Berndadette Giorgi gives Pilates with a Twist

I saw on Facebook this morning that it's Bernadette Giorgi's birthday today.  I honor of her birthday, I did one of her workouts this morning, then just decided to post about it -- Happy Birthday Bernadette!

I have a few of her exercise dvds -- both Attitude Pilates/Ballet Fusions and Pilates Circle Challenge.  While I don't love the standing ballet portions of her Attitude dvds, (and it's not because of her, I just haven't clicked with any ballet workouts), I really enjoy the portions that have Pilates mat work with the 2-5 lb. weighted ball (which she calls a Power Ball).  She's since released a Pilates Power Ball workout, which I don't have yet, but I'm sure I'll get later on.

I use the Power Ball workout pre-mixes from the Attitude dvds as added core work to other workouts or as a stand alone workout on a busy day.   The Pilates Circle Challenge has three 20+ minute pre-mixes that target different areas of the lower body.  I did the whole workout this morning.  It's 46 minutes of relaxing music, but tough core conditioning (plus inner and outer thigh work).

Here are all of Berdadette's dvds at Collage Video.  As you will see, all have 5 star ratings in the reviews.  She really delivers thorough instruction and challenging exercises in a pleasant way.  It's kind of hard to gush about workouts like hers because how do you describe how wonderful it feels to work hard from the inside out, yet feel like it's soothing throughout?  It's something that has to be experienced.  Part of me was thinking this morning "I could do this before?" because it was so tough at times, yet the moves felt great for my body.


Bernadette comes with an extensive dance background (studying at the Academy of Dance and Joffrey Ballet in NYC), but suffered knee injuries and studied Pilates in depth, adding in weights to become in her own words, "stronger, leaner, and more centered."  She teaches at her studio and shares her client's favorite (and most effective) classes to us in her dvds.  Bernadette is also a black belt in Soo Bahk Do karate, which three of my children studied a few years ago (Korean Martial Arts).  She was planning to lead a kickboxing video a year ago, but it got postponed.  I hope she still does it.  I'd love to learn kickboxing from her.   

Here's a clip from Pilates Circle Challenge.  The Pilates Circles don't cost much if you don't already have one. They cost about $20 at the store or you could probably find one at a garage sale or on a fitness swap like I did for less than half that.  Some people cut out the top of a round laundry basket and use that.  It may not give quite the same resistance, but if it's handy and free, you might want to try it.  You can find all of her workouts and the fitness equipment needed at her website too, justbmethod.com