Starling Fitness: Daily writings on Fitness, Diet, and Health

I saw The Essential Guide to Pilates at the store and I picked it up, excited about the idea of a Pilates workout on my computer. I imagined something like Yourself! Fitness that would take me through a Pilates workout on my computer. When I turned the box over, however, I was disappointed.

Looking at the details at Amazon.com wouldn’t tell you anything about this, but what you need to know is what is on those “Interactive” CDs. One CD is the software that is installed on the computer. It shows you how to perform the various Pilates moves. It’s not a workout, but more like a list of little movies to show you how to correctly perform the moves. The other CD is an audio CD that takes you through two “workouts.” You put the CD in your player, press play and someone tells you which moves to perform. I had a workout LP record like this when I was in 7th grade. I worked out with it once.

Instead of a computer animated trainer, running you through a workout, this software is the worst of both worlds. There’s no way you can look up the moves on the computer in the middle of your workout. You might as well just get a Pilates DVD that you can follow along.