LITTLE ROCK — Title: Pilates Towel Workout for Strength & Mobility (Stott Pilates, Merrithew Health & Fitness)
What’s the goal: A dynamic warmup that can be done daily to support mobility of joints and that can be used anywhere - for instance, in a hotel room.
Who’s it for? Intermediate Pilates enthusiasts or instructors.
Format: The letterbox, 75-minute DVD includes 34 exercises in a 36-minute stretching program, as well as extra chapters: “Workout Principles,” “DVD Player Tips” (one page of text that explains how the DVD controller works), “Audio Options” (which allows you to toggle off vocal cues but keep the music), and “Special features,” which has brief bios and marketing for Stott Pilates.
“Workout Principles” is worth reviewing often. Each of its five tutorials has detailed posture directions for your everyday comportment, not merely during workouts. The segment “Head & Cervical Placement,” for instance, corrects a fancy-pants tendency to hyper extension people adopt when they’re trying to look graceful.
The scenery is a tidy, white-brick workout room; camera angles show exercises from the front, side and above.
Gear needed: Yoga mat or carpet, and a 3- to 4-foot towel; use a longer towel if you’re stiff.
Can I do it barefoot? Yes
Workout developer’s credentials: Moira Merrithew is a former ballet dancer who studied Pilates with Romana Kryzanowska at the late Joseph Pilates’ studio in New York. She and her husband founded Merrithew Health & Fitness in Canada, which trains Stott Pilates instructors and has created about 170 workout programs in 20 years.
Who demonstrates the workout? Moira Merrithew accompanied by Patricia Hernandez of Milan, Italy. Merrithew’s instruction is especially good, anticipating mistakes users will likely make, such as yanking on the towel rather than contracting muscles that ought to be working, tensing the shoulders while stretching hamstrings or over tucking the neck.
Music: A loop of nonoffensive percussion and bass.
What do they want from me? Compliance with posture and position cues. This is Pilates, people. No slopping around.
Distraction factors: Departing from the workout-DVD world’s standard practice, in which the star of the video does an advanced version of exercises while a backup demonstrator shows modifications for wimps, Merrithew generally does the Every Man version, and Hernandez, who’s on the screen less often, either does the same or shows off her flexibility. But not always. Sometimes Hernandez shows an easier version. Possibly Hernandez is there merely to add variety to the camera angles.
Price: $15.95.
ActiveStyle, Pages 23 on 02/25/2013