The Method - The Stability Ball Workout
Intermediate and advanced exercisers looking for a challenge will enjoy this blend of Pilates, yoga, ballet, and fitness training all atop a ball. Beginners, however, may feel this workout should be called "Instability Ball."(And they would do better starting withQuick Fix Stability Ball Workout, a shorter, easier program from the same production team.) Instructor Katalin Rodriguez Zamiar and her two able assistants helpfully demonstrate most of the moves once before beginning, making the DVD longer but less frustrating than usual. The 50-minute workout begins with a warm-up that includes pelvic rocks while leaning back on the ball and side lunges with one arm slung across it. Then it's on to a 12-minute segment on legs: extensions and lunges with torso rotations. The arms get just five minutes and then it's 11 minutes on the abs with sit-ups, scissors, the Pilates 100, triceps presses, single-leg pikes, crunches, and back bends. An 8-minute session for the gluts wraps things up with the phenomenally complicated frog move. At that point everyone should welcome the cool down!--Kimberly Heinrichs