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The Method Pilates - Target Specifics

The Method Pilates - Target Specifics

List Price: $19.98
Your Price: $17.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not good, AT ALL
Review: I ABSOLUTELY hated this video. Jennifer flies through the video never concentrating on poise and position, which is MOST important when doing yoga and pilates. The tape is more concerned with "looking the part" of a yoga tape than giving you a strong base knowledge to take away from it. I would never work out to this tape again. There are a lot of pilates tapes on the market, I would suggest buying any other one but this one.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: not beginner level
Review: I bought this dvd after deciding to try something new, I had been doing the crunch pick your spot pilates workout and after buying this one, was completely lost. I found myself trying to catch up and missing excersizes. This dvd assumes you are already flexible and can keep up with the poistions at an extremely fast pace. i only suggest this for advanced workout students.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Good For Beginners
Review: I bought this DVD to add some variety to my everyday workouts.
If you are short on time the 15 minute workout segments are perfect.

The excerises are easy to follow and after a few times you will begin to memorize the positions in their order. Jennifer Kries does 2 to 4 reps not sets of each position, emphasizing on quality not quantity. Doing 4 positions correctly is much more effective than doing 12 and losing your form once you begin to fatigue midway through.

I gave this video a 4 star rating because the first 2 15 minute workouts are really for beginners and the last 2 are for intermediate to advanced. The last 2 workouts have positions that are harder and require more strength and flexibility.

Other than that this is a good workout video.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent workout for toning and increasing flexibility
Review: I bought this tape to tone my legs and arms, and it has done that and so much more! My flexibility has increased many times over, and my muscles have definition like never before! The tape is divided into four 15-minute segments to focus on different muscles. The music is very low-key and soothing, yet adds to the workout. The audio and video is very high quality. I look forward to doing two segments each morning, and I hate to exercise! The segments move along quickly, so it does take a couple of times of doing the workout to be able to keep up with the dancers. Ms. Kries provides adequate instruction without being annoying when doing the workout for the 50th time! I highly recommend this workout!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: good for light days
Review: I liked the background music. this is a good tape for low impact days between heavy workouts. sometimes she changes activities too quickly before you get a change to really work into it. Some of the rolling movements are hard on the back. The ballet work is a great conditioner for the legs. I enjoy the format.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Liked!
Review: I liked this workout. The moves were challenging and increased my flexibity with constant use. I use 2 pound ankle and wrist weights to increase the intensity.
My only complaint is that it tended to be a bit monotonous at times.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: So good it hurts!
Review: I love The Method tapes, and this is a great addition to a workout video collection.
The tape has four 15 minute sections dedicated to "Target Specifics," go figure. They have very little warm-up, and the slightest hint of a cool down, but that seems mainly because of the prohibitive 15 minute length of the sections. They are a perfect addition to an aerobic workout, and can be rotated throughout the week.

Abs: The core of Pilates based instruction seems to be promoting a strong center, and Jennifer Kries promotes your strong center through use of slow steady movement that is not overly repetitive, but is definitely effective. Some of the exercises are more challenging than others, but they are all easily explained and understandable. The workout also includes some back strengthening, though not a great deal.

Arms: The arms section uses light hand weights in a highly effective manner, adding self-created resistance to increase the work load as necessary. Again, the slow, steady movement with easily understandable instructions makes the arm workout both easy to learn and very effective.

Hips: Ballet work and Pilates make up the Hips section. A little training in dance would help maintain proper alignment and form, though most of the exercises can be done easily with out any formal training. This is my favorite way of working the hips and leg region, as the movements tend to make you feel more flexible and the muscles longer and stronger with very little impact on the joints.

Thighs: The first half of the thighs workout works my upper body more than my thighs, mostly because my thighs are much strong than my arms, and both are being used during the Sun Salutations and other yoga poses that make up the first half. The poses are fairly easily understood, but they feel a little hurried the first few times through. The second half makes you feel the burn if the first didn't, as it includes several lunges, squats and other thigh strengthening exercises. None done too often, and all very effective.

I would not recommend this video as a primary workout video, nor is it intended to be one. It is an excellent time sensitive toning video, and I've often substituted its toning section for other video's.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: So good it hurts!
Review: I love The Method tapes, and this is a great addition to a workout video collection.
The tape has four 15 minute sections dedicated to "Target Specifics," go figure. They have very little warm-up, and the slightest hint of a cool down, but that seems mainly because of the prohibitive 15 minute length of the sections. They are a perfect addition to an aerobic workout, and can be rotated throughout the week.

