The Women’s Health Big Book of Pilates: The Essential Guide to Total-Body Fitness
On Tuesday July 30th (my actual due date) I was at Brooke Siler’s ReAB Pilates studio doing a workout with one of her recent teacher trainee graduates, Caroline. Caroline is an awesome teacher and she was having me focus on a lot of squats to help induce my labor. Well sure enough, around 230am Wednesday I felt my contractions come on, and by 852am July 31st Timothy Grayson arrived.
Brooke, a striking tall red head, has been teaching Pilates since 1996 after studying and completing her national authentic Pilates certification from Romana Kryzanowska. I’ve always respected Brooke as a teacher and adore her as a person. She always has a huge smile on her face when I see her; yet when she teaches, she is no nonsense. She knows the body so well and has a way with making each person discover their weak spots and really work on them. Brooke has a knack for teaching and shares an infinite amount of knowledge with her students. She walks the walk and talks the talk and lives her Pilates.
I am thrilled she has teamed up with Women’s Health (one of my fav. magazines) and created The Women’s Health Big Book of Pilates. This book is a must read for all Pilates teachers. It is also a great book for anyone who loves Pilates and wants to dive deep in to everything there ever was to know about Pilates. The Big Book of Pilates also makes a great holiday present for one of your fit friends or family members.
The Women’s Health Big Book of Pilates is 432 pages long and covers everything from what Pilates is, to what to eat before and after a practice, what kind of props you can use, the difference between the mat work and the equipment, how Pilates can change your life and how Pilates gets you fit. There are so many beautiful pictures demonstrating each level of mat work as well as all of the different exercises you can do with various props. One of my favorite parts of the book are the geared workouts for posture (how to fix a sway back for instance), each body part (glutes specific, etc.), athletic endeavors (running, cycling, swimming) and different goals in life (better endurance or flexibility for example).
I will always keep Brooke’s book on my bookshelf as a go to manual to refer to. I’ve found it so helpful as a teacher to review and to get new ideas. I also love having wonderful and inventive workouts for myself to use. Pilates is like yoga, it’s always evolving. I find I discover something new about myself every time I practice. The Women’s Health Big Book of Pilates will definitely help me enrich my journey as a student, teacher and person. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it!
Kristin McGee is a celebrity yoga and Pilates instructor in New York City. She is currently teaching yoga with Peloton. She is the star of over 100 videos, seen in several magazines and tv shows and is a spokeswoman for many brands and causes she believes in. A proud mom to three, she sure keeps herself busy!
One thought on “The Women’s Health Big Book of Pilates: The Essential Guide to Total-Body Fitness”
Thanks for this post, I really liked it. I have a terrible battle ongoing with hormone imbalances, and I found a great resource in Doug Ginter’s book My Hormones, myhormones.com. I learned how to get things back into balance, diet was one of the main things. I started feeling better which then allowed me to be able to take on Pilates. Been a great welcomed transformation. I recommend the book and the Pilates 100%. I feel amazing and it was all things that I could do myself.