Your Ultimate Pilates Body® Challenge: At the Gym, on the Mat, and on the Move (Paperback)

by Brooke Siler (Author)
Key Phrases: low back stretch, front split, tightens waistline, Joseph Pilates, Tantalizing Ten, Double Leg Kicks (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In this remarkable new program, Pilates instructor Brooke Siler once again revolutionizes the world of Pilates, reinventing how and where Pilates is performed, to take your fitness to a whole new level. Elegantly designed and beautifully illustrated, Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge takes a fresh approach to Pilates, challenging readers to rethink the way they move and to incorporate Pilates-conscious movements into every aspect of life:

At the Gym: Siler takes you through a fun, rapid-fire circuit of machines that gets and keeps you in your cardio target zone. For the first time ever, you will learn how to use powerful Pilates techniques to maximize your workouts on standard gym equipment (StairMaster, treadmill, stationary bike, etc.).

At Home: Siler steps up the at-home basics by applying Pilates’ principles to work with weights, bands, and non-accoutrement-based exercises.

On the Mat: As so many readers and clients have requested, Siler has created four brand-new mat routines specifically to target abs, lower body, posture, and flexibility, and designed to take experienced practitioners and beginners alike to new levels of body-sculpted accomplishment.

Sports: Siler offers insight into secrets of the world’s best athletes, explaining how to move with Pilates form in individual and team sports. With core strength created in Pilates you can hit better golf shots, ski with less fatigue than ever before, and bring more power to your tennis game.

Everyday Life: Using her trademark “Invisible Workout,” Siler shows you how incorporating Pilates-based awareness and movements into everyday activities—such as restocking the pantry, working at the computer, climbing stairs, or picking up the baby—can tone and strengthen your body.

You will be amazed at how much better you feel when your carriage, breathing, posture, and movements are done Pilates-style. This dynamic book shows how Pilates can actually be the basis for total-body transformation—by simply challenging you to get the absolute most out of everything you already do.

About the Author

BROOKE SILER is the owner of re:AB®, the renowned Manhattan Pilates studio. A true pioneer of this technique and schooled by Joseph Pilates’ original protégé, Siler lives in New York City with her husband and son.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767919823
• ISBN-13: 978-0767919821
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #17,284 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Takes Pilates from the mat and into your life, March 4, 2006

By	Beth Cholette "doctor_beth" (Upstate NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is the long-awaited follow-up to Brooke Siler's first manual on Pilates, The Pilates Body. Her first book was my own introduction to Pilates about 5 years ago, and I still recommend it as the starting point for those brand-new to Pilates. However, for those familiar with Pilates and looking integrate its principles into their lives as a whole, I highly recommend Your Ultimate Pilates Body Challenge, a perfect sequel.

Siler does not spend as much time delving into the background and basic tenets of Pilates as she did in her previous work. However, she still provides an excellent foundation by reviewing key points about the Pilates powerhouse, posture, and Pilates-style breathing. Furthermore, as it did in her first book, Siler's enthusiasm for the Pilates method shines through on each and every page. She is unfailingly encouraging, with a clear, down-to-eath writing style. Siler is also gifted in her ability to provide metaphors, and the amazing photos and illustrations which accompany her text provide further clarification.

Siler offers several methods for expanding your Pilates practice in this book. The first is by taking it to the gym: she describes a program which utilizes common gym equipment for a cardio workout that integrates Pilates techniques. Next she outlines a similar program using home-based equipment such as free weights and bands. In response to demands from her fans, she has also created several programs based on Pilates matwork. She introduces the "Tantalizing Ten," ten Pilates exercises which provide a foundation for the four other programs, including "Adding Abs," "Lean Lower Body," "Perfecting Posture," and "Finding Flexibility."

The final two chapters address how to integrate Pilates into other activities. The first, called the "Invisible Workout," details the use of Pilates principles in simple, everyday activities, from driving your car to carrying your children to doing housework. In the last chapter, Siler links Pilates to sports activities, choosing a somewhat odd selection of Sports to highlight use of Pilates techniques: golf, tennis, downhill skiing, and snowboarding.

Although I wouldn't suggest this book as someone's first introduction to Pilates, those with some experience with the Pilates method are likely to find this book a valuable addition to their Pilates library.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for "kicking up" Pilates, April 24, 2006

By	dnk "dnkboston" (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Siler's latest book on Pilates is an excellent resource for those who have been exposed to Pilates. (Although it could be used by a beginner, there are better books to ground you in the material, particularly Siler's first book and those of Alycea Ungaro's.) If you want ways to bring Pilates to your gym routine, she has quite a few ideas for five popular pieces of equipment. If you want to know how to incorporate mat principles into your at home workout, there are ideas for weights and bands. Trying to improve your sports performance? Plenty of insights and specific exercises for four sports. Do you want to spice up your mat routine, but still in the Pilates-realm? Siler offers four different mat routines with exercises not usually seen in retail manuals. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a good portion of the book is devoted to bringing Pilates principles into everyday life- whether driving, waiting in line, carrying your child, standing on the subway or a host of other everyday activities almost everyone finds themselves doing- via her trademarked Invisible Workout.

