Pilates on the Go

This workout is a full-body workout with an emphasis on posture and core strength. You will be rolling up and down and learning to breathe deeply. No shoes needed and you can do this routine almost anywhere.

"Pilates On the Go" offers a full-body workout and includes every imaginable Pilates exercise. There were many new moves I had not seen in other videos, including the "swan dive" which was quite amusing. Imagine yourself as the base of a rocking horse. Yes.

IDEA master trainer Maria Leone has been teaching Pilates since 1989 and first encountered the exercises while studying dance at New York University. She has been certified to teach "The Method" and owns Bodyline Fitness Studio in Beverly Hills.

I love the way Maria Leone teaches because she is not interested in a fancy routine, just the basics. Her pleasant voice is calming and she places an emphasis on stretching and uses pace effectively to warm the body.

She also has the exercises set up in a logical and effective progression. You never feel uncomfortable moving from one exercise to the next. It is a slow floor dance to fitness. You are mostly on your back, side or stomach. There are a few exercises done while standing.

The Exercises Include: A warm-up, Pilates Hundred, Roll-Up, Roll-Up with Band, Rowing, Bow and Arrow, Rollover, Leg Circles, Rolling, Single Leg Stretch, Modified Double Leg Stretch, Scissors, Criss-Cross, Spine Stretch, Open Leg Rocker, Modified Corkscrew, Saw with Band, Saw, Basic Swan, Leg Lifts, Intermediate Swan, Swan Dive, Modified Double Leg Stretch, Double Leg Kick, Spine Twist, Side Kick Series, Teaser, Preparations, Swimming, Plank, Leg Pull Front, Reverse Plank, Leg Pull Back, Side Lift, Seal, Push-Ups and Upper Body exercises with resistance tubing (or you can use weights and a resistance band).

What I really appreciated was the "modified" exercises. When an exercise is new to you, you won't want to dive into the exercise immediately and Maria shows you the modified exercise and then asks you to repeat it if you are new to the exercise or continues with the regular exercise. There is no time lapse. You do the modified version and the regular version if you are doing this routine on a regular basis. So, no waiting. The modified version becomes a warm-up for the next exercise. If you are new to the exercise, you just do it twice while she continues with the advanced exercise.

The Benefits of Pilates are very encouraging:

Improves your Posture
Strengthens your Back
Strengthens your Stomach
Increases your Flexibility
Tones your Entire Body
Sharpens Your Mind
Gives you Confidence - the exercises are not too difficult to master and "no fancy footwork."
Encourages a healing of the mind, body, spirit
Improves your Life because it calms the mind

This exercise routine is normally purchased in a set and as far as I can tell from the site I went to, they do not sell the resistance tubing or Dyna-Band separately. The entire set is around fifty-five dollars. So, if you can improvise with items you already have, that seems to be a frugal way to go.

Items you will need to have if you only buy the DVD or Video:

A mat or you can just use a towel on a carpet
Resistance Tubing or you can use a Dyna-Band/Resistance Band effectively in places and alternate with a set of three-pound weights.
A Dyna-Band or you can use any "Resistance Bands."

If you have tried just about every other way to lose weight, give Pilates a try. I have been quite impressed with the results from these exercises. I started doing Pilates in college and in a summer I remember changing my body. Unfortunately life got in the way of exercise and I have recently gone back to these exercises because I remembered how fast they worked.

Honestly, I have tried everything from diet to walking to yoga and nothing works as well as Pilates. The bonus of this workout is the almost immediate results you start to see. That keeps you highly motivated. You can literally sculpt your body. While I'm still far from perfect, Pilates is working and I finally feel I will one day reach my goals.

If you are discouraged with other workouts and want to see fast results, try this routine. You may also love the Winsor Pilates workouts or anything by Karen Voight or The Method videos. What is nice about workout videos/DVDs is that once you have some of the fitness equipment, you can use it with many other workouts. So, buying the equipment is really an investment and when one instructor starts a trend, the rest seem
to follow.

What you will notice with Maria Leone is her leadership qualities. Her exercises have unique twists that are indications of originality. Originality prevents boredom. These are simple exercises, but never boring. I look forward to more workouts by this talented instructor.

~The Rebecca Review

"Pilates On The Go" by Maria Leone is an enjoyable and intelligently designed practice.

What I found enjoyable was Maria's personality and clear instruction as well as the production values (the set and music) which though simple work really well to create a nice atmosphere.

What I found to be intelligent was the way she builds into the exercises. She always starts simpler and then moves into the more complex movements.

What I like about this is that for those folks who are more advanced, you are properly warmed up before putting your body into a more challenging position. Those people who are less advanced can just repeat the simpler version a second time until some point in the future when they are ready to move into the more advanced version of the exercises.

Overall I found this to be moderately challenging, though certainly the side series was definitely more intense than some of the other sections.

If you are new to Pilates workout might feel a bit tougher than my description as moderate. Compared to something like Jennifer Kries "Precision Toning" certainly "Pilates On The Go" is a bit less intense.

To do this program in full you will need a Pilates flex band as well as exercise bands (rubber tubes w/ handles).

You can definitely get a good full body workout with a program like this that will strengthen and stretch your whole body.

Personally I like to follow my Pilates practice w/ Yoga because Yoga works the body differently in many ways, though certainly there are some similarities between some exercises. But Yoga is a nice complement, particularly the standing poses, which can help round out your fitness program.

Other Pilates programs I'd recommend are Stott Pilates "Basics" and Hilary Burnett's "Intermediate" for a more classical approach to Pilates. For a slightly different twist on Pilates Janis Saffell's "Beverly Hills Pilates" is a 40 minute, challenging program that is a very creative approach to the Pilates system.

For some versatile Pilates programs I like Total Mix "Pilates and Yoga" w/ Tracy York and Suzanne which is made up of 10 minute segments which you can program up to three segments in a "mixer" (like a "matrix"), and Liz Gillies "Progressive Pilates" four ten minute target zone workouts. This is also made up of ten minute segments which focus on different body areas, it's not programmable but easy enough to work with by going to the scene selection.

For a fun and also creative approach to Pilates I also have been enjoying "Carribean Workout" pilates programs which feature Jenn Tilley as the Pilates instructor with Shelley McDonald as the "Student". There are "Pilates", "Pilates Plus" (which each contain FOUR 22 minute workouts, you can also buy them together as a set) and "Core Pilates" which has THREE twenty two minute workouts. They are from a TV show and so fade in and out of commercial breaks here and there (not always perfectly) but they are effective and very enjoyable programs which are very easy to fit into most anyone's schedule.

I've tried quite a few Pilates videos and this is one I would not recommend. When I started the video, I was really disappointed to see that a pilates band was required for the exercises. But nowhere on the box did it mention that. There were a few movements such as leg circles, rolling and the mermaid that are done without a band but most of the workout requires it. Thankfully I rented this and didn't spend money on it.

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