Paul Massey

This is a beautiful book. It has good information for anyone interested in Pilates. It not only shows the exercises and the muscle groups affected, it also helps those learning the exercises from the book figure out how any strain or discomfort might be being caused and how to alleviate the discomfort.

Good information about posture and breathing. The book gives excellent information on how to tell whether the learner is doing each exercise correctly and how to adjust it.

I wish I had had this book when I first started doing Pilates.

The explanations are thorough and clear.

It might even be possible to learn Pilates from this book without a teacher, something I considered impossible.

This would be a fine resource for anyone learning, teaching or working with Pilates.… (mais)

I liked this book. The first three chapters were informative on muscle groups and how to pay attention to your body's ability to function as a whole system. I skimmed over all of the names and didn't really bother to memorize all the groups and functions of the muscles, but I did feel it gave a pretty good introduction to why you need those core muscles. The book seems a little advanced for a Pilates beginner, but I could follow their meaning and try some of the exercises. The thing you are missing is really how you are supposed to evaluate yourself and your posture. Unless you are doing all of this in front of a mirror, it will be hard to see exactly what you might be doing wrong. It is good to know that you can get a good sound exercise program by doing these things in your living room, and that you don't have to join a gym or have expensive equipment. Good selection of exercises, most of which are easy to understand. They give good tips on what to expect and how to breathe. Overall, it is a good introduction to the method. -KA… (mais)

I liked this book, it shows fairly clearly which muscles are used in Pilates exercises. It also has an assessment section to help you pinpoint problems with your own posture and movement, and the illustrations helped me to understand better why things were happening, and how to correct them (for instance, poor posture.) The only complaint I had is that the illustrations reminded me a bit of an elementary health book, I'd have liked to see more detailed illustrations, but the drawings were good enough to get an understanding of what's going on in your body when you do the exercises. Also, being a visual person, being able to look at pictures helped me to "see" in my mind the correct way to do the exercises and associate the visual with what I was feeling in my muscles. I also like that the book is a nicely sized paperbook, which makes it easy to plop on the floor next to you while you're doing the exercises, then review the notes if you need to.… (mais)