A caveat: Siler is not the first person to have tackled (all of) these subjects. Although not called such, many of the ideas of the Invisible Workout have been used by Denise Austin (somewhere, a Pilates purist is shuddering); Jennifer Kries' lovely book (Pilates Plus Method) also includes sports-specific routines; and Alycea Ungaro's latest book (The Pilates Promise) is based on the concept of "target-toning" using Pilates.

None of the above should detract from this book, because Siler does what she does very well and includes a number of fresh ideas and different exercises. Also, this is the first book I've seen that brings Pilates methods to pieces of gym equipment and that uses "Reformer-on-the-Mat" exercises. While such exercises are starting to pop up on DVD (Sarah Picot, Liz Gillies, the Classical Pilates team), it's great to have these in a book for a reference and with such comprehensive instructions.

I have criticized Siler's writing style for her instructions as being too wordy and heavy on the visuals. However, I feel it works better here first because she is writing (I believe) to a more experienced audience and two because she seems to have ligthened up a bit, including a number of anecdotes from her personal training that makes her text seem less technical. In short, even if you were put off by her first book, you shouldn't be here.

Excellent book- one of the best Pilates purchases I've made.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Out of the Studio and into Everyday Life, March 3, 2006

By	Diana F. Von Behren "reneofc" (Kenner, LA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Author and Pilates instructor, Brooke Siler helps new and old practitioners of Pilates---a system of exercises focused on developing the core stabilizing muscles of the abdomen formulated by Joseph Pilates ---to revitalize their perhaps staid workout routine while incorporating the signature exercise principals learned and performed on the mat and on the various Pilates machinery into everyday life outside the Pilates studio.

Making the same use of figurative drawings to help the student to better visualize the functionality of each exercise that she employs in her earlier book, "The Pilates Body," the author etches on the reader's memory just the right image---a spring, a straw, a weight, a pair of wings----that will establish a spontaneous association when the book is back on the shelf and the reader actually performs the exercise and needs the extra motivation while squeezing the correct muscles and maintaining that proper form. (i.e. Siler provides a drawing of a reclining woman with a bowling ball on her abs to demonstrate the need to anchor the torso to the ground while performing the `Double Straight Leg Stretch' and sketches an accordion bent straw over the bent back and tucked in abdomen necessary to initiate the `Spine Stretch Forward' and best represent the imagined articulation of the vertebrae.)

Siler addresses five special pain situations like lower back pain, or neck and shoulder pain, and suggests equal and opposite motions to counteract their causes. In addition, while taking you to the virtual gym, she explains how important it is to use gym machines the correct way; engaging the abdominal powerhouse and employing her visualizations (or your own) debunks the usual `more is better' misconception and allows a `peak performance' that develops concentration, precision, control, breathing, and fluidity of motion.

Maintaining that Pilates, if done with exaggerated breathing and in a contiguous sequence constitutes a more than adequate aerobic workout, Siler assembles a `tantalizing ten' base set workout upon which she builds different routines (Adding Abs, Lean Lower Body, Perfecting Posture, and Finding Flexibility) that will challenge and change you depending upon your specific goal. The bulk of the book analyzes each posture on a step by step basis with accompanying photographs and image motivators. Dos and Don'ts, modifications and progressions round out all the necessary information to perform each position optimally.

In conclusion, Siler focuses on employing the Pilates mentality to standing, sitting, carrying, and lifting to safeguard against injury while raising the body's awareness of the efficient movement of arms and legs emanating from a more conscious powerhouse. She moves on to using Pilates to maximize your athletic ability in the sports arenas of golf, tennis, skiing, and snowboarding.

As with any book on the subject, this one serves as a great companion to any good Pilates instructional video---not being familiar with Siler's DVD "The Pilates Body Kit", I will strongly recommend Jennifer Kries "The Method Precision Toning" to introduce the novice to the Pilates format and continuous sequence of positions. Unless the reader/participant has had several hours worth of training with a one-on-one qualified Pilates instructor, I will recommend this book only as an adjunct rather than a stand-alone tool to take Pilates out of the studio and into your everyday life.

Diana F. Von Behren
reneofc