I am thinking about trying out an excersize home video, anyone have anything they would recommend?
Billy Blanks!! I don’t know your fitness level, but whether you’re just starting out or advanced, he’s got a Tae Bo dvd to fit the bill.
Its actually good stuff? I always heard it was kind of goofy and a scam, but I never tried it.
I actually really, really used to enjoy Richard Simmons’ videos. You know, “Sweatin’ to the Oldies.” He’s so fucking off the wall that you can’t help but get into shaking your butt with him. Plus, the group he exercises with contains more overweight and obese people than I’ve seen in any other video. You figure if they can do it, so can I.
If you’d rather dance along with a flaming crazy old man and his fat pals, instead of a trim overly-perky woman and her trim perky pals, Richard Simmons is the man for you 
I am a single straight dude in the twenties, so I choose door number 2, ZipperJJ
For overly trim but not overly perky, there’s Leslie Sansone - but that’s at a pretty low level of fitness. “Walking” (there are a few other steps) between 1 and 5 miles, at varying paces, and the harder ones throw in hand weights/ankle weights/stretch bands/yoga/etc. My grandmother, while admittedly in excellent shape for her age, regularly does the 5-miles-plus-extras DVDs, so if you’re past that and wanting MANLY EXERCISE TM this is probably all wrong for you!
I haven’t done it in a few years, but the Billy Blanks Tae Bo series kicked my ass. I’m a reasonably fit guy but there are some routines that took me a long time to get through without stopping. It might be cheesy but he gives a good workout. And the girls in leotards behind him aren’t too hard to look at.
I have and use P90X. I really like the videos and after only a week I can already start feeling muscle forming.
Tae Bo is awesome, as is P90X, but the latter is pretty tough. I like another Beach Body product, Turbo Jam. Very cheesy and kind of expensive, but a fantasic workout. The turbo sculpt portion kicked my ass the first time I tried it.
What are you looking for? What is your current level?
This will help in recommending something…
Uh, I am 26, I am in pretty good shape, but I have a belly. My doctor says that I am not on the height weight charts as I weigh about 230, and I am 5’10". The chart in her office said that I should weigh like 165, but my doctor says if I weighed that much I would be dead since I am pretty densely muscled. I took one of my students down to the gym the other day (I work out maybe 5 times a year in a gym) and still bench pressed 290 cold. I am just kind of stocky. My legs are about 35 inches around and are pretty cut and muscled. I don’t drink much (maybe once a week) and the only meat I eat is seafood, maybe once every 15 days.
I am just mainly concerned about my midsection fat build up, and would like to lower it. It seems to be genetic to a point, because at about 22 all the men in my family seem to get it whether they eat right or not.
I used to be pretty attractive I am told and I guess I still am, but I need to do something with the belly.
Okay - I would suggest the P90X then.
It’s tough, but you work out to your abilities, so it’s not impossible.
I have also heard great things about the INSANITY dvds, also by Beachbody.
As for something you can buy off the shelf, the RIPPED Dvds with Jari Love:
are also very good.
I’ve also been p90xing for the past few weeks. I’m a guy who has been to the gym five times a week for 15 years, and these workouts are rough if you do them right!
I haven’t made it through the ab workout yet, and I threw up the first day of chest/back workouts. But, I already see progress.
I’ve found that Kimberly Spreen’s kickboxing videos are always good. Suitable for both men and women.
For me, it’s the Yoga X - God how I hate that DVD!
Its funny you mentioned kickboxing. We have a few of these free classes up here at work, and one is aerobic kickboxing. I was called up to punch at this big dummy that our tiny little kickboxing coach was holding up.
She kept saying “hey just punch on this real solid, okay?” I asked her several times if she was sure because I have a lot of upper body strength. “Oh don’t worry about little old me, I can handle it.”
So I rear back, imagine a face on this big dummy, and nail it. WHAM. She flew backwards about five feet on her way to the ground. :smack:
I have twelve of his DVDs, so if he scammed me, he scammed me real good. Although to be perfectly honest, I did end up going out and buying resistance bands as well, because you’re not getting your ass kicked until you use the resistance bands. If you’re a male in reasonably good shape, I’d recommend the boot camp series.
As far as the Beach Body products go, I personally like Turbo Jam better than P90X. Not because TJ is harder, but because it’s easier. TJ is so hard for me that I’ve never quite gotten through an entire workout, and I never fully threw myself into it. And the warmups take so freakin’ long that I’d either skip through them or get bored and call it a day.
TJ is a decent amount of work right from the start, and is easy and fun to do. And I really work up a sweat. I lost a lot of weight with it.
Turbo Jam is the workout series that I was using before I screwed up my shoulder and switched to running. I should point out that if you start experiencing joint twinges after doing a workout program, it is probably best to give that joint a rest instead of just pushing on through it day after day, to avoid giving yourself a year-long-and-counting injury like the one I have. On the other hand, it did inspire me to start running, so that’s a silver lining.
My point being, I did like the Turbo Jam videos quite a bit. They’re fun, they’re do-able, they’re a really good workout.