review: the p.volve method

Earlier this year, I saw an ad for a really interesting piece of workout equipment. It was your average squeezy ball, it seemed, but it also had a band around it, so it was both a resistance loop and a ball in one! It looked awesome, I meant to bookmark it, I forgot, end of story.

Then I came across it again, and this time I actually followed it back to the website. I thought about buying it, then remembered I had other bills to pay, and I gave up on the idea. But I kept on thinking about it, and while I really, really do not have extra money right now, I realized that if you think about a potential impulse buy for days afterward, it’s not an impulse buy, it’s something you really want. So I figured I could cut costs elsewhere and buy this thing, which I learned is called the p.ball, and it is genius for precisely the reasons I mentioned: it’s both a ball to squeeze and a band to press, so you can get an adductor and abductor workout without constantly switching equipment.

I happened to purchase it on a day when they had a pretty good deal going on–I could get a free two months of streaming workouts, plus for essentially the price of shipping, I could also get another piece of equipment called the p.band, and then shipping was free! Also, they have student and educator discounts, which says something about what the company values, even if there are some problematic things they value as well (more on that later). #allidoiswin

So you could totally just buy the equipment and be done with it, but the streaming was free, so I figured why not learn the actual method, since it’s touted as the workout for Victoria’s Secret Angels. I’m really glad I watched the introductory videos, and honestly, even though I started this back in May and it’s August now, I would still like to go back and watch those videos again, because it’s rather complex, even if it seems simple. The basis of it all is the p.sit, which is less than a squat and allows you to keep the exercise in your glutes, not your quads. I’m very quad-dominant from all my indoor cycling, and my glutes and hamstrings are weak no matter how much I try to work them out, so this was great for me. The theory goes that if you sit back just a little bit, you can keep the emphasis in your glutes. Since we are a sitting culture, we all tend to have weak glutes and hamstrings even if we aren’t cyclists, and our hips tend to be pretty closed, so this method is designed to counteract all that. The idea is “pre-hab,” not exercise to the point of pain. While they would never say so, it’s kind of the same principle as Pilates in that way: let’s learn to move and use our body in a way that keeps it injury-free and less injury-prone. It’s amazing how quickly you feel the difference between the sit and the squat. Already I’m noticing a difference in both the appearance and feel of my glutes, hamstrings, and quads.

Here’s the bad: while the website will tout (for good reason) the benefit to all bodies as far as activating often-forgotten muscles and keeping you free from injury, the images and phrasing are what you’d expect from lots of trendy workouts: thigh gaps, slim white women, gender essentialism, and nonsense terminology like “toning.”

They definitely have work to do in that respect. I spend a lot of time in their Facebook group, so I know I’m not the only person who doesn’t like that messaging and who wishes there were more “real” people (bigger bodies, people of color, nonbinary people). It’s a pretty young company; not all the workouts on the streaming site are equally good as far as instructional and video quality; and there are 100% without a doubt a lot of women promoting it who were skinny and thigh gappy af long before they met P., the creator of the method. But there are other people like me who haven’t even been doing it that long but already feel the difference and, in my flattering experience (currently in the honeymoon stage of my, like, third real relationship ever? in almost 31 years?), gets your boyfriend slapping your ass and going, “you been working out, baby?”

But if you can look through and past the crappy parts of the message, the workout really is dope.

I often talk about how the thing that kept me doing Pilates was how cerebral it is. I’m quirky and brainy, not spiritual in the slightest, and not white, granola, evangelical, or “Buddhist” enough to be about iNsPiRaTiOnAl shit. With Pilates, you have to think about a hundred things at once and be really, really in tune with your body. It’s super hard, and you can’t half-ass it or you’ll hurt. That’s true of p.volve, too. No matter how in shape you are, you absolutely have to watch some of the beginner videos (even if they are frustratingly slow) so that you can get an idea of what you’re supposed to do and feel. I can always tell if I’m tired or half-assing it, because then I hurt immediately while doing it and have to reset before I continue. That sounds scary, but I think it’s good, because I’m often multitasking, and it’s a good reminder that our brains really aren’t as good as that as we think they are. If you don’t stay engaged with what you’re doing in p.volve, you’re not doing p.volve correctly. My brain is firing just as much as my muscle fibers. While I technically started in May, I then went to Italy for three weeks and didn’t work out at all aside from taking a bazillion steps a day, so I’m considering my real start date to be mid-June. That’s only 14 workouts (because I was also teaching at that time and doing lots of other stuff), and it took only like four to start to see some muscle definition that I haven’t seen before, even though I’ve been working out for years. Do I think I will only do p.volve? Nah. For one thing, Pilates has given me core strength that surpasses what p.volve has offered me thus far. But p.volve has given me tiny muscle activation that other workouts haven’t provided, so I like it for that–and for aesthetics, tbh. I’m still only human and only a cis woman in the western world, so it’s hard to fully turn off my ingrained drive to lose weight and look “better,” no matter how much I know that’s ridiculous.

The reason I’m posting this review today is because it’s the last day to sign up for their August Transform Challenge. Challenges are silly, I know, but gameifying and metrics are the things I’ve found are most likely to keep me on task with whatever task I’m trying to accomplish. And since at the moment I’m not teaching Pilates in any regularly scheduled classes, I’m mostly working out at home and using my own equipment. Thankfully, for all that the marketing is problematic, this challenge is not marketed as having to do with weight loss or even body measurements, though I am personally doing both of those things. You have the option of submitting a before/after photo, but you don’t have to submit any numbers of any kind if you’re uncomfortable doing so. The challenge is consistency: you complete 18 workouts in 30 days (even though August hath 31…). Any workout on the site, any length you choose (20 minutes or more), any days of the week you wish. If you do that, you get a free month of streaming plus discounted equipment. And bragging rights.

You can sign up now and do the equipment-free workouts until whatever equipment you order arrives….or just do them equipment-free for whatever time until you’re convinced, then buy it. Whatever. I will say that the p.ball and p.band are unlike anything you can buy anywhere else. I’m still not fully over a sprained wrist, and the thing I like about the band is that it has resistance but doesn’t require wrist flexion or extension–the tube is attached to the glove in such a way that you don’t have to grip it at all. Like, I said, this guy’s a genius even if he is a little too obsessed with thigh gaps. Ankle and hand weights are easy to find anywhere, ankle bands with cuffs slightly harder to find but not impossible, and there are inexpensive plastic slantboards in the world–however, I have learned that my cheap slantboard is a lot slipperier than a heavy wooden one would be, so if you have the budget (don’t forget the student/educator discount!), that is a purchase I would recommend making from them or from Amazon. But the p.ball and p.band are definitely the most unique items. With those and my Pilates wheel, I feel really happy with my at-home workouts, and I have always hated working out at home. I think I’ll be sticking with this for awhile.

So. Feel like joining me in the August Transform Challenge? Click here.

You are clicking affiliate links to the p.volve site. That means you pay the same price that you would if you found the site on your own, but I receive a small commission if you buy items or purchase a membership. Thank you for helping me survive on a grad student income!