Rating: 
Summary: The ultimate Pilates Book
Review: I received this book as a present along with the Pilates mat workout video. This book was a great help with getting me on the right track. The book is extremely helpful with making sure you are in the correct positions and helps with the visualization of what muscles you are using.
Rating:
Summary: Easy To Read/Understand
Review: The first great thing about this book is the quality of the pages with the second being the wonderful photos and the CLEAR instructions with great explanations. I recommend this book! Well worth the $$$.
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Summary: TRULY THE ULTIMATE AT HOME GUIDE
Review: This book is fabulous and so easy to follow. I usually shy away from exercise books (I prefer to use a video tape) since books are more difficult to follow - however, this book is totally different - I was able to follow the instructions easily right from the start. I'm still a beginner and I can't do the more advanced moves but I eventually will with Ms. Siler's precise, detailed instructions and the wonderful photos and drawings. Thank you Brook Siler for a great book. Please consider making a companion video.
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Summary: Addictive Exercise!
Review: I started using the Pilates Body about a month ago, and I'm amazed by the results. While I've been doing regular cardio exercise and yoga, I still saw "problem spots" in my abs and thighs. Pilates targets those areas explicitly, and by following this program twice a week I have noticed my clothes fitting much, much better!The exercises are well described, and Siler uses photos of experienced Pilates teachers to demonstrate each movement. The description and photos of each exercise are spread over two pages, and on the top right there is a drawing to remember the type movement you are striving for. It is useful to read the book through before you begin to exercise for the first time - otherwise you'll be on your back with your legs in the air fumbling for your book! After you get the exercises down, you can just flip through so that you remember the order. Overall, I think this book and the exercises in it would make a valuable addition to any exercise routine!
Rating:
Summary: Great book for intermeiate & beginner.
Review: This is a great book for anyone who is just starting Pilates or somebody who is familiar with the Pilates exercises.Although anyone who would really like to learn performing the exercises with the proper breathing technique and who needs Pilates in a professional arena i would highly reccommend finding a certified instructer. For people who just Pilates as a basic fitness and flexibillity routine this book is perfect.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide for Pilates work!
Review: A fantastic guide to the Pilates matwork excercises. Although it is very complete and shows you both beginner through advanced excercises (with illustrations) I'd still recommend that anyone who is interested in Pilates take a matwork class first so that you can get the techniques down. Although they're not complicated, it's important to know how to do them correctly so that you don't hurt yourself. ;)
Rating:
Summary: A novice veiw point - the best Pilates Book!
Review: As a complete novice on Pilates and its background I started looking at all the books I could on the subject a few months ago. I had read about Pilates in the Daily Telegraph - the first time I had ever heard of the programme. There are two points I have to make as a novice - 1 -I'd never heard of Pilates before - and so I wanted to read as much as I could and try things out before I bought and - 2 - there are some very very good books out there on the subject . So I am definitely not an expert opinion here but just an enthusiastic amateur. And I am enthusiastic about it. First off - if you haven't tried Pilates before - like I hadn't - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by just how easy and fun the exercises are. Every book I read emphasised the need to move up the level of difficulty slowly - which means I have made very noticeable improvements, but I really enjoy the exercises each day. Its a bit like yoga and certainly uses some parts of yoga in the exercises - only I find I domy Pilates exercises where I never really liked yoga that much. Why do I like this book better than the others I used? Well I found the programme and the explanations which Siler used the best. Each Pilates book I read seemed to have slightly different combinations of exercises and different orders - but all the exercises are essentially the same so I don't know if there is really that much basic difference in them. In the end I just preferred the order and the presentation of Siler's book. She has all the philosophy of and explanations of Pilates in the first few pages. What I liked best though was the is a two page 'order' of exercises - where each exercise is a small picture to remind you of where you are up to. Following that each exercise is given a double page spread with one page devoted to what to do put in simple bullet points, and the facing page a bullet point list of things to concentrate on while doing the exercise. So while I did like many of the other Pilates books I found this one the best.
