After reading the sick during excerise post made me think of a question/problem I have when I work out. I start out, all is fine get through the warm up, step up and down (like 200 times ) and going along smooth and bam I didn't even notice that I'm badly winded and way beyond any target zone. I have to drop my arms and slow down. The rest of the work-out I'm re-running in my mind trying to figure out where I lost control and nothing stands out. I am badly out of shape and not supprised I get winded easily and if my memory serves me correctly it does gradually get better, but the bad part is when the video starts rolling and I start moving my motivation just goes into the tank. I always feel better after the workout, my energy level spikes and I'm all happy I got another day in. Yea, I know probably just a mental thing, but that feeling of dred when the music starts is freaky. Anybody else have this problem?

Yes~ I have that problem. You probably don't notice it till the jumping around and ups and downs slow down.. Thats when it catch up with ya and kicks ya in the face! What I do is I pause the DVD take a breather, Catch my breath and start it back up and Im ready to get going again! Just try that next time!

That's an important lesson I learned about workout videos -- that you have to MODIFY if you are not in great shape to begin with. Depending on the type of workout it is, try going through the whole thing in a more limited way, and then start building up again. For example, you can do just the steps but not the arm work at all. When you feel you're ready to take it to the next level, add the arms, but in smaller motions; even then you may not be able to do arms all the way through, but build up from there. You can always just march in place when you feel tired to get your wind back. Take the routine in the video as the place you want to end up, not the place to start. Do what you can and go from there.

The first workout video I did is 17 minutes -- it's low-impact, simple foot work with arm movements, then arm movements with small hand weights. The first time I did it, I did ONLY feet and I still had to stop halfway through! But, I just did what I could, and worked on adding to that over time as I got stronger and more fit. It's a process, don't worry about doing everything if your body's not ready for it.