A few favorites:
Pilates: My current favorite is Prevention Slim, Strong & Firm, which includes both Pilates and ballet and adds resistance with the use of a resistance band (included) or light hand weights. Not for beginner to Pilates, but a nice addition to your DVD library if you are craving a little twist to your Pilates routine.
Cardio: this is tricky, because preference over style of cardio exercise is very personal and varies a lot. For instance, I rarely enjoy traditional aerobics, so cardio for me (as far as DVDs go) consists of dance workouts/instructional dance videos or kickboxing.
That said, these are my favorites:
- Dance: Prevention Dance it off! with Jennifer Galardi - I skip the Latin segment, the others I like. If you want more, Freestyle with Brian Friedman and Rock Your Body with Jamie King are pretty good - but they are purely instructional dance DVDs, not really workouts per se.
- Kickboxing: TurboJam, if you have good form and don't need good instruction; Patricia Moreno's Kickbox Yoga Fusion, if you need good instruction to learn good form; QuickFix Total Cardio Kick with Janis Saffel, if you like the 10-minute segment system for add-ons or workouts in a hurry.
Cardio & Strength together:
- The FIRM Total Body Time Crunch: a great all-inclusive workout with good instruction and a non-boring choreography
- SELF Your Best Butt Fast!: Great combination of cardio and strength to hone in on what is a trouble are for most women.
A note on Strength Training: I'm interested in strength more for its shaping potential than to actually get "buff", and for that I found that Ballet Training, Power Yoga and body-alignment exercises like the Lotte Berk Method give the best results.
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