Denise Austin Pilates For Every Body DVD Review

Workout at Home with This Core Focused Matwork Routine

Jan 21, 2009

Denise Austin gives her own take on Pilates in this Pilates for Every Body DVD while incorporating an exercise band for strength work.

Get a core workout at home incorporating Pilates mat routines while also strengthening the upper and lower body using an exercise band.

About Denise

Denise Austin has proven herself to be a favorite with the home exerciser with more than 20 million exercise videos sold. Her philosophy is that everyone deserves to exercise and feel great about themselves. She is passionate about exercise and helping people, this is made apparent in her enthusiasm and positive attitude throughout her DVDs.

About Pilates

Pilates is a physical fitness system developed by Joseph Pilates. It focuses on strengthening the core of the body, while also teaching awareness of spinal alignment, importance of breathing, and stretching the abdominal muscles. It is great exercise for all levels. As one becomes more aware of the core muscles, she can stay more focused on keeping them tight and strong.

Pilates For Every Body DVD

The Workout

The workout is easy to follow. Modifications on many of the exercises make this Pilates workout a beginner to intermediate workout. Denise does an adequate job of explaining each exercise and the muscle groups that are being worked. Her style may not be for everyone. She is very chatty and has an extremely positive and enthusiastic style, which might not mesh with everyone’s workout style.

Warmup

The warm up is 7 minutes long and is an active, no impact routine. It is very easy to follow. Denise uses basic pilates movements in this section, focusing on stretching and extending the core of the body. Several yoga poses are also included in this segment.

Pilates Floor Workout

The main workout of the DVD is the floor work which lasts for 18 minutes. She focuses on working the abs, the core center of the body, including the pelvic floor muscles which are an integral part of the core and often overlooked in workout DVDs. Denise shows different levels of difficulty throughout this routine. Users can stick to whichever exercise they feel most comfortable with. One set of each exercise is completed before moving onto the next. Denise uses an exercise band in this routine for added resistance. The band is not required but helpful to have to create more challenging movements.

Pilates Twist

These exercises are very focused on working the abdominal area using plank movements and low back strengtheners and stretchers.

Integrated Pilates Workout

This section uses a chair for balance and lasts 7 minutes. Denise works through a series of movements for thighs and glutes, still incorporating the core muscle area in every exercise.

Resist

Here Denise uses the band again for upper body strengthening work for the shoulders, biceps and triceps. The lower body is worked here as well, along with the constantly worked core muscles.

Stretching

A final stretch will cool the body down and relax it after the workout. Denise focuses on breathing and relaxing each body part.

The Core

The Denise Austin Pilates For Every Body DVD focuses on strengthening the body from the core outward. It will challenge the beginning exerciser to incorporate their core in each exercise. An intermediate exerciser may also like it to incorporate Pilates into their home workout routine and add more core work.

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