won’t feel pressure to keep up with anyone else, and you can build a pretty
extensive DVD library for less than the cost of a yearly gym membership.
Plus, you get a lot more instruction from a tape than you can get from a book
or magazine. You may even get more creative routines than many health-club
instructors can drum up.
How to choose a DVD
Choosing the wrong DVD is hardly the most tragic mistake you can make in
life. However, getting stuck with some out-of-focus program taught by an
instructor who grates on your nerves isn’t any fun. The following tips can
help you weed out tapes that aren’t right for you and DVDs that are just
plain awful.
Read reviews
Amazon.com, the popular Internet bookseller, also sells DVDs and posts reader
reviews. An even more informative source is Video Fitness (www.video
fitness.com). This Web site is loaded with helpful information — probably
because its mission is to inform and inspire you, not to sell products. (The
site was recently purchased by FitnessOnline.com, which does sell magazines,
books, and equipment, but the Video Fitness portion remains autonomous.)
Hundred and hundreds of videos and DVDs are reviewed here — some by
more than a dozen different exercisers. In addition to reviews of specific
videos and DVDs, you can read general critiques of several instructors.
Scroll all the way through the reviews for each video or DVD, because opinions
differ wildly. One reviewer says Denise Austin’s voice “has the same effect on
me as fingernails on a chalkboard, made even worse by her patronizing tone;
she makes me feel like a toddler she’s trying to potty-train.” Another reviewer
adores Denise: “I appreciate her positive attitude. She makes you feel like you
are right in the studio, or she is in your house with you.”
If you have no idea where to begin, try the Video Fitness “Personal Video
Selector,” which guides you through the overwhelming choices by asking you
a variety of questions and then recommending several videos and DVDs that
appear to match your criteria. Also check out the 100 Club, a gallery of
“VFers,” as Video Fitness enthusiasts call themselves, who own more than
100 videos or DVDs and list their favorites.
Call a consultant
You’ve heard of jury consultants, management consultants, and wardrobe
consultants — well, there are also folks trained to help you sort through the
bewildering slew of exercise DVDs on the market. These consultants are the
staffers at Collage Exercise Video Specialists (www.collagevideo.com). It’s
the country’s only catalog devoted to exercise tapes — and the only company
Chapter 19: Choosing an Exercise Class or DVD 295