Aerobic or Muscle-shaping using exercise DVDs at home.

Fitness matters more than you realize.

Regular exercise has been shown to significantly improve longevity, reduce the risk of chronic health conditions, and premature death. Exercise enhances your quality of life and improves mental health. Don’t wait to get into shape until you are forced to start a regime because your doctor tells you to. You can start improving your health today by investing in home exercise DVDs.

Exercise DVDs provide a convenient and inexpensive way to maintain an exercise program. They are not for everyone, but they have their advantages over a health club and outdoor activities. The bottom line is that when home exercises DVDs are done on a consistent basis, the results are far better than a gym club. The key is that you have to do the DVDs to get the results. They are available in easy, moderate, and advance exercises, so there is no excuse not to purchase and try them.

During the late 70’s I started a fitness regiment using home exercise tapes. Jane Fonda’s workouts were popular at the time as well as the Firm. For me, the ability to exercise using tapes/DVDs in my home environment far outweighs my desire to join a gym. Twice I joined a health club only to get frustrated because I spent too much time trying to learn the aerobic routines, or waiting to get on the equipment to derive any benefit from the exercise.

In my opinion the best way to maintain a fitness regimen is to invest in exercise DVD’s and forget about joining a gym membership.

What are the advantages of using exercise DVDs?

Home exercises DVDs are inexpensive when compared to a health club membership fee. For less than the cost of a yearly gym club fee, you can purchase dumbbells, kettle bells, a step, and a collection of exercise DVDs that can be used over and over again. In my case I have accumulated enough DVDs and equipment to have a workout room that is comparable to a gym.

Exercising at home is convenient. It is easier to pop a DVD into the player than to drive to a gym. I used to hate showering, applying make-up and driving to a gym to work out.

The mind set of having to get ready interfered with the consistency of exercising. It was easy to postpone a workout when I had to go somewhere else to do it. I always had an excuse. It’s raining, snowing, too hot, too early, or too late.

At home, even if I planned to do just a portion of the exercise DVD, more often than not, I usually complete the work out once started. Plus I can do it any time of day or night. The ability to exercise in my home has helped me maintain a routine for over 30 years.

Even if you are primarily an outdoor exerciser for example; runner, cyclist, or cross country skier, exercise DVDs are great cross training tools. I am an avid participant of the above mentioned sports, but I use my DVDs to weight train and to do aerobics that are different from the sports that I enjoy. I am rarely injured because I vary my routine to prevent overuse injuries. 

I don’t let rain, snow or darkness preempt my workouts because I can always pop in a DVD to supplement my training.

I enjoy the privacy that doing home DVDs allows me. I can work out in my pajamas, old shorts, shirts and sweat my heart out. I am competing against myself and I don’t have to feel self conscious like I would at the health club.

Home exercise DVDs offer variety. My selections include step, kickboxing, kettle bell, weight training, treadmill and cycling DVDs that I rotate to vary my exercise routines and prevent boredom.

One of the best ways to achieve results is to change exercise routines at regular intervals and home exercise DVDs allows me to do that.

There are many programs that can be purchased that have the rotations spelled out to follow for a period of time. There are many great instructors that offer high quality DVDs where you will see better results than what you’ll achieve at the health club. I have many people stop and ask me what I do to “get my arms and legs to look like they do.”

What are the disadvantages of using exercise DVDs?

In my opinion, the biggest disadvantage of doing home exercise DVDs is the lack of social contact that you have versus exercising at a health club. If your personality is one that needs motivation from a group environment then exercising at home by yourself may not work.

And similar to anything else that you purchase, there are some exercise DVDs and instructors that are better than others. I recommend that you research all the DVDs and instructors that are available. There are many sites on the Internet to use as a resource before you purchase the DVDs.

I would highly recommend buying a selection of aerobic, weight training, and stretch DVDs to get a well rounded routine and prevent boredom. Be conscious of form to prevent injury and don’t forget to warm up before exercising. I find that most DVDs lack a good warm up and cool down segment

Before starting any exercise program be sure to check with your doctor. And if you are new to an exercise program, please start SLOWLY and take your time.

I cannot emphasis how much I believe in using exercise DVDs. I have been doing them 5-6 times per week for over 30 years. Exercising at home has enabled me to complete marathons, long distance cycling and skiing events and have kept me motivated to keep moving well into retirement.