workout dvd’s

THRIVE in 15; Pilates for YOU

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I fell in love with yoga curtesy of a well worn Kathy Smith VHS in 1997.

To this day, I can quote the cheesiest yet true Baron Baptiste and Bryan Kest moments from their late-’90s Power Yoga videos.

There was a brief time around 19 when I was magnetized to belly dancing. Living in rural West Virginia made my in-person class options rather slim but the “Belly Dancing for Beginners” video my aunt gave me for my birthday quenched my thirst.

When I lived in Peru for a year and couldn’t afford a gym membership or internet, I begged visiting friends to bring me Pilates DVD’s and “spent time” with my favorite celebrity instructors on the regular during one of the loneliest and least healthy times of my life.

My introduction to kettlebells was the instructional video that came with my pink, plastic, sand filled first ‘bell.

Throughout my 20+ year history with ‘workout videos’, I’ve always gravitated towards the shorter ones.

Even though I would often complete several “10 Minute Solutions” (a great series by the way) at one time, I like the pace and the mental undertaking of shorter workouts.

Let’s be real; getting started is the hardest part and on the other end, not seeing a workout through to the end doesn’t have the same sense of completion and satisfaction.

In the Spring of 2021 I created my own short-format Pilates video series and call it THRIVE in 15.

THRIVE in 15 is a program of fifteen Mat Pilates workouts that are geared to improve mobility, strength, posture, and form all within 15-20 minutes.

Pilates is amazing cross training for life. Pilates exercises supports you and improves your physical capacity in everything from active/athletic endeavors to functional necessities in life like carrying groceries to sitting all day.

In my humble opinion, it is the “miracle cure” it sounds like. However, to derive the benefits, you have to do it. 😉

THRIVE in 15 AD

HOW DOES THE PROGRAM WORK?

Each Monday in November participants will receive that weeks workouts delivered via email. Once you have access to the workouts, you are free to repeat as many times as you’d like during the program. The links will expire December 6th, giving you 5 weeks to complete the 15 short workouts at least once.

WHAT PROPS DO I NEED?

All you need in a little bit of time, a little bit of floor space, and a mat or large towel or blanket plus a device/internet to access the recording.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?

Two dollars a workout. The THRIVE in 15 program is $30 per household, I encourage you to get other members of your household to join with you because a workout buddy is fun and encourages us to achieve our goals!

WHAT LEVEL ARE THE WORKOUTS?

This program is appropriate for anyone free of chronic or acute major illness or injury. Not every single exercise or every single repetition will be right for every participant but it is designed with a range of humans in mind.

Please feel free to ask if you have any specific questions about whether it is appropriate for you.

-Katrine Sophie, busy working mom, Vienna Austria

I am intentionally choosing to offer this program for the second time during the month of November, where things are majorly shifting in the Northern Hemisphere. As our days are getting shorter and colder & the holidays are rapidly approaching, it can be challenging to focus on our physical well being and carve out the time/energy for exercise. I want you to THRIVE during this next month, as we approach the end of another weird year for the record books.

THRIVE1-1

THRIVE in 15

15 workouts delivered via email during the month of November

$30.00

SIGN UP TODAY TO GET STARTED THIS MONDAY AND THRIVE THIS FALL!

Embrace or Attack

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A few days ago I randomly ducked into Big Lots to look for crackers.    I emerged 40 minutes later with my arms full of Thai Kitchen noodles, organic corn chips, coconut milk, whole wheat crackers (but not the ones I was looking for), whole wheat gnocchi, and two new workout dvd’s.  #random

Mari Winsor's Cardio Pilates

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Jillian Michaels' No More Trouble Zones

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They were only $5- I couldn’t help myself!

Mari Winsor is a great Pilates teacher.  We have different styles but I really appreciate her attention to detail and form.  Her workouts always feel fast paced but not rushed.

Pros: it’s a good length (the express workout is about 20 minutes) and appropriate for many levels because she gives regressions, progressions, and loads of form cues.  Unlike many Pilates dvd’s I’ve done I feel like this one is actually pretty good for beginners because of the progression of the workout and the depth of information on Pilates fundamentals.

Cons: this workout is pretty basic exercise (nothing that I don’t already have in my Pilates toolbox) so I don’t think I would do it more than once or twice a month.

Love her or loathe her, Jillian Michael is a force.  The women is building her empire and I kind of find it admirable.

When she burst onto the scene with the debut of The Biggest Loser I was immediately repelled by her aggressive and extreme approach to fitness.  Years later my mom read her book on metabolism and was really impressed with Michael’s unique and in depth take on the subject.  Eventually I started to warm up to the idea of her and got the Shred dvd about a year ago.

I like her general style; work hard through interval training with a focus of resistance work and full body, functional movements.  Her workouts tend to be achievable but challenging for my level of fitness and they are generally fast paced.

The thing that still drives me insane about Michael’s is her attack-the-body mentality.  She seems to view exercise as a necessary evil in order to stay “skinny”.  I know that she believe’s in exercise and fitness for disease prevention and mental health as well but so much of her language is focused on getting through a workout so you can enjoy your body.  Personally, one of the times I enjoy my body the most is during a workout!

The fact that the front of this video claims that you can “lose up to 5 pounds a week” is absurd and just another example of Michael’s extreme approach.  As much as I cringe at the title telling me that some of my body parts are giving me “trouble” I did appreciate it when my husband saw it sitting on the counter and remarked “but you don’t have ‘saddlebags’, a ‘muffin top’, or ‘wobbly arms’!”.  Boy do I love this man.   (It’s not that they’re not there it’s that I choose not to think of them as “trouble” and he chooses not to see them.:))

This video is not what I expected but in a good way.

Pros: Michael’s was toned down; she doesn’t yell once!  The workout is strictly resistance for a solid 40 minutes so it’s no/low impact (the warm up has a few jumping jacks I think.   The sets are pretty short which keeps the pace moving.  I don’t like high repetition and I found the number of repetitions perfect.  I used 5-9 pound weights and felt gently worked but wasn’t sore the next day.  This workout didn’t make me break a sweat and was energizing but not tiring, which is perfect for days when I am low energy and/or don’t want to shower afterward.

Cons: I generally prefer to get a little cardio with my strength through interval type workouts.  This will be a monthly regular but it’s too basic to do often for me, although I tend to like to switch it up no matter what.

Do you like instructors who seem to tolerate exercise only as a “necessary evil”?  I can imagine that if you really don’t like to move this may make an instructor more relatable but honestly I have a hard time believing that anyone can’t find at least one form of movement that they enjoy.  What about the attitude that the body is a constant problem that we must continually “fix”? I am really curious to hear if anyone else also has a strong reaction to this attack-the-body type fitness.   It’s not the hard, intense workout aspect that I’m wary of (I kinda love that oh-my-gosh-I-am-shaking-and-might-puke feeling) but rather the resistance to accepting our bodies limitations and unique qualities that turns me off.