Denise Austin Should Not Be Allowed To Teach Yoga...

...if this video is any indication of her skills.

First up on my "pop fly" reviews is Denise Austin's "Hot Body Yoga".

I supremely, supremely dislike this video. For alot of reasons.

Firstly, I disliked that there was absolutely zero discussion of form. No demonstrating the poses before you went into them, no talking about how to modify if a pose was uncomfortable, nothing. Virtually no mention of safety what so ever. And if you're a well practiced yoga student, and are really just looking for some videos to do at home to supplement your own practice, you probably don't need a discussion on form. But virtually ignoring safety is dangerous.

There was also no flow to the video at all. All of the poses were popped into, and then popped out of. It honestly began to feel like a yoga inspired cardio workout, rather than a true yoga video. And some of the poses didn't feel particularly organic to go from one to the next anyway, much less to go from one to the next that fast.

The DVD menu is fairly straight forward - you can look at the trailers, or look at the workouts. "Level One" is called Yoga Fit. "Yoga Fit" gave me back spasms for the rest of the evening after I'd done it. There's a segment with an odd concentration on hip openers, and you go right from opening your hips, into Bow (with no time given to get from one to the other). I looked online for other people that had experienced back problems after "Yoga Fit" and found no mention, which surprised me. So I guess I stand alone. Or, at least, I'm the only person mentioning it. I spent about a third of "Yoga Fit" going "What? How do you do that? What is that?"

I just tried to do "Yoga Sculpt" today, and I had to shut it off halfway through. Because in "Yoga Sculpt", you also have no discussion of form or safety, popping in and out of poses, poses that don't seem to go together...but you add in WEIGHT! That's right, not only do you get to pop into, and then back out of, Warrior, you get to do it holding weights! I shut it off, because I just really, REALLY couldn't shake the feeling that it was completely unsafe to be doing. I tried to ignore that voice that was telling me I was doing something unsafe, and it just kept getting louder. I had to turn the video off. Ultimately, I know they couldn't put it on the market if it was outright dangerous, but at the same time, there was seemingly no attention paid to making sure that the video was safe to do. If every one of your instincts is telling you you're not OK, it's probably best to listen.

The video gives you the option of going through without Denise's instruction. Had the choreography in any fashion made sense, I'd recommend it. In the first one, she kept murmurming about "feeling the form", whatever that means, and in the second workout, I felt like she was whispering at me, which isn't necessarily weird (in fact, had this been more like a traditional workout class, whispering would probably be the safe play), but got weird because it didn't feel like it matched the tone of the rest of the workout.

I told myself I'd give this video a full week before I gave you guys my opinion on it, and I just couldn't do it. I've heard and read much more favorable reviews on a different yoga video of hers (the title is escaping me right now...), so I'm going to try that one next. Hopefully that got it's act together.

To recap;

Space Needed; If you can lunge, lay down, and comfortably raise your arm above your head, you're good.

What Do You Do?; Fairly standard yoga fare. Chair pose, plank, bow, warrior, that sort of thing.

Equipment You Need; Weights. She never made a recommendation for size, I'd recommend small ones, as you have to be able to comfortably lift them over your head. Although, if you can comfortably lift 50 pounds over your head, be my guest...

The Final Word; or, "Would I recommend this video?" If you didn't guess...no. No I would not. Like I said, I just really, really couldn't shake the feeling this video wasn't safe to be doing. And it has to be, because otherwise it wouldn't be on the market, but who wants to be doing something that you believe is unsafe?

I'm undeterred though, I started these "pop fly" reviews to get a feel for yoga, and I'll keep going. I just couldn't do this one another second. I checked this video out from my library, but if I'd paid for it, I'd be disappointed.

And I did take a before picture. Even though I'm switching up my workouts alot more often, I'll post the pictures every once in a while anyway, just to see what yoga does for a girl. :D

See you next time - hopefully I'll have better news to report!

My Name Is Theresa, And I Have A Confession To Make...

My name is Theresa, and as a self-confessed Jillian Michaels Maniac, I feel like I need to make a confession here.

I've never made it through 30 days of 30 Day Shred. Never. Not once.

Whew, that felt good.

Reason? I have a bum knee and a bum ankle from years of percussive dancing. I had knee surgery on my left knee when I was a kid, and as a adult developed achilles tendonitis in my left ankle. (Why both on the left? I had a chiropractor tell me that my pelvis sits either higher or lower on my left side, and that's why the trouble. And he didn't say "either higher or lower", he told me which, but it's been a few years ago, and right now I'm blank on which...)

At any rate, there's something in particular about 30 Day Shred that flares my tendonitis in my ankle - I've always blamed it on the lunges in level one, but who knows what it really is. And we all know, there's two kinds of pain. There's pain that isn't so bad, and there's pain that sucks. And as much as I enjoy Jillian and being tortured by her on the daily, tendonitis is pain that sucks. So I made it 16 days (beyond halfway, which I think is the farthest I've ever made it...). It makes for an uneventful set of before and after pictures, but I made it as far as I could.

Now to the important part - my opinion.

