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The Wild and Woolly Wim Hof Method

Wim Hof is a wonder. He has a wonderful program of healing and regeneration that can heal you, make you stronger, and change who you are as a person. The “Wim Hof Method” is a $200.00 USD series of 10 weekly video instructions that will lead you into a better well-being. Wim concentrates on breathing to cleanse the toxins from your body, cold water therapy (using regular showers and ice baths) to shock your system back into responding to your environment, and some yoga positions that will help challenge, and focus, your daily breath.

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Stott Pilates Reformer Review

The Stott Pilates reformer is an expensive salve for the body rounding up at a hefty $2,600.00USD — but if you can get past the gutter delivery and get the thing inside your home — the Stott Pilates Reformer is a big, heavy, one-hundred-pound, winner.

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When Curbside Service Means: We Drop it in the Street

I’m a little late in posting this article today because my back is killing me, my wallet is weeping, and I hurt my leg yesterday trying self-deliver a 187-pound Stott Pilates Reformer I purchased from Amazon.com.  If wishes were made my way, I’d never have the made purchase and I’ll tell you why.  First, look at my Amazon.com invoice below.  I’m posting it here to verify I bought the godforsakenthing and to show the ZERO charge for shipping.  That’s important to remember for later.

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Pilates Flex-Bands

I had never heard of a Flex-Band workout before. I knew there were resistance workouts with tubular rubber and giant rubber bands, but Flex-Bands are not like that at all. Flex-Bands are long, thin and wide: They wrap around your body like a shallow shawl and you use them as forms of resistance as you exercise your legs, back and arms.

The Flex-Band video is not Closed Captioned.

Review Lights
I will rate the Flex-Band video with our standard system of one to five Go Inside Magazine Review Lights. Five green GO lights are best while all red STOP lights are the worst. The results and comments I share along the way should not be taken as a guarantee of product or a promise of performance and before starting any new exercise regimen, consult with your doctor first to review your potential for working with the Pilates program. I’ll also place a text tag under the Review Lights so you’ll know the colors of the lights in case you choose to print out this review on a black and white printer.

Flex-Bands
Flex-Band Workout Video with Green & Blue Flex-Bands: $27.95
Flex-Band Regular (Green) = $4.00
Flex-Band Extra Strength (Blue) = $5.00

The Flex-Bands are a lot of fun to hold in your hand and their resistance is measured in thickness though they are awfully short. The blue band provides more tension than the green because it is thicker. You can vary the tension on each Flex-band by gripping further away from the ends of the band. I wondered how something so thin could provide so much resistance. I wondered if uncut toenails would pierce the thin rubber and decided to trim mine just to make certain no evil points would ruin my day. Don’t wear socks when you use the Flex-Bands. It’s important you feel the rubber pulling on the balls and the heels of your feet. Bare feet help you control the bands better than a socked foot can. Not all Flex-Bands are created equal! Beware that you buy the best bands specifically created for aerobic workouts.

(three GREEN, two RED)
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Pilates Magic Circle

Resistance is a vital part of any workout and Stott Conditioning have invented a three band strength sprung steel Fitness Circle (based upon the Joseph H. Pilates “Magic Circle”) to give you a deeper muscle workout than the Stott Pilates Matwork program alone can provide. The Fitness Circle has latex-free injected foam molded handles for easy use. The Stott Fitness Circle helps you target leg abductors, adductors, pecs, lats, triceps and biceps without building bulk. In this review, I will examine the Fitness Circle itself as well as two videos that will assist you.

Neither of the videos are Closed Captioned.

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Pilates Matwork

For over two years I’ve been working out religiously. I would wake up each morning and do a rigorous aerobics routine six days a week. My knees would hurt and for a half hour after the workout I’d be tired, breathless and sore. Later in the day, I’d head out for a 30 minute powerwalk. After all that exercise, I felt I was in great shape. I was strong. I looked and felt good. I lifted weights every other day. I wanted to regain the gymnast body of my eternal youth.

Unfortunately, even after all that exercise, I still had half a fistful of fat right beneath my navel and on each hip. That’s not too bad, but it was still not the ideal body I was seeking. Those “fat bits” were still there after 600 sit ups a day! There had to be a better way. There had to be a more sophisticated method of getting my younger body back while losing the fistfuls. But how? What workout program could I use to slenderize my body and lengthen my muscles? The answer came to me in the form of a conversation with Sigourney Weaver I had ten years ago: Pilates.

Not Closed Captioned!
Unfortunately, none of the videos reviewed overall in this series are Closed Captioned. Closed Captioning lets the Deaf and Hearing Impaired visually see what’s being spoken. Closed Captioning is also a valuable teaching tool for children and non-native English speakers who need to see, as well as hear, the spoken word in order to understand the issue at hand. My wife is Deaf, so I am especially sensitive to this universal issue of inclusion. My wife is unable to use any of the Stott videotapes for her workouts because there’s too much happening in too short a time with the camera pointed on a body and not a speaking face.

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Pilates Q&A

I first heard the word “Pilates” spoken 10 years ago when I was working as an Associate Director on an Arthur Kopit play called Road to Nirvana starring Sigourney Weaver. Sigourney is a beautiful, enchanting woman, and during rehearsal breaks at Circle Rep, we would sometimes talk about the pleasures in our lives. One day Sigourney told me about Pilates. She said it had saved her back, lengthened her height an inch and made her spine younger. She told me that, during the filming of the Alien sequel, director James Cameron (he’d later direct the smash hit, Titanic) made each of the main characters carry a 70 pound gun for blasting the aliens because he wanted to “see their bodies strain” under the weight of “real guns” for authenticity: “You don’t have to act it if you’re feeling it in your back.”

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