Right around this time last year I felt my abs burn
from the Goddess Abs workout by the two women behind Yoga Booty Ballet, so I thought it was about time that I tried a couple more workouts by the peppy duo. I was looking forward to testing
the two-disc set that includes Goddess Booty (25 min.) and Yoga Core (30 min.), but my experience with these DVDs wasn't all-around positive.
Gillian and Teigh used yogic terminology so frequently that it seemed unnecessary and an attempt to distract me from the fact that I wasn't getting a workout.
Last Winter, I worked out with the
Billy Blanks Amped Full Throttle DVD and thoroughly enjoyed myself while burning up some serious calories. The DVD is part of the
Amped Tae Bo series. In case you missed it, all four of Blanks's Amped DVDs are available (and on sale for $36) in one set, complete with the expandable accelerator weighted sculpting bar.
I wasn't too thrilled with
Tracy Anderson's cardio dance workout. It seemed more personal performance than cardio, but I was still interested in trying her
Mat Workout DVD ($29.95). Tracy's approach to body sculpting is to tone without bulking, so she avoids working the large muscle groups as well as heavy weights.
At this stage of the game, I don't think I could keep running if I didn't do yoga on a regular basis. Running makes me tight and yoga unwinds my muscles and prepares me for my next run. So I was happy to check out Christine Felstead's
Yoga For Runners: The Essentials ($30), hoping to learn something new or to reinforce good habits.
Years ago, I used to dance around, high impact aerobic style to Madonna's first album (sing with me "I'm burning up, burning up for your love"), so I find it humorous that over 20 years later I am dancing around my living room with Madonna's trainer. Well not actually with
Tracy Anderson, but with her new
Cardio Dance Workout DVD ($30).
Anderson believes that dance cardio is the perfect aerobic workout for creating long, lean muscles and a feminine, toned physique.
On the next stop in my
Fit Momma series, I took on
Fit and Healthy Prenatal Workouts With Gabrielle Reece. Let me start by saying I am a huge
Gabby Reece fan. She's very inspiring so I was thrilled when she put out this video with trainer Mike Monroe.
I wasn't a huge fan of
Dance and Be Fit — Latin Groove. It just didn't satisfy my need for authentic merengue or samba whatsoever, but since I'm open-minded and love to dance, I thought I'd give
Dance and Be Fit — Brazilian Body a try. The back of the DVD explains the workout like this: "By using elements of Brazil's heart-pounding, steamy dances such as maculelê, samba reggae, and
capoeira, this workout targets all your trouble spots while burning fat and calories."
If you're like me, you use fitness DVDs to get in a good cardio workout on a rainy day or when your kids are napping. A friend lent me this
Step-by-Step Tai Chi ($20) DVD recently, and I decided to give it a whirl one afternoon when I was feeling mellow. Tai Chi master Tiffany Chen begins saying that most people think of this discipline as an elderly person's exercise (just what I thought!), but that everyone can benefit from it.
I won't lie; I like a dance workout. After watching the fiery Latin numbers on
So You Think You Can Dance, I was ready to rumba. Unfortunately,
Dance and Be Fit — Latin Groove ($15) did not satisfy my dance craving.
It feels like baby fever over here on the Sugar Network. Many of our favorite
celebrities along with our very own
BabySugar are expecting so I've decided to dive into the world of keeping healthy while pregnant in my
Fit Momma series.
Having already experienced the joys of pregnancy myself, it's been a few years, so I recruited a pregnant pal to try
Prenatal Fitness Fix with Erin O'Brien.
