Exercise Video Reviews

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 by Rachel

As an alternative to yoga and our Gazelle machine, I’ve been trying out some exercise videos on Netflix Instant Play. Here are my quick mini-reviews (in the order that I tried them) for those of you interested in exercising in your living room!

 

1) Crunch: Cardio Sculpt: This was a tough first video, and I would definitely not recommend it. This is the kind of exercise video that makes me think I’ll never use exercise videos. The steps were confusing at times and moved too quickly from one to the next. It was a decent workout that brought me to a sweat, but my frustration wasn’t worth it.

 

2) Crunch: Cardio Dance Blast: This was much more fun than I expected, considering I take myself too seriously most of the time to do something dance-y for exercise. It was 40 minutes long. The host was fun enough that you didn’t feel ridiculous doing the often goofy dance moves. Only complaint is about the exerciser in the background wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Couldn’t a producer find her some work-out clothes? She annoyed me.

 

3) Crunch Super Slim Down: Pilates Yoga Blend : The host was good, and she worked to show you modifications to the workout, which I really appreciated with some of the more difficult moves. This video also provided a good variety of exercises. Later this night, I thought I was having stomach problems, but realized the next morning I was just sore from the ab work out!

 

4) Yoga for Health: I was really excited about this video, which was the intro to a series of video, featuring special episodes on headaches, etc. But I was immediately turned off. The host’s accent was too thick to understand, especially in an echoey room. The frustration of the sound combined with amateur video forced me to shut this off within minutes.

 

5) The Trainer’s Edge: Integrated Strength Training. This is definitely a contender for my favorite video. Instead of most videos that have the host in front, then a random dozen people behind, this one only had 3—including the host. The three exercisers were easy, medium, and hard, so you could watch whoever you wanted to match level-wise. I felt really good doing light weights during this 40 minute workout, mostly because of the clear enthusiastic host. Note: This is my first guy host. I don’t know if some of you prefer women, but I thought this guy was nice. He made sure to say that you should do the workout that’s right for how you feel, because your body changes every day. He also emphasized that we’re working for progress, not perfection.

Leave a Reply