The New Method 20/20: Perfect Pilates

This workout is a compilation based on The Method TV show. The segments are compiled into 2 20-minute workouts. The dvd is chaptered and has a basic menu that lets you select workout 1 or 2, but there are no extra features.

Workout 1 features Lisa Wheeler, who is a very enjoyable instructor. She begins with the “sun breath” sequence, then warms up the lower body with some plies, a warrior sequence and a lunge/kick combo done with several tempo variations. Lisa was barefoot here and I followed her lead on that and found this part a bit uncomfortable. Reverse lunges are really something that requires shoes. Following this we did some inner thigh sweepy stuff, then a very brief Pilates floor segment featuring the rolldown, scissors and the frog move. The workout ended with a short stretch, which was nice since most of these compilation workouts lack a proper cool-down.

Workout 2 featured Jennifer Kries, who is not my favourite Method instructor, but does an okay job here. Her workout is fairly standard pilates ab stuff, which was nice to see after all the ab avoidance in the 20/20 Target Toning tape. We start with some seated stretches and twists, then go into some hundred-type stuff, roll-ups, leg circles, single leg stretch, scissors, double leg stretch and bicycle. Then we do the forward bendy stretch stuff from before, and finish with the hundred and some roll-ups. No cool-down stretch.

Like many tv show compilation workouts these routines suffer from somewhat choppy endings due to the way the sections are edited together. And I think I liked this one slightly less than Target Toning even though it was a little more challenging, simply because I am not a huge Kries fan. I don’t think this tape can stand alone as one’s sole workout for the day, but it makes a really nice evening workout---there are a few difficult moves, but not as many as in other pilates tapes, and there are lots of stretches.