Exercise TV

I REALLY don't like working out inside.  I hate gyms, treadmills, stair masters, etc.  But the winter in the mountains of North Carolina can be quite a challenge.  I took the winter weather in Oklahoma for granted.  Most days were sunny and fairly mild.  If you bundled up, you could get outside almost every day.  You only had to miss a few days outside due to the weather.  Western North Carolina is a different place.  In the winter, we get snow weekly and sometimes daily for several days in a row.  Last year, we had almost 100 inches of snow.  So as you can imagine, getting outside is nearly impossible on many days.  Although I hate this, it has forced me to look at indoor workouts in a different way.  Quoting Tim Gunn, I have to "make it work."  Last year, my mom got us a Wii for the holidays and I still use it almost daily between workouts and Netflix instant streaming.  I LOVE the Wii.  I have several workout games (I will post about those later) that I switch up to keep from getting bored.  But recently, my spouse discovered Exercise TV and it has been WONDERFUL! This gives me the opportunity to try out different workouts without having to take a chance and buy them first.  It seems like buying workout DVDs can be hit and miss.  There are a few workouts and trainers that I go back to again and again on Exercise TV.  One of those trainers is Jennifer Galardi.  I really like her style of working out.  It's fairly fast-paced but not incredibly difficult.  This is good for those days when I still want to burn a lot of calories but I don't want to push myself to the extreme.  I discovered I liked Jennifer Galardi a few years ago when I purchased her DVD called 10 Minute Solutions: Fat Blasting Dance Mix.

This workout DVD is fun b/c you can do as little as 10 minutes if you are in a hurry or you can do all 5 of the workouts.  I typically do the Simple Slimmer, Calorie Meltdown and sometimes the Fat Burning Party.  Then I will do something else for the rest of my workout.  Jennifer Galardi is one of the main trainers on Exercise TV.  These are some of her workouts I have tried on Exercise TV:

Cardio Groove and Burn-This workout I have done the most.  It's a little over 30 minutes and you are constantly moving.  It's not too difficult but you still feel like you are working hard.  

Ballet Strength Workout-I have done this workout a couple of times.  It's around 20 minutes.  Still, a lot of movement but not too difficult.  Maybe you could do the ballet workout to channel your own Black Swan....just kidding!  :)

Dance Jam Calorie Burn-I have only done this workout one time.  This is a good workout to do when you are trying to get a short workout in or you want to switch it up with a lot of shorter workouts.  This workout is only about 11 minutes.  

Another trainer that I really like is Cindy Whitmarsh.  I have only tried one of her workouts but she kicks my ass!  It's getting much easier, but it's still quite an intense 30 minutes.  I sometimes wear my heart rate monitor when I do this workout and I burn over 300 calories in 30 minutes.  

The workout I do with Cindy Whitmarsh is called "Less is More."  The idea is that you don't have to spend so much time working out but you maximize your workout in a short time.  That way you still burn a lot of calories and get a good workout, but you don't have to spend all day doing it.  

Some of the other workouts I have done:

Dance Party-Ilyse Baker

Cardio Slimdown-Leslie Sansone

Bootcamp Calorie Burn-Kendell Hogan

I think those are all of the workouts I have tried.  It's fun to just browse what they have.  When I open up the Exercise TV webpage, I go here to check out the free full length workouts.  Then I am only looking at the workouts I can do for free.  I love being able to try new things risk-free!