Search - Mind Body Solutions for Lower Body Conditioning - Yoga / Balance Ball / Pilates on DVD

Choose yoga, Pilates, or stability ball to work the lower bo

Beth Cholette | Upstate NY USA | 08/02/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This DVD provides a nice variety of workouts for the lower body: a yoga practice, a Pilates practice, and a stability ball workout. The DVD is well-chaptered, with individual menus for each of the three workouts.

The first workout, Yoga for Lower Body, has three sections, an introduction, a 25-minute yoga practice, and an explanation of modifications; start with the latter if you are relatively new to yoga. Because instructor Suzanne Deason moves along at a somewhat brisk pace, I wouldn't recommend this practice for those with no prior yoga experience, as they are likely to have difficulties following along. The practice includes some nice standing balance poses such as dancer and half-moon, although Deason doesn't hold the postures for very long. However, I enjoy Deason's calm, supportive manner and find her to be warm and engaging. Although I would prefer if she had held the poses a little longer, I love that I can do this varied practice when I'm short on time. This was my favorite workout on the DVD.

The Pilates Lower Body workout is led by Jillian Hessel, and it consists of an introduction, a short (1 minute) posture segment, Pilates matwork, and a balance challenge to finish. The workout begins with some nice foot a leg stretches while lying on your back. You then perform some of the tradition Pilates mat exercises, doing only those that focus mainly on the legs such as leg circles and bicycle. There also are some more unique moves such as opening and closing the legs in a stradle position. Next comes the Pilates side kick series, including exercises that focus on both the outer and the inner thighs; there are also a few movements performed lying face down to work the back of the legs. The workout ends with a short standing balance segment, coming in at just under 29 minutes. This workout wasn't very challenging, but if you enjoyed the thighs segment from Crunch Pick Your Spot Pilates, you will probably enjoy this as well. However, this was my least favorite workout on the DVD.

The final workout on this DVD is Balance Ball Lower Body. In this workout, instructor Suzanne Deason leads you through a nice, moderately challenging routine to work your lower body on the ball. She begins with a 5-minute instructional and warm-up section and then moves on to the 27-minute workout. The workout starts sitting on the ball for balance challenge work such as knee lifts and leg extensions, which Deason makes progressively more difficult. She also does some dips with the ball behind your back to work your butt, but I didn't feel much wiht this move. Next comes some work lying face down over the ball, including leg lifts and extensions. At first, this felt easy to me, but Deason then goes on to more challenging moves from an elbow plank position, and I could really feel my butt working. Lying sideways over the ball for Pilates-like moves comes next; for some reason, this position did not feel comfortable to me. Deason finishes with some inner thigh work by holding the ball between your thighs in a seated position. The final 5 minutes of the workout consist of stretching, including forward bends over the ball, bridge pose with your feet on the ball, and hamstring/leg stretches. Plus, Deason includes many stretches throughout the routine, making this a nice workout if you want to gently challenge your muscles while providing plenty of opportunity to make them more flexible as well.

Overall, I think this DVD provides great variety at a bargain price. The workouts are not overly challenging and are mostly appropriate for advanced beginners to intermediates. One final note is that the DVD includes a program reference guide which provides a complete list of exercises for each of the three workouts. Definitely a recommended purchase."

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Sash | 10/20/2003

(2 out of 5 stars)

"the instruction in this tape is lackluster. I've been doing yoga for a few years, and am familiar with all the yoga lingo, but found this DVD hard to follow (you do a lot of work on your back, and can't see the TV, so you rely on their spoken directions, which aren't that great. All, in all--my lower body feels slightly worked out, but mostly my neck aches from straining to see the TV."