Product Details

• Actors: Moira Merrithew
• Directors: Wayne Moss
• Format: Color, Full Screen, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: October 15, 2002
• Run Time: 32 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: 1553600851
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #51,356 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good ideas for children's workouts (with some modifications), March 13, 2004

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

This review is from: Fitness Fun: Pilates for Kids [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This 32 minute videotape is more of a modified Pilates routine for children than introduction to the Pilates basics. The emphasis here, as stated in the title, is on having fun with the movements, not working on Pilates principles, form or pre-movements.

The video is divided into five segments, each one a little longer and more advanced than the next.

Olivia's Warmup:

Using a ball, Olivia, Stott's oldest child, starts with a breathing exercise using shoulder shrugs. Then she moves onto the Spine Stretch Forward while rolling the ball, the Saw with the ball adn then a combination of the two.

Grade 1:

The youngest child, George, goes into the same breathing exercise used in the warmup. Then he does something like a Half-Roll Up/Forward Bend. Next is Rolling Like a Ball, then he finishes with a few Somersaults (on a very thick mat).

Grade 2:

Michael, Stott's son, starts with Arm Circles before moving into the Roll Up with the ball, rolling the ball along his legs and torso on the way up and down. Then he does something like a Half-Double Leg Stretch with the Ball, walking the ball away from and then towards his body. Then he performs the Single Leg Stretch, the Side Kicks and finally Knee Pushups.

Grade 3:

Maddie starts with the Cat Back Stretch and then a bent knee Roll Down. She then moves into a One Leg Circle and Spine Twist, both with bent knees and then the Saw. Stott then guides her through an interesting variation of the Leg Pull Front, where the knees are bent and then lift up two inches off the mat. She finishes with the Seal.

Grade 4:

Back to Olivia for the longest workout. Olivia begins with a modified Roll Up or Half Crunch. Then she does a modified version of the Neck Roll and pulls back into Shell or Child's Pose. Then she performs the Roll Up, Rolling Like a Ball, the Single Leg Stretch, an Assisted Rollover, Side Leg Lifts (Up and Down/Toss Up) and the Spine Stretch Forward. To finish, Stott leads her through a modified version of the Teaser, a Half-Swan and then finally the Seal.

Contrary to the popular belief about Stott, she does not come across as dry and cold. Rather, here she is warm, encouraging and sweet. As a children's instructor, she's no Leah Kalish (of the Yoga Fitness Fun for Kids series), but she's much more fun than Marsha Wenig (of Yoga Kids fame).

As for the workout itself, while I know that young children have notoriously short attention spans, I almost feel like the Grade 1 workout is too short. I might be able to convince my four-year-old to do this once, but I'm not sure she'd do it again. While everything was appropriately modified for Grade 2 and 3, I'm not sure how many children under the age of nine I could motivate to perform a pushup, even if it is on the knees. And finally, the jump from Grade 3 to Grade 4 is pretty big, and if you've been following along with Grade 3, you may want to skip some of the Grade 4 moves when you make the transition.

This tape may work best as an instructional aid for parents to give them ideas of what they can do with their children rather than as a follow-along. Still, it does have a number of very good ideas, which is why I think it's worth 4 stars.