DVD Review: Soul Sweat

Last week I felt like trying out a dance workout so I checked out Soul Sweat with Chantal Pierrat. WARNING: Doing a dance workout requires SOME level of dancing skills. Now, I always thought I was a fairly decent dancer, but after watching myself awkwardly shake my hips while working my core and fumbling with dance moves like the "earth walk," I realized there's more to dancing than bumping and grinding. On to the actual DVD...

I was disappointed with the DVD format. The workout was good and I actually worked up a good sweat and felt a good burn the next day, but there's only ONE workout on the entire DVD! They try to fool you by saying there's the full 45 minute soul sweat, along with a 30 minute quick sweat. So the first time I used it I did the quick sweat along with the cool down. Despite it being awkward for me, I still enjoyed the workout and looked forward to the soul sweat. Little did I know, the soul sweat is just the quick sweat with an extra 15 minutes of dance workout before it. So it's really just ONE full workout program disguised as two! Blasphemy!

So overall, I wouldn't really recommend this workout DVD, unless of course, you feel the need to humiliate yourself and lower your self-esteem about your dance skills. Or maybe that's just me. But aside from that, I'm hopeful there are better dance workout DVDs out there and I'm determined to find them and post about them here!

DVD Review: Bryan Kest's Power Yoga

Let me just start out by saying this is my FAVORITE YOGA DVD EVER! It's definitely not one of those DVDs that are catered to the lazy or time-crunched. There are three different energizing yoga segments that each last about 1 hour, which I love. This really makes it seem like I'm attending a real yoga class, and since each one is different, it doesn't get boring.

After doing the hour-long "classes," I've never felt better. I definitely feel it in my arms, legs, and core the next morning - but it's the good kind of sore! The first time was interesting because I wasn't as flexible as I would have liked to be. But even by the end of the first hour, you start to notice you can almost plant both feet on the ground during downward facing dog - and you WILL do a lot of downward facing dog, plank, and cobra.

I do get a slight creeper vibe from Bryan, who doesn't hesitate to come up behind someone doing downward facing dog just to "check their form." But aside from his slightly distracting long head of curly hair and the fact that he's wearing jean shorts while teaching a yoga class, he's actually pretty amazing at motivating you to just do the best that you can. And that's what yoga's all about! I really learned a lot about yoga, and he really helps to remind to to breathe and not worry about the pose but to just feel.

This is a good DVD because it will last you the whole week without getting boring. Because the segments are really intense, I would skip a day between each workout. And since there are three, you can work out M-W-F and voila! you've gotten a whole week of yoga done. Which is perfect because the Los Angeles Public Library only allows you to borrow a DVD for 7 days, with no renewal.

I HIGHLY recommend this to people who have done yoga before and want to step it up. Even for you beginners, try it out. But I warn you, you will be put in some interesting positions all while sweating like a pig!

Get Lent Into Shape! (I'll come up with a less cheesy title, promise)

A few months ago, I did the impossible: I quit the qym.

Why you may ask? Well, the gym that I went to was about 7 miles away from my house, so I had to drive a total of almost 15 miles 3 to 4 times a week just to go running and running and spinning and spinning to nowhere. Plus, I was paying for this torture. So I thought to myself, "What's the point of spending money on a gym membership AND gas to go to the gym, when I could get a perfectly good workout through other means?" Of course these other means include either swimming, playing tennis, (actually) running, OR working out at home with a DVD.

My mom's been a fan of at-home workout DVDs for quite a while now, and honestly, I always thought it was something only bored unemployed housewives did. But after seeing my gas bills go up and losing the motivation to further pollute the earth with my gas emissions and contribution to energy emissions at the 24 hour gym I went to, I decided to give workout DVDs a shot. And what better way to save money (and know my taxes are going to good use) than to get these DVDs at the public library!

So I've decided to do a weekly review of workout DVDs that I get from the library and post about them here!

This week: Bryan Kest's Power Yoga