Pilates for Dummies (Paperback)

by Ellie Herman (Author) "What is Pilates? In a word, magic..." (more)
Key Phrases: squeezing your butt, squeeze your butt, pull your navel, Abdominal Scoop, Neutral Spine, Balance Point (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Once the secret fitness weapon of professional dancers, athletes, and movie stars, Pilates is sweeping the country with a vengeance. And if even half of what its many fans claim is true, then it’s easy to see why. Combining elements of yoga, dance, gymnastics, and boxing, along with many original movements, Pilates exercises build muscle tone, improve flexibility and balance, lengthen the spine, increase body awareness, and repair past injuries. Most people who’ve done it, even for a short time, say they feel stronger and more energized, centered and physically confident than ever before. They also like having the flat tummies, tight buns, and long lean thighs of a dancer.

Pilates For Dummies lets you get on board with the Pilates method , without the high cost of private instruction. Packed with step-by-step exercises, photos, and illustrations, it helps you develop your own Pilates fitness program to do at home or in the gym. Top Pilates trainer Ellie Herman shows you how to use eight basic Pi lates principles to get the most out of your mat-based routines and:

• Look and feel better than ever
• Get stronger, more flexible, in control and less prone to injury
• Target and tone problem areas
• Get movie star abs, buns, thighs and arms
• Repair chronic stress and sports injuries

Calmly, clearly, and with quirky good humor, Ellie explores the origins and basic philosophy of the Pilates method, and helps you set realistic fitness goals and custom-tailor a program. She also covers:

• Basic, intermediate , and advanced mat exercises
• Using Pilates exercise equipment and accessories
• Targeting specific areas including the stomach, back, thighs, and chest
• Pilates for the pregnant and recently pregnant body
• Using Pilates to heal injuries, reform posture
• Ten simple ways to incorporate Pilates into your everyday life
• Combining Pilates with other forms of exercise, including yoga, swimming, aerobics, and more

Why let the rich and famous have all the fun? Your complete, friendly, step-by-step guide, Pilates For Dummies shows how Pilates can offer a fitness program for the rest of us.

From the Back Cover
Packed with step-by-step exercises, photos, and illustrations

Target problem areas and feel and look better without doing aerobics!

Pilates fever is sweeping across the country! This friendly guide helps you develop your own Pilates fitness program perfect for home or the gym. Eight basic principles show you how to get the most out of your mat-based Pilates routines and become stronger, more in control, and less prone to injury.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (May 6, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764553976
• ISBN-13: 978-0764553974
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #97,045 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pilates Made Easy, August 4, 2002

By A Customer

I bought this book expecting it to be like most self help books, worthless. I was wrong! This book did an excellent job of explaining the workouts. I liked that she gave hints to make certain excerizes easier on beginers. I was also suprised to see results so fast! I got the book to help me tone my abs and after a week I could see my tummy coming in and feel myself standing up straight as my posture also improved! I am going on 3 weeks of doing the 10 min abs work out that is at the end of chapter 6 and it is doing wonders! I love pilates and I love this book! I recommend it to anyone who wants to look good, but not bulky like all the muscle-heads at the gym!

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not really for dummies, August 9, 2002

By	digikat "digikat" (Massachusetts) - See all my reviews

I bought this book to help me get rid of my lower back pain. Since I've heard so much about the Pilates Method, I gave the instructions my very best shot. Honestly, I have no idea if the Pilates Method is effective against back pain because I couldn't figure out the instructions in this book. The pictures are black and white, and pretty small. The instructions were written as though the writer was speaking to you directly. This is great if she were actually speaking to me and could point out the particular muscles to be contracted or relaxed at any given point. However, she is not in my room coaching me along, and so it was difficult for me to figure out from the instructions which exactly I had to do. Each exercise had it's own set of breathing instructions and physical instructions, and it was difficult for me to try to follow both without any help. To make things even more complicated, the book is fairly long, and contains anything and everything you may want to know about the Pilates Method. Even though the author urges the impatient reader to forge ahead and skip chapters, this proves to be an impossibility, since she constantly refers to positions introduced in earlier chapters. It gets too confusing flipping back and forth! I returned this book two days after I bought it, and purchased a much more simple book with color pictures and easier instructions. Perhaps by avoiding the super-complicated directions like the ones presented in the "Pilates for Dummies" book I will actually be able to focus on getting rid of my back pain.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great if you already have some body knowledge, October 17, 2005

By	Spiralina (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This book was one of my mom's rejects for the reason that she couldn't make head nor tail of the instructions. I like it quite a bit, but I have a background in modern dance and was already familiar with isolating different muscle groups. I think if you don't have a good sense of your body already, this book might be too confusing to start with.

So far there's a lot of good material for me to work with, although much of the book is dedicated to repetitive touting of the benefits of pilates (yes, we already know it tones) as well as super-advanced exercises using complicated equipment, which aren't really "for dummies." Still, the workouts are fun, challenging, and feel good on my body. I would recommend glancing at the instructions before buying and seeing if they make sense to you. If they do, you'll probably like this book -- otherwise, maybe try a video or simpler book.