The Pilates Deck

Rating:
Summary: Pilates Deck a terrific resource!
Review: I am a pilates instructor and The Pilates Deck by Shirley Archer is one of the best resources I have found. The deck is perfect for beginners because it very clearly shows the basic body positioning for all exercises. I love that the Deck also includes a series of stretching postures and that it includes more advanced versions of the basic exercises so that the reader may progress. The explanations are succinct and the illustrations easy to emulate on the mat. I have wholeheartedly recommended The Pilates Deck to my students and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in pilates.
p.s. It's also small and light; easy to carry along in a gym bag!

Rating:
Summary: An excellent way to keep up with Pilates on the road!
Review: I have found the Pilates Deck to be a great way to keep up with my Pilates workouts while traveling. The deck is easy to stow away when I pack, and it includes suggested workouts for different levels and differing amounts of time. And if I don't have time for one of the suggested workouts, I can make up my own. The cards clearly outline the individual exercises and include illustrations that can help you if you're a novice, and they also include suggestions on how to increase the challenge as your ability increases.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent way to keep up with Pilates on the road!
Review: I have found the Pilates Deck to be a great way to keep up with my Pilates workouts while traveling. The deck is easy to stow away when I pack, and it includes suggested workouts for different levels and differing amounts of time. And if I don't have time for one of the suggested workouts, I can make up my own. The cards clearly outline the individual exercises and include illustrations that can help you if you're a novice, and they also include suggestions on how to increase the challenge as your ability increases.

Rating:
Summary: Not as useful as I expected.
Review: On one side of the card is a picture, and on the other side is a fairly complete explanation. More pictures would have been better. One side has the exercise number and the other has the name. The name and number on both sides would have been more helpful. Pilates originally was not meant to be a mix-and-match method, but these cards make it into that if you are so inclined. (I generally prefer to stick with the original method because there apparently is a reason for the specific sequence.) For me, with 5 little ones who tend to get into my stuff, I fear them scattering the cards all over, so punching holes in the cards and using rings to hold them in the desired sequence may relieve my scatter fears - and would make it nice for flipping through the routine. All in all, I have not used these cards very much. All that said, even though the routines given are not the original Joseph Pilates routines, they are very nice routines which I enjoy doing, so the cards have been worth the buy just to get those routines.