Book Review: Pilates and Conditioning for Athletes

by Amy Lademann & Rick Lademann

Pilates and Conditioning for Athletes promises to help athletes “gain and retain that competitive edge” The goal is to help the athlete, or his or her trainer, learn how to assess movement patterns, ranges of motion, strength & flexibility and overall core strength.  The book then provides an integrated model to work with, along with exercises to help produce performance gains.

It is certainly an interesting read if you are new to working with athletes or interested in an integrated programming approach when training athletes. The authors discuss how their training approach differs through their design of the “Seven Pillars of Training”.  These include Strength, Flexibility, Mobility, Stability, Power, Speed and Agility.  They offer Pilates exercises, myofascial release techniques using foam rollers, Dynamic Movement application sequences along with strength work with medicine balls and therabands.

As qualified Pilates instructors I don’t think you will find any new Pilates exercises in the book, and the focus is on mat exercises, but perhaps will look at them with a different perspective when considering the needs of an athlete.   If you are a Pilates teacher who has quite a bit of experience with athletes this might be more applicable for you to recommend to your client as a home programming tool.

Overall this is a useful book for any athlete looking for performance gains as an additional home programming tool.  It is useful as a teacher to understand the pillars and how important each are when working with your athletes, but if you are looking for something with a little more detail and Pilates focused you may be disappointed.

Reviewed by Lisa Jackson, PAA Committee Member.

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