Rating: 
Summary: Better to have this book than not even though it's okayyy!
Review: I bought this book because I'm interested in Pilates, don't have a Pilates instructor nearby, the reviews of this book are *all* enthusiastic,and because the book just plain looks great. The body of the person doing the v-shape on the cover-wow! If Pilates can do that-gimme gimme gimme! Ok, so now I have the book. The book is even better when it's right there in your hands. A matt cover, great use of colour (the red and orange) contrasts nicely with the beautiful black and white photo. The black and white photos are very cool and the bodies admirable. I'd buy it just for eye-candy. All the models in this book are female; it would've been nice to see a guy doing the exercises too, but I guess a guy would get hold of this book despite that lack.... All in all, I think the text in the book is too breezy and so I definitely think that Pilates should be done with an instructor. It's much harder than it looks even though some of the exercises look familiar like pushups. This is because there is a fundamental concept in Pilates that is hard to understand from this book -the navel-to-spine, also called 'scooping the belly'. I don't think Brooke Siler explains it in depth enough. There is another thing which bothers me in the book. It's where she explains about 'lengthening the neck' and shows two pictures, fig 6 and 7. I can't figure out if she means fig 6 is wrong and 7 is right or if they're both right. Brooke Siler does explain the exercises pretty well, the visualisation sketches are handy too, but words are just not enough because there is too much to remember. I lie down, then sneak a look at the book, raise my legs and torso, then think uh-oh! Do I exhale or inhale first? Another peek at the book, okay inhale, raise my torso, keeping my spine pressed to the floor. Am I doing this right? Roll over and look at the book. Damn! I forgot to sink in my stomach, squeeze my buttocks and keep my shoulders away from my ears! I think one class of Pilates would show you everything and make it more clearer what you have to do because you can see the *process* and be corrected by someone who knows what they're doing. Otherwise, it takes heaps of time to master one exercise and you may think you're doing it correctly but there's always that chance you're not! I've been trying the modified beginner exercises, experimenting, and just trying it out. My stomach did hurt at the beginning the day after I did some exercises, but that's gone away now. I wish that Caitlin - the beginning exercises model didn't wear the swimsuit and wore tank tops like the other two so I could see what 'scooping the belly' does to her stomach. Also, with there were more photos showing the in between sequences within one movement. Some have just the pic of the beginning posture usually lying down, and the end result. That makes it hard for me to imagine the 'rhythm of the movements' which is supposed to be very important. I have written mostly negative things about this book but as I wrote before..it's worth having despite that. One last thing...once you flip through the book, I'm sure you'll wonder as I did... did Joseph Pilates ever put on a top and pants?
Rating:
Summary: Clear and thorough, a GREAT reference book!
Review: This is my second Pilates book, the first one was OK in explaining the actual poses/exercised, but half the book was the authors ramblings on the spritual cosmos. Brooke Siler has exquisitly introduced the philosophy behind Pilates, and the mind/body connection. It has "The Mat Workout" in the same order I have seen in other books...the exercises are meant to go in a certain order for maximum benefit and not all books teach this. The level of each exercise (beginning, intermediate, advanced) are clearly marked, there is even a different girl for each level in the photos and there is a chart with thumbnail photos and the name of the exercise in the order they should be done. I copied this and stuck it on my wall where I exercise for easy reference. The photos are professionally done and the narrative that goes with each pose/exercise is easy to understand so you get your body alignment right. I'm looking for more to buy from her...she's GREAT!!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent easy to follow exercise book
Review: I usually skip exercise book and instead get videotapes because I have such a hard time following the written directions, wondering if I'm doing it right. Not true of this book. The pictures offer great starting points, then there are step by step instructions including great visualisions("pumping your arms up and down as if you were splashing water"). I always felt like I was doing it right and never felt rushed on to the next step. Plus for a less than 10 minute workout(as it was for me when I first started out) I felt great afterwards even feeling as though I accomplished something.
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