Certified Pilates and fitness instructor Ellen Barrett presents a workout combining yoga moves with Pilates exercises to help tone, strengthen, and burn calories.
Genre: Exercise/Fitness
Rating: NR
Release Date: 7-FEB-2006
Media Type: DVDSo here’s a portrait of yoga in the 21st Century: this ancient discipline, created thousands of years ago to enhance the meditative experience (the asanas or poses commonly used in hatha yoga were in fact designed to enable meditators to sit quietly, calmly and comfortably for hours on end), is now “a total body blast,” with users urged to “get hard core” and “feel the groove,” all so “your torso will look buff.” At least that’s how Ellen Barrett, the relentlessly sunny instructor featured in Crunch Yoga’s Super SlimDown: Pilates Yoga Blend, sees it. But while that approach may sound pretty frightening to traditionalists, this can’t in fairness be viewed as a typical yoga video; nor does Barrett, who commingles power yoga moves and what she describes as “core-conditioning power pilates,” make any claims that it is. Many of the poses–including Warrior II, extended right angle, cobra, locust, and others–will certainly be familiar to yogis. But instead of holding these poses for several breaths, as is common, Barrett takes a more aerobic approach, “pulsing” in and out of positions as if this were a calisthenics class; while that doesn’t do much to promote stretching, it does generate a lot of heat and calorie burning. Same goes for the pilates portions, which involve a lot of leg lifts, abdominal work, and other mat-based exercises. One might wish that the instruction were more detailed when it comes to proper breathing, alignment, and so on; it’s also a bit paradoxical that while the “Crunch philosophy” states that their fitness programs are designed for “people from all walks of life regardless of shape, size, or ability,” the only folks we see onscreen are uniformly attractive, bare-midriffed young women in amazing shape. But hey, whatever. Call it what you will, this is a fast-moving, reasonably challenging program that will likely find favor with many. –Sam Graham
Buy “Crunch – Super SlimDown: Pilates Yoga Blend” For Only $7.83
March 9, 2008
#1
The exercises are good although I was expecting someting more challenging. She’s a good instructor. The music is nice. The whole segment is only 40 mins long & I prefer 1 hour as I’m not wasting travelling time by doing the video at home.
March 9, 2008
#2
As a workout beginner I now look forward to getting up every morning (5 days per week). This DVD isn’t overly laborious so I feel energized and realxed for my work day. I do however, need a more intense walk/run session in the evening 3 times per week to lose weight.
Love ALL the Crunch DVDs! Love Ellen!
March 9, 2008
#3
I haven’t watched this video but I have studied both Pilates and Yoga in thorough, slow-paced instructor led classes where the history of each respective practice was explained and each pose was explained in detail.
Yoga and Pilates are fundamentally different when it comes to breathing and alignment and in some ways ‘opposite’. My Pilates instructor had to reteach me breathing technique for the class, because it is different from what I learned in my Yoga classes. She even laughed at the idea of hybrid Pilates-Yoga classes, because she said you can’t really combine the two.
I’m sure this work-out can give you a good workout, but both discplines require a good mastery of fundamentals down to posture and how you hold your muscles when standing or lying down (especially abdominal muscles) — if this video doesn’t explain clearly exactly how to do that for each of its “hybrid” moves, you cannot get the maximum benefit from each move and may not even be working the muscle in the right way.
(I’m just giving this a ’5′ rating to balance this word of caution and because it would be unfair to rate it poorly without watching the DVD)
March 9, 2008
#4
Yawn, this video got a little boring, although I did feel the wrokout, it couldn’t keep me interested.
March 9, 2008
#5
It lasts about 40 minutes, but goes by quickly. I feel stretched and relaxed… my only concern is that I don’t feel like I worked out! I don’t think this video is challenging enough for someone experienced. I don’t think this workout will be enough to slimdown. If you want to build long, lean muscle just go with Callanetics… so far it is the best I’ve encountered.