[Kirachan]

Hey, does anyone else here use Yourself!fitness? I just love it to death. it sounds alot like the PUSH program that everyone here talks about, except that you have to have a playstation 2, or xbox, or PC to use it. and you don't have to wait for DVDs in the mail, you just plug it in, answer some questions, do a fitness evaluation and you get personalized work outs with a personalized schedule of your choice. you can choose music styles, work out locations, and it also works with whatever you have, weights, ball, step, and heart monitor. and every 10 work outs she gives you another fitness evaluation and edits your work outs from there, no two work outs are the same. this program also has the moving bar at the bottom of the screen that shows you how long you have left with each workout and what is coming up. also, if the work out is too hard you can adjust the difficulty at anytime. Maya (the trainer, sorry no choice here) has you cycle through different focuses in each work out, Cardio, Upperbody, core, lower body, and flexibility, but each work out contains a little of your overall focus (for me, weightloss). The only thing PUSH seems to have on this work out program is that you can play it on a DVD player, but since many of y'all are parents, you might be able to get your kid to let you borrow the ps2 or xbox for half an hour. just a suggestion^^

[MicheleKC]

I have Yourself Fitness. I love it. I use it on my PC/laptop. I just completed my second fitness challenge/progress review. This is by far the best workout program I've ever used. I really enjoy using exercise DVDs/tapes, except that I usually hit a plateau or the the tapes get boring. This is very motivating and interactive. I like that you can select different settings and music for each daily workout. I like the daily focus. Cardio is my overall fitness goal.

I'd like to keep this thread going with anyone else who is using Yourself Fitness.

[jelynn]

I just found it used for $10 and I'm sooo excited to get it!!

[crazynette826]

I've been interested in this for a while, but haven't gotten it yet. So what kind of workouts does it have? Is it basic aerobics? Can it do step aerobics, or dance workouts? Does it do weight training? I was just curious before I spend money on it. I'd hate to get it and then find out I don't like it. TIA for all your help.

[Kirachan]

well crazynette, you can add a step into the mix, at the beginning of each work out you select what work out equipment you have available (out of weights, step, workout ball, and heart monitor) just because you have it selected does not necessarily mean that you will use all or any of the equipment during the workout. no dance or real weight training, but it is great for a basic work out program that changes everyday and tracks your progress. every 10 workouts it gives you a fitness evaluation, and you can access a graph showing your progress. after a few sets of exercises it asks you how "that last bit felt" and depending on your answer the difficulty is adjusted for next time, you can also immediately change the difficulty by pausing the workout, another feature is the tutorials, so if you encounter a move you don't understand you can choose this option and it will show you a slower version of the move with a vocal description of the move, and whenever you go back to the workout it will continue from the beginning of that move. um... i hope this answers your question, sorry about the rambling, if you have any other questions feel free to ask, i'm sure MicheleKC or I could answer it.

[crazynette826]

Cool! I'll have to look more into getting it. Thanks for all your help. You totally answered my questions. Thanks!!

[MicheleKC]

The cardio segment starts out with about 5 minutes of warm-up, like kicks, step-touch, marching in place. Then about 10 minutes of basic calisthenics, like jumping jacks, jogging in place, cross-country, etc. The moves aren't difficult to follow, which I like. It's not like it takes long to learn a complicated cardio workout routine.

The rest of the workout is followed by a daily focus, either lower body, upper body, core, flexibility, or cardio.

Lower body workout consists of lots of squats and lunges, simple and effective. Upper body workout consists of free weights and bicep curls with plies, overhead press with plies, etc.

Upper body work with free weights is done in conjunction with squats and plies, so you're also toning you're lower body and working your cardio.

Flexibility is a combination of yoga and pilates. I look forward to the flexibility daily focus workouts.

Core daily focus is a combination of some upper and lower body, use of free weights with plies, but mostly working on the mid-section.

I've selected to work out for five days, at 30 minutes each. Monday and Friday are my days off. I workout when I get home from work around 5 p.m. before dinner. This is also when I weigh myself on a scale that shows my body weight, my body fat %, and my hydration level. It was only about $25 at Linens N Things. I've never owned a scale before, but I am trying to monitor my body fat % more closely.

