it easy to get started.

The Everything Pilates Book helps you:

-Create a supple, powerful body

-Prevent osteoporosis

-Reduce the risk of injury

-Establish proper posture

-Increase strength and flexibility

-Tone abs

-Alleviate back pain

No matter of your physical condition, The Everything® Pilates Book can help you take control of your body.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amy Taylor Alpers and Rachel Taylor Segel are sisters who established The Pilates Center in 1990 in Boulder, Colorado. Both Amy and Rachel were certified by Romana Kryzanowska, considered by many to be the heir to the classical tradition of Joseph Pilates. The Pilates Center is also an internationally renowned Teacher Training Certification school, offering the most rigorous and comprehensive program available. Lorna Gentry is a career writer and editor across a variety of health, technical, academic, social, and home management topics. She authored a series of online articles for the Learning Network on subjects including, vegetarianism, Zen philosophy, popular culture, and organic diet. She resides in Milton, Indiana.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corporation (September 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580627382
• ISBN-13: 978-1580627382
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #464,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Completely objective opinion, September 30, 2004

By 

Charles R. Martin "Charlie (Colorado)" (Broomfield, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Everything Pilates Book: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Body Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier (Paperback)

Well, not really. I've been a student at Amy and Rachel's Pilates Center -- which is often called "the Harvard of Pilates" -- for four years, starting as I recovered from back injuries in a car crash.

I love it, and I'm a heavy middle-aged man.

It's true that this book concentrates on the philosophy of Pilates more than home practice, but then Pilates, good Pilates, is much more a thing of the mind than simply physical exercise. It's very nearly impossible to really learn to focus on, say, the illiopsoas muscles from a book.

This book, combined with a good instructor, is the best.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was looking for, July 5, 2003

By 

R. A. Slagl "ProfessorPR" (San Juan, PR Puerto Rico) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Everything Pilates Book: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Body Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier (Paperback)

This is a great book if you are interested in the history or philosophy of Pilates. It is not, however, a good book if you are interested in doing Pilates at home. The basic conclusion of the book is--find a good trainer and a good Pilates studio. The authors give great advice about these things, but I was hoping to have more clear advice on doing Pilates at home (I live in a community--San Juan, Puerto Rico--without a good Pilates studio.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Professional endorsement, August 1, 2005

By 

Maureen Sher "Asheville Pilates" (Asheville, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Everything Pilates Book: The Ultimate Guide to Making Your Body Stronger, Leaner, and Healthier (Paperback)

As a teacher of Pilates, this is the book I insist all new clients buy and refer to. It is simple, articulate, packed with lots of excellent information and provides a context (history, philosophy and ethic) for this work. The Everything Pilates Book is also an easy read and a valuable addition to anyone's workout program.