Crunch: Super SlimDown with Ellen Barrett (2006)

[Guest guest]

Mind/Body week #2 commenced with Crunch: Super SlimDown with Ellen Barrett. I wanted to do Shiva Rae's long intermediate backbend practice from Lunar Flow but it's 80 minutes long if I recall and I am crunched for time (bad pun) in the mornings, especially Mondays. Besides, I needed something more "zippy" for a Monday morning.Ellen is a good instructor, and I like how she minds the musical phrasing and exercises accordingly, even for yoga and pilates. The workout is split into 4 chapters, 2 for yoga, 2 for pilates. The yoga sections though are fast moving "flows" but not your traditional sun salutations which I liked. She lead you through a series of warrior 2, triangle, side angle, reverse warrior, then back to warrior 2. There was another flow that was similar to that but included warrior 1. She added in a core move that she calls "zig zags" where you stand with your feet 4" apart and zigzag reach right arm to sky,

left arm to sky, right arm to the right ankle, left arm to the left ankle. Different!I preferred the pilates sections. There were some rollups, leg scissors, side leg lifts and leg circles, and a low back strengthener lying in a prone position and then doing hovers in dolphin and tricep pushups back to child's pose. I enjoyed this workout, but it didn't blow me away. It was only $4.99 at Ross, and for that price it was worth picking up, but I wouldn't pay full price for it anywhere else. Tonite is laundry night, so in the dry cycle I just might do Shiva Rae's longer practice.Time to take a bath and head to work!Namaste,