Pilates For Athletes

Author: Vigue S Category: Exercise / Fitness Audience: Consumer Length: 280 pages Publisher: Hatherleigh Press   Year Published: 2021 List Price: $19.95

AthleteInMe.com^® Rating: Excellent!

Pilates For Athletes presents over 200 Pilates exercises that can be performed on the floor, ie., none require a Pilates Reformer.

Recommended for: Anyone looking for a comprehensive, easy-to-use resource on Pilates exercises.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sean Vigue is a fitness entrepreneur who has taught thousands of classes around the world and has appeared in over 2000 health and fitness videos. He wrestled in junior high, played tennis in high school, and ice hockey was one of his favorite sports. Today he specializes in Pilates, yoga, and flexibility training. He is also the author of "Power Yoga For Athletes." Sean has been featured in The Huffington Post and The Washington Post. He currently lives near Denver, CO, where he enjoys trail running.

CONTENT

This 280-page book is organized as follows:

• Chapter 1: Why Athletes Need Pilates Mat Training
• Chapter 2: How To Build Your Own Pilates Practice
• Chapter 3: Warm-Ups
• Chapter 4: Classic Pilates Mat Exercises
• Chapter 5: Reformer To Mat Exercises
• Chapter 6: Power Pilates Exercises
• Chapter 7: Cool Down Stretches
• Chapter 8: The Flows
• Chapter 9: Sports-Specific Training Logs
• Conclusion
• Frequently Asked Questions

REVIEW

Chapter 1: In this chapter, the author states the benefits and effectiveness of Pilates. He offers 10. All are reasonable, however his claim that Pilates increases explosive speed and power is not supported by any data. He then lists the "Eight Essential Principles of Pilates" and concludes with a brief section on anatomy.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2 is only 4 pages. It offers some practical tips on how, when, and where to perform Pilates exercises to make it more satisfying.

Chapter 3: This chapter presents 13 warm-up exercises.

Chapter 4: In this chapter, the author presents 34 exercises he refers to as "the original classic Pilates mat exercises." For each one, he includes variations with increasing degrees of difficulty.

Chapter 5: Here, the author presents 27 additional mat exercises. Though, instead of offering multiple levels of difficulty, a single "modification" is included.

Chapter 6: This chapter is titled "Power Pilates Exercises". 21 different exercises are presented here.

Chapter 7: In this chapter, the author presents several yoga poses and stretches that are performed at the end of sequences he calls "The Flows".

Chapter 8 "The Flows" Whereas Chapters 3-7 present specific warm-ups, Pilates exercises, and stretches, Chapter 8 presents 20 routines...ie., sequences of specific exercises.

Chapter 9 "Sports-Specific Training Logs": Here, the author presents routines for 15 different sports.

Other details:

• Photos & Illustrations: Each of the more than 200 exercises is accompanied by 1-6 color photos demonstrating proper form. Though the photos are small, they are effective. Five color diagrams of muscle groups appear. One color diagram of the spine also appears.

• Tables & Graphs: No Tables or Graphs are provided.

• Documentation / Accuracy: This is not a science-based book. No research citations are provided.

• Index: The Index in this book is necessary in order to clarify how to perform the 20 routines in Chapter 8 ("The Flows") and the 15 sports-specific routines in Chapter 9 ("Sports-Specific Training Logs").

What I Liked About This Book:

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are a comprehensive collection of Pilates exercises. Simple and straight-forward. Exercisers will appreciate that. Page layouts and designs are clean and visually-appealing. The text is easy-to-read and not overly verbose.

What Could Be Better:

The sequences in Chapter 8 provide only 1 photo for each exercise, and the sequences in Chapter 9 provide none. In order to perform these sequences, the reader may need to refer back to the page where a specific exercise is described. To find that page, the reader must first look up its name in the Index. It's only a single extra step, but this would be necessary for each exercise that the reader needs to review. It would be easier if the page number of each exercise was simply listed next to its name in the sequences in Chapters 8 and 9.

For each specific exercise described in Chapters 4, 5, and 6, icons representing different sports are listed. These are exercises the author recommends for those sports. However, no legend for these icons is provided, though Chapter 9 clarifies them. There are a total of 15, one for each sport. 13 are intuitive, but I couldn't figure out that the icon for Skiing/Snowboarding was a snowboard until I got to Chapter 9, and I still can't figure out what the icon for Wrestling is!

Though it doesn't detract from the quality of the book, I doubt that any readers really care to know the Latin/anatomical names of muscles ("pubococcygeus"?)

SUMMARY

Pilates For Athletes is like an encyclopedia of Pilates exercises that can be performed on a mat. None require a Pilates Reformer. Though it is titled "...For Athletes", this book is useful to anyone...not just those interested in Pilates, but people who wish to improve their core strength, their posture, or just "tone up." All readers will find this book easy to use.

OTHER BOOKS LIKE THIS

Pilates For Rehabilitation by Samantha Wood is another excellent Pilates resource. Samantha Wood is both a licensed physical therapist and a certified Pilates instructor.