Customer Reviews

Kathy Smith - Pilates for Abs [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Rather than jump on the bandwagon right away, Kathy Smith always takes her time and produces a quality workout. She packs alot in under 30 minutes. As the title suggest this targets the abs or the "core". You get some benefits for the legs but you core will feel it! Smith is a careful, detailed and motivating teacher. I have several Pilates tapes and it finally clicked with this one. I finally managed to scoop" my abdomen and "engage" my powerhouse. And, while you are sitting or reclined the whole time you will sweat. Here's hoping Smith releases an extended full-body Pilates tape in the near future.

Pilates is all new to me. I was psyched to see that Kathy Smith was doing a video, and was even more excited to see that it was geared towards someone at my fitness level. (Beginner/Intermediate) I'd have to agree that if you were already familiar with pilates, you may not get much from this video, however if you're looking for a sequence of pilates moves geared at working the abs, I can't see how you couldn't benefit from this tape. She gives great instruction in the beginning on form. It was easy for me to feel like I was doing the moves right, and she does so well on stressing the breathing. (Breathe out - breathe in...great cues!) I viewed the entire video, but wasn't able to complete it in entirety yet, but it's giving me something to work up to. I'm hoping Kathy decides to market a total body pilates video! You won't be disappointed with this tape!!!

I have been a loyal Kathy Smtih follower for 8 years. When she first came out with this video and I read the reviews I was concerned - several of the reviews were rather critical. Becuse I trust Kathy's intruction I bought it anyway and am thrilled I did. I have several pilates videos (including the Meathod vids) and I would recommend this one above all for beginners. Kathy's explanations of the moves are thorough ( a necessity for proper pilates) and she emphasizes throughout the video how to correctly utilize the powerhouse. Although the production quality is not as high as some of her other videos (and the music is rehashed from her New Yoga series) the video is more than worth the price. After doing this video a few times I was able to turn back to my longer, faster paced, and more advanced pilates workouts and get twice as much out of them as before. Pilates are hard to do correctly (and easy to do wrong) and Kathy provides both beginners and intermediates with the technique and the undersatnding of Joseph Pilates' philosophy to get the maximum benefits out of this wonderful form of muscle toning. Thanks Kathy - you've never let me down!

Kathy goes carefully through the exact positioning and moves in a manner that is great for beginners, but for the rest of us it is too slow to get a really good workout. For a better workout once you get the positioning and the moves down, go to Denise Austin.

At the start of this video, Kathy Smith takes a full 7 minutes to discuss proper form and alignment. She covers important Pilates terms such as the powerhouse, and she also offers detailed form pointers including how to pull your navel toward your spine, how to tilt your pelvis, and how to contract your pelvic floor (similar to Kegel exercises). Although I was already familiar with Pilates, I found this section to be a very helpful refresher, and I appreciated Kathy's unique instruction.

Kathy then moves on to the workout. Although she doesn't do the moves in the classic Pilates sequence--she notes that she altered the sequence to focus even more specifically on the abs--she does start with the typical Pilates first exercise, the Hundred. She performs this and other moves at a modified level while her assistant, Lija, demonstrates more challenging positions. The exercises include lesser-known Pilates moves such as the Can-Can and the Mermaid as well as a yoga pose, Bridge. Kathy offers form reminders throughout the workout, and I found this to be particularly helpful in making sure that the work was concentrated in my abs. The entire workout is over in a quick 20 minutes, but by the end, my abs definitely felt the work.

Although this workout is appropriate for those at a beginning level, I wouldn't recommend it to someone totally brand new to Pilates, as it proceeds a bit too quickly. Instead, a Pilates novice could use either Ana Caban's Beginner's Mat Work or Hilary Burnett's Pilates for Beginners to obtain more detailed instruction on performing the movements. Once the basic technique is learned, however, this workout is appropriate for beginning or intermediate Pilates practitioners who want a short program which specifically targets the abdominal muscles.

I really like Kathy's detailed description of how to use your ab muscles and breathe while doing Pilates. But I prefer a longer video-this one is is less than 30 minutes and she talks for a good part of it. It also was less intense than I would have liked. I would have liked a section on Advanced Pilates moves, and this video only features Beginning/Intermediate Pilates. It's not a video that someone already in shape or someone used to doing abdominal work will find challenging.

Living up to her reputation as a fitness instructor, Kathy Smith explains the fundamentals of each exercise she subjects, er, introduces you to. She describes each movement and technique in easy-to-understand terms ("stop the flow..."). Compared to the Denise Austin Pilates video, the exercises in this one are more beginner-level, as the Teaser is done at the most advanced with only one leg in the air. Kathy uses a few different exercises than Denise Austin does, and she also doesn't do the percussion breathing thing. But don't underestimate the difficulty of either tape: the exercises look very easy, but they're really difficult if you do them right.
I think that in the spirit of unity, this would be a good tape to do as you master the techniques of Pilates (which know-it-all me has not yet done), then use Denise Austin's Pilates + Yoga after you get "good" at doing the one-legged teaser on Kathy's tape.

This DVD is a great introduction to Pilates and a pretty good abs workout. The 8-minute warmup gives a brief explanation of Pilates terms in easy-to-understand words that help you visualize what you should be doing. For example, to teach pelvic tilts, she asks you to imagine a marble in your bellybutton sliding to your chest and then back again as you tilt. This really helps to keep the stomach engaged and the shoulders down and isolate the movement of the pelvis. The 22-minute workout is excellent. The only thing I wish is that there were more reps of each exercise. Another demonstrator behind her shows some more advanced postures for increased difficulty. The tone of the video is very peaceful. Kathy Smith and her assistant present the material in a non-threatening manner. Having good form and using the correct muscles is an essential part of this video. In fact, the exercises become more difficult as your form improves. It is very easy to cheat and still do the exercises without doing them correctly. If used properly, I believe this is an excellent addition to a regular workout.

This video would make an excellent introduction to Pilates for the beginning exerciser. As usual, Kathy explains each movement very well and reminds the exerciser to engage the powerhouse throughout the video. However she spends little time on each movement and the intensity level is very low. As an intermediate/advanced exerciser I did not feel like I got a good workout - way too short in reps and too long in instruction for longterm use to be of benefit.

I bought this video thinking that it would a nice compliment to the other pilates videos that I was buying. However, it is just a short, poorly directed video that is parallel to the other videos that are out there. I thought that it would have some other moves that would highly strengthen my abs, however, I bought Hilary Burnett's Pilates Intermediate which is SSOOOOOOOO much better than this tape by Kathy Smith. Hilary shows all of the same moves and more. Plus, Hilary's instructions are more concise and easier to follow than Kathy's, and Hilary's tape is only a few minutes longer. It is well worth your money to just buy Hilary's tapes and leave Kathy's at the store.