Overall, I think that a person who enjoys working out at home and likes to work out with weights, a step-up box, and a stability ball, and also a heart rate monitor, will enjoy the variety of this DVD. I like being able to select my workout days and length of workout. If I miss a couple days and log on, Maya will tell me that I need to be more consistent with my workouts or that I'll see more progress if I workout more. I really like that!!

At the end of each workout, you get to see how many calories you burned, whether you learned a new exercise, and which number workout you completed. I find this to be very motivating!!

I've promised myself that after my 25th workout I will schedule either a spa body wrap or a deep tissue massage. Every so many workouts, I'm going to treat myself to a spa item!

[Darl2541]

I'm so happy to see others using this program. I've been using mine for over four months. Got it off of Amazon.com. I really like that you can set your workout time to different lengths and sometimes I add the step and if I don't feel like it, I uncheck it. I have the pc version and there were several people with problems as far as video, etc. I did find when it unlocked the desert workout area that mine was having problems, but I just use the others and had no problems. I've only missed on workout and when Maya said "sorry I missed you yesterday", I felt like I had let down my friend, so I haven't missed any after that. I just plop my laptop in my workout room, turn up the volume and sometimes find myself muttering at her!

I also would like to keep this thread going....

[MicheleKC]

I actually think it's more motivating to use Maya, an avatar computer animated trainer, instead of a real person. Usually the workout instructors are in such incredible shape, which is great, but it's not very motivating. I think they probably do way more than just the one workout tape they're instructing to achieve the results most of them have. Plus, with this program, you can select different workout music and backgrounds so it doesn't get boring.

I also like the progress checks. I have my next one in two workouts. I like that I can visually see a graph of my progress.

Did I mention there's a meal plan with very simple daily and weekly menu items based on a certain-calorie a day diet. You can select 1200 calorie diet, 1500, 1800 etc. You can download and print out the meal plans.

[Trixie14]

I have it, but for PS2, and my bf recently gave my little brother his PS2 b/c he got an Xbox 360, but I used it for about a week or two when I first got it and I liked it alot.

[MicheleKC]

I started using my Urban Rebounder (mini-trampoline) for the cardio segment of the workout in Yourself Fitness. It's much easier on the balls of my feet to workout on the rebounder. I also modify the lunges. I use a support in the form of a mop handle. I'm very limber and flexible, but strength training has been a challenge. My left foot turns slightly out even when my knee is straight (it's hardly noticable until I do lunges). I can hold most yoga and pilates poses, but I need to support myself when I do lunges.

[wkdblue]

Wow I didn't even know software like this exsisted! Sounds great - I'm off to find a copy on the net. Thanks guys...



x

[MicheleKC]

I also started doing a DVD called the AM/PM Stretch with Madeline Lewis, a Gaiam DVD. Because the Yourself Fitness workout is only 30 minutes long, the only stretching involved is a left and right quad stretch and a hamstring stretch, about 1 minute at the end. There are interval rest breaks during the workout sets, but not long enough to hold a good stretch.

I would recommend that if you use the Yourself Fitness program, you also incorporate some sort of stretching on your own.

I work full time and I'm still managing to find the time to do the workouts. That's mostly because I'm seeing results more now than I ever have before.

I'm mostly focused on lowering my BMI from 31% to 21%.

[Darl2541]

Michele, I too use my urban rebounder for the warmup. I actually get more of a heart workout when I do this. Great minds think alike.

[MicheleKC]

"I'm mostly focused on lowering my BMI from 31% to 21%."

What I meant to write is, I'm focused on lowering my body fat% from 31% to 21%.

I have a question though for Yourself Fitness users.

How many times have you paused an exercise to decrease or increase the difficulty?

For the upper body workouts, I'm not ready for push-ups. I can't even do one, let alone 12. I decreased the difficulty for the first time for those. I also have problems doing combination squat lunges with bicep curls. I need to hold onto a support, I use a mop handle, when I do lunges.