To build on our good breakfast habit, and our efforts to put a little more exercise into our days by walking faster or taking the stairs more, my daughter and I purchased an exercise DVD. I have several workout video tapes, but currently don’t have the VCR hooked up, and that had become the thing holding us back. Since I didn’t feel like tackling the set-up and fighting with the VCR, we simply bought a DVD.

I wanted it to be a workout we both could do together, and something she’d find fun. At only a few months shy of twelve-years-old, no calisthenics programs or military workouts were going to hold her interest. So we opted on a dance-type routine. I have some videotapes from years ago, the Richard Simmons’ Sweatin’ to the Oldies tapes, and I used to enjoy those. We might try those together when the VCR’s hooked up, but I’m not sure it’s something someone her age would be engaged in more than a few times.

We narrowed the choice between two DVDS, one called “Dance off the Inches: Hip-Hop Party” and one called “Express Workout: Dance it Off!” from Prevention magazine’s DVD workout series. I was interested to discover that both had the same instructor, Jennifer Galardi, dancer and fitness instructor. She has many more DVDs available, all dance-centered.

We settled on the Hip-Hop Party DVD, because of its name, mostly. I thought it’d likely appeal to more to my daughter than the other. The picture on the cover certainly did. But now that we’ve tried it, I don’t doubt that I’ll add the Prevention DVD, and probably some of Jennifer’s other offerings, to our collection at some point.

We had so much fun! There’s a step-guide we did first that leads you through the basic steps used in the workout—that made it much easier. The workout itself never really feels like exercise at all. And she doesn’t yell the whole time or constantly tell you how good you’re doing, it’s more that she encourages you to feel sexy, really pop your hips and put your personality into the moves. I liked her style very much, not too-low key, not annoyingly perky.

Both of us made it all the way through, and were smiling and sweaty when it was over. I’ll be 39 this year, and I have a severe weight problem, and I kept up. I even enjoyed myself, unlike the way I’ve felt after completing some exercise videos that left me exhausted and panting, like I needed an oxygen tank, and a plasma transfusion didn’t seem out of the question, either. Some of the moves I did do at half pace, but only a few times where jumping or knee-twisting was required, and I didn’t bend my knees quite as deeply as the instructor because I know my limits. But I didn’t stop, and I had fun with it. My daughter has put on some weight over the last year with the beginnings of puberty (that’s when it started for me, too). Hers in her hips and her belly, and she’s become quite conscious of it lately. So she’s all for the exercise to help her get that under control a little, or keep it from getting OUT of control.

We laughed and played around as we danced, and she had a lot of fun, too. She only stopped briefly, as I did, for a quick drink. Though once she had to stop because she was laughing so hard–when we were supposed to be doing body rolls, I didn’t quite get it at first, and commented that I must look like an epileptic snake. I had to laugh, too. At least it was just us, and not a room full of people. And we made a vow before we started that we would not make fun of each other. At least, not without really good reason.

We both got the hang of the moves pretty quickly. We could even manage to do part of the routine to other music now, if we wanted to. By the end, we were hooping and hollering during certain parts, where you roll your hips and shimmy and do a sort of body-wave from head to toe, just like we were hip-hop dancing and having a good time, instead of exercising for health and fitness. And we already have plans to do it together again day after tomorrow.

Though I have plans to do it by myself tomorrow and bust a move or two.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 13th, 2008 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Corrine's Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.