Abs: The core of Pilates based instruction seems to be promoting a strong center, and Jennifer Kries promotes your strong center through use of slow steady movement that is not overly repetitive, but is definitely effective. Some of the exercises are more challenging than others, but they are all easily explained and understandable. The workout also includes some back strengthening, though not a great deal.

Arms: The arms section uses light hand weights in a highly effective manner, adding self-created resistance to increase the work load as necessary. Again, the slow, steady movement with easily understandable instructions makes the arm workout both easy to learn and very effective.

Hips: Ballet work and Pilates make up the Hips section. A little training in dance would help maintain proper alignment and form, though most of the exercises can be done easily with out any formal training. This is my favorite way of working the hips and leg region, as the movements tend to make you feel more flexible and the muscles longer and stronger with very little impact on the joints.

Thighs: The first half of the thighs workout works my upper body more than my thighs, mostly because my thighs are much strong than my arms, and both are being used during the Sun Salutations and other yoga poses that make up the first half. The poses are fairly easily understood, but they feel a little hurried the first few times through. The second half makes you feel the burn if the first didn't, as it includes several lunges, squats and other thigh strengthening exercises. None done too often, and all very effective.

I would not recommend this video as a primary workout video, nor is it intended to be one. It is an excellent time sensitive toning video, and I've often substituted its toning section for other video's.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great work out!
Review: I was happy when I picked up this DVD to find that it is not as long as the Pilates All In One Work out (which was an hour and a half!) - this work out squeezes all the necessary exercises into one hour... anything that saves me time is a good thing!
Starts off: 15 Minutes of Abdominal exercises (they really work.. they helped me lose my baby belly after I had my daughter)They are pretty difficult, though. I found that it took me a long time to be able to do these exercises without taking breaks. But you know it's working 'cause you can already feel the burn 30 seconds into the workout!

Then 15 minutes of arms - this really helps you tone up your arms... but don't expect to really bulk up. This is just a basic beginners work out to keep the extra skin from flapping underneath your arms - you won't become a body builder from this! They are not very difficult at all.. even if you have no strength training experience at all, you should be able to do these... you may have to take short breaks here and there, but keep up with it and you'll get better.

Then 15 minutes of hips, which is great because it's always been my "problem area" and there aren't that many exercises out there that specifically target the hip area. This work out helps my jeans and skirts fit so much better and makes me feel much better about the way I look! They're a little difficult at first, but if you keep with them you will get better and be able to do them!

Then last is 15 minutes of thighs which are all standing and floor exercises target to your thigh area to help tone and strengthen to help you shed fat, flab, and inches. They are difficult... I've heard that your thigh area is the hardest area on the human body to tone and keep toned - I don't disagree. These exercises are very challenging, but start off at your own pace and you will gradually get better and better.

I try to do this work out 3-5 times a week, depending on my schedule... It has really helped keep me in good shape. it's especially great to own if you're like me - I'm a stay at home mom and I don't have the luxury of being able to leave my house multiple times a week so that I can work out, and I don't have very much free time on my hands.
So, I put this dvd in when the kids are napping and I get in a good work out and then shower... saves much more time (and money!)than heading out to a gym.
If you're serious about finding a routine that you want to stick to, then I recommend this video.
If you're looking to burn a lot of fat though (say over ten pounds) you're going to also have to get an aerobics dvd also, there are no aerobic exercises on here. Just muscle and strength training.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The most empowering, challenging, and effective DVD so far!
Review: I was looking for a workout that's more geared towards a dancer. The parts of this DVD that are more like dance are quite simplistic and not challenging at all. The other parts are all on the floor, which is nothing like dancing, of course! I would say that 85% of the movements take place on the floor.

The cuing isn't great. The thing is that a lot of the time you have to face the floor during the exercises, so cuing becomes incredibly important. Sometimes the movements are not complicated at all, but because they aren't explained and I'm facing the floor, I'm totally lost.

The music is fine, just a subtle drum beat. There are way too many dancers, a bit distracting. The movements aren't terribly complicated, but of course few are as flexible as the dancers, so don't get discouraged if you can't lift your leg up to the sky like they do.

How will this affect my overall toning and flexibility? I don't know, since I haven't been able to force myself to do the DVD more than 5 times. I can't even suggest an alternative, since I haven't found any workout DVD yet that's very much like dance without a lot of floor work.


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