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livingdebI like to get exercise videos from the library, fantasizing that I will like them. But I really can never stand them. And it's not because my living room is small and has a ceiling fan with lights that I can easily accidentally hit with my hands.
I can't even sit through most exercise videos once, let alone multiple times. Usually the exercises are boring, sometimes they seem dangerous, usually the set-up is stupid (you can't easily skip introductory stuff), often the instructor is irritating, often the music is bad, and sometimes the exercises are done to some tempo other than that of the music.
I don't know if it's because most exercise videos suck or if it's because people donate crappy videos to the library and steal good ones from it.
But at last I have found one that I like. As with the Body Flow classes I liked at my old gym, this feels basically good while I'm doing it, like I'm just standing around and lying around, but then afterwards I feel a bit used-up, though not broken. The warm-up puts me through a pretty good range of motion. The moves are easy to learn and help me feel like I am building muscle and improving my balance. They use "a dynamic, flowing technique" like tai chi and I get to pretend I am being graceful and elegant. My pulse rate goes up a bit, but I don't get sweaty. And there's no lying about how there's ten more reps, and then when you're done they say, "and now, ten more!" in their sadistic way.
It's not perfect. I wish it had more moves balancing one one leg and I do replace one of the moves with another similar one I'm used to.
The background "music" is a repetitive techno thing that is not much fun but at least isn't irritating.
Two of the three women are wearing outfits that are too revealing--you cannot be wondering if they might be men in drag. One of them also seems a little too full of herself--she is obviously a ballerina or some other type of dancer, so maybe she really is superior.
And the title is totally stupid in that special American way with one verb, one adjective, and a bunch of nouns: "Pick Your Level Weight Loss Pilates." Actually, although they use no hyphens, they do use word placement as a substitute for punctuation:
Pick Your
LEVEL
Weight Loss
PILATES
The pick-your-level part means that for most moves they give you three choices on what to do. That's pretty cool. I am not even already doing all the hardest moves. I think the weight-loss part means that you are exercising the whole time and not sitting around discussing things between moves. Or maybe it just means the disc includes a meal plan (I haven't seen it, but the DVD cover says it does). The pilates part should mean there's a lot of emphasis on back, side, and belly muscles, but one Amazon reviewer says there are only two pilates moves in the whole thing.
In sum, this is a nice video for getting your blood moving and setting aside your inner couch potato for thirty pleasant minutes. It is not a good substitute for aerobics or weight lifting.
I can't even sit through most exercise videos once, let alone multiple times. Usually the exercises are boring, sometimes they seem dangerous, usually the set-up is stupid (you can't easily skip introductory stuff), often the instructor is irritating, often the music is bad, and sometimes the exercises are done to some tempo other than that of the music.
I don't know if it's because most exercise videos suck or if it's because people donate crappy videos to the library and steal good ones from it.
But at last I have found one that I like. As with the Body Flow classes I liked at my old gym, this feels basically good while I'm doing it, like I'm just standing around and lying around, but then afterwards I feel a bit used-up, though not broken. The warm-up puts me through a pretty good range of motion. The moves are easy to learn and help me feel like I am building muscle and improving my balance. They use "a dynamic, flowing technique" like tai chi and I get to pretend I am being graceful and elegant. My pulse rate goes up a bit, but I don't get sweaty. And there's no lying about how there's ten more reps, and then when you're done they say, "and now, ten more!" in their sadistic way.
It's not perfect. I wish it had more moves balancing one one leg and I do replace one of the moves with another similar one I'm used to.
The background "music" is a repetitive techno thing that is not much fun but at least isn't irritating.
Two of the three women are wearing outfits that are too revealing--you cannot be wondering if they might be men in drag. One of them also seems a little too full of herself--she is obviously a ballerina or some other type of dancer, so maybe she really is superior.
And the title is totally stupid in that special American way with one verb, one adjective, and a bunch of nouns: "Pick Your Level Weight Loss Pilates." Actually, although they use no hyphens, they do use word placement as a substitute for punctuation:
Pick Your
LEVEL
Weight Loss
PILATES
The pick-your-level part means that for most moves they give you three choices on what to do. That's pretty cool. I am not even already doing all the hardest moves. I think the weight-loss part means that you are exercising the whole time and not sitting around discussing things between moves. Or maybe it just means the disc includes a meal plan (I haven't seen it, but the DVD cover says it does). The pilates part should mean there's a lot of emphasis on back, side, and belly muscles, but one Amazon reviewer says there are only two pilates moves in the whole thing.
In sum, this is a nice video for getting your blood moving and setting aside your inner couch potato for thirty pleasant minutes. It is not a good substitute for aerobics or weight lifting.
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Analytical fitness
on 2010-01-01 12:45 pm (UTC)Re: Analytical fitness
on 2010-01-03 04:11 am (UTC)