Product Description

A pilates programme to ease stress on the back and aid good posture. Pilates has been used for years by exercise professionals, physios and dancers to increase strength and improve back and posture. This programme demonstrates how you too can improve your overall well-being by having good posture which protects your back from injury whether it is through sport or just day to day activities. This programme will streamline your body so you not only look great but feel great too, and is formatted with several split level workouts to enable you to start and progress through degrees of difficulty at your own pace.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4508 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-04-26
• Rating: Exempt
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 50 minutes

Synopsis
Presented by Lucy Lloyd-Barker (Dip.Acu.,MRSS(T), PRSI(Med)T, a fully qualified instructor, she shows you how to improve your overall well-being through better posture. Divided into degrees of difficulty for all levels.

Customer Reviews

Pilates for physiotherapy, core strength, postnatal
I went to see a physiotherapist for 6 months for painful sciatica, lower back, pelvis and leg pain after a tough pregnancy. She prescribed a physiotherapy course based on Pilates and when I was done she suggested I try other Pilates videos or classes to continue my recovery. They nearly killed me! Until I found this DVD.

The other Pilates I tried was trying too hard to be, well, 'hard' -- to appeal to superfit people. This tape is back to basics, nothing fancy, exercises that simply work.

They are the exact exercises my physiotherapist prescribed plus a few more I trust implicitly because the focus is on safety, precision, core strength and results... not fancy locations, uber sexy actresses, and pretty leotards (though the scenery is nice, the instructor pleasing, just not over powering).

I am quite simply better off. The sciatica pain is easing off -- and I don't have to pay out a lot more money to go back to the physio. I'm sticking with this!

Could be difficult for beginners
In my opinion Ms Lloyd-Barker describes the technique in a way that would be difficult for a beginner to practise. For instance, in several places in the DVD she instructs the viewer to engage the TA (transverse abdominals) at about 30%. If you haven't previously had any personal instruction, it would be very difficult to judge what is or isn't 30%. I have had lessons in the past from reputable teachers and they have never spoken in terms of percentages when instructing pupils to engage this group of muscles. Having said that, I did get relief from a persistent nagging backache at night after one session.

Pilates for Back and Posture
I have a collpased lower disc which has caused chronic lower back pain and severe nerve pain in the groin for the last 9 months. I have tried physio, injections in the spine, swimming and reflexology, though all have been very painful, expensive and have not cured my condition. I have been using this DVD daily for the last 8 weeks and this has vastly improved my condition. Initially, I found it hard to perform the breathing techniques but once these are mastered, the exercises are easy. I have now memorised the DVD and therefore I am able to perform the exercises without the DVD in approximately 25 minutes, anywhere in the house.