If you're familiar with Jillian, if you've done any of her videos before, or if you've watched her on The Biggest Loser, there isn't much that's new here. The third level is the newest - it's the most plyo heavy of the three levels, so that's fairly unique to Jillian. She also does a weighted plank row (go in to plank, while holding your weights. Lift your arm with weights, put it back down. Lift the same side leg, put it back down. Lift the opposite arm, with weights. Lift same side leg. Repeat, repeat, repeat), which was new to her, at least in her videos I've got experience with.

I think this video's solid - good exercises, easy to keep up with, nothin' you can't handle (Even if you hate a certain exercise or certain kind of exercise, you're gonna do it at the most for a minute. Anybody can do anything for a minute, yeah?

Space; This one is pretty small apartment friendly, if you've got space to lay down wherever you work out, you've got space to do this.

What you need; Weights. Jillian's recommendation is generally 3-8 pounds, so stick with that. If you're bad, try bigger, but don't get excited. You shouldn't kill yourself for this. :D You should be able to comfortably keep up.

If you feel like mountain climbers are easier on a mat, use a mat.

And as always, a good pair of shoes, you shouldn't work out barefoot.

For the background dancer purists, this time you get Anita and Natalie, and probably 3 out of 5 reviews I read say what a "cheater" Natalie is, because every time Jillian turns around, Natalie stops. Shoot - these exercises hurt! I stopped too! :O

My pictures. Given that I didn't do all 30 days, I don't think these are that exciting. But I find myself saying that alot, so don't mind me. On a photography tip from a friend, I wore the same clothes for both pictures (or tried to, I realized afterward that I'd put on the wrong pants, but I got close!). She pointed out that changing my hair or style of shorts or whatever could create a visual trick that would make it look like I'd done better or worse than I actually had, so for the most authentic pictures, I should dress the same. Since authentic was the name of the game when I started all this, I went for it. Left picture is before, right picture is after...

From Drop Box

From Drop Box

I don't know what to say. I wish my reveal was more exciting, but for two weeks, what do you want, right? I guess I should just be glad it wasn't worse!

I switched gears and am trying some Bob Harper videos this stretch (mainly owing to the fact that I got some for Christmas, haha...) so my review next time is going to be massive (I'm actually doing a rotation of four videos right now, so it'll be a four parter...). It's a hard series of videos - I did Bob's Cardio Conditioning video, ONCE, and my hamstrings haven't been the same since. If I don't come out of this with some nice gams, I'm gonna lose it!

So, see you in February!

Video Originally Released March 18, 2008

First, to introduce myself...

First to introduce myself. My name is Theresa, I'm a 32 year old mother of one son, and I am a Jillian Michaels maniac.

I did not come to this by watching The Biggest Loser. I actually LIKE that she's so hardcore. When I can keep up with someone that's so hardcore, it makes me feel hardcore too, and that's really motivating. :)

I didn't come by way of Jillian lightly.

My memory is fuzzy on if this happened in 2010 or 2011, but I was in line at Wal-Mart with my son, and we were discussing that I had started a new workout tape. He remarked that he thought that was a good thing for me to do, because, and he held his hands out in a circle, and his voice trailed off.

I responded that I didn't know what that meant. He shyly commented that he didn't want to say, and we both shrugged, and carried on with our conversation. In short order, we were back at the same point in the conversation. He again held his hands out, and again said he didn't want to say what it meant.

I sort of twisted his arm into it. He was visibly uncomforable having to repeat himself, and I made him do it anyway.

He said I was fat.

If the Wal-Mart floor could have opened up and swallowed me at that moment, I would have been perfectly OK with that. Fat? FAT?! I'm the FAT mom?! I was horrified. I'm OK with being alot of things - I'm OK with being the mom with the messy car. I'm OK with being the mom that never gets her roots touched up in a timely fashion. I'm OK with being the mom that never remembers to wear her wedding ring. But the FAT mom?! Oh, heck no. That is not OK.

And I KNOW. He didn't want to say it, and I twisted his arm. Plus, I also know that "fat" isn't a word that holds the same malice for kids that it holds for adults. But it was out there, just like a little verbal atom bomb, and oh no, that was not going to be the way that this thing was going down!

So it took me some time of bumbling around, begging for a Weight Watchers membership (which I still haven't gotten, on my husbands assertion that it's too pricy, and can't pay for myself, given that being a stay at home mom doesn't pay much...), and trying to figure out what on earth I was going to do to fix this problem, before I came up on the wonder that is Jillian Michaels.

I flirted around with 30 Day Shred a handful of times. I'd start, do pretty well, and sprain my ankle and have to stop. Or I'd start, do pretty well, and tweak my knee and have to stop. So I spent alot of time flirting with it, but never finishing. Probably four or five months, anyway.

Well baby, I'M BACK.

I'm going to work my way through each of Jillian's videos, and post the results, complete with Before & After pictures, for everyone to see here. I'll post my honest thoughts about each video as I do it, and you can see real results for yourself.

I have become kind of obsessed with looking at other peoples Before & After pictures, but I never see them for people my size. Take heart, people that are my size - here's the pictures for you! :)

Like I said - I am OK with being alot of things. But I am not OK with being the fat mom. Fat mom, get out of the way - the Jillian Michaels Maniac is HERE! :)