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Summary: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO THE PURE PILATES MAT WORK
Review: Pilates: Body in Motion is a stunner. I picked this book up at the bookstore and my first thought was - "wow, this is so beautiful, I bet the content is poor". Well, I was wrong. The pictures and gorgeous layout are actually secondary to the clear, precise, and extraordinary instruction that author Alycea Ungaro provides for each and every exercise.I am a Pilates student and have been working out at a studio for about 5 years now. I have many of the other Pilates books but from now on I will only refer to Pilates Body in Motion. The Pilates Body by Brooke Siler has been my best resource until now but that book is very long winded and a bit weak on photographs. This book by Ungaro really put it all together. Great design, superlative instruction and a good price too. I am planning to buy her audio Mat class next to put her instructions and her live voice together for a true "real-time"experience.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Looking Book on the Market
Review: The thing you'll keep noticing about this book is how beautiful it is-- the photographs look like something out of a coffee table book, and the layouts are perfect. But it's extremely user friendly too. Of all the Pilates books out there, this is the one that comes across as the most interactive. Each exercise is explained clearly and simply, with really helpful cues and visualizations, and every spread includes a quick sequence of photos to guide you through the movement.
The text is complete without being overwhelming-- Pilates is so detailed that descriptions of how to perform it correctly can be like instructions for building a kid's bike from 10,000 tiny, unfamiliar pieces. Alycea Ungaro does a great job of getting to the heart of each exercise and communicating what's important without any fluff or distractions. Also, her introductory information is both helpful and interesting, and useful for referring back to again and again.
Overall, I find this book useful and entertaining- working out with it is actually fun, and the fact that its perfect models include a man is inspiring!
Rating:
Summary: Good Health
Review: This book is probably the clearest explanation and illustration of how to do Pilates matwork, probably the fastest-growing form of exercise around today. Alycea Ungaro has studied and taught Pilates, and her stated purpose is to do everything short of having a teacher standing by to show the student exactly what is necessary. Pilates is a precisely-executed form of exercise, and if one doesn't do the moves properly, the exercises lose their effectiveness, and injury is possible. Ungaro uses both advice and photographs to show how the exercises are done properly, and also how not to do them. I have been doing Pilates matwork for several months, both in classes and by myself, and this book is about as accurate, clear, and authoritative as one could ask for. The results are terrific, and the book is worth several times its price. Highly recommended!
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