My Fitness Level

As kind of a disclaimer, I wanted to describe my level of fitness and my personal goals for this workout endeavor.

I am not what I would call "physically fit." I'm not overweight and am actually a pretty small person (I'm only 5'0"), but I have very little muscle mass and generally shy away from any physical activity. I've never had a regular workout regimen save the little stint in college where my friends and I got a little gung-ho about Pilates. That lasted a quarter. When I did try to go to the gym "regularly" it was usually no more than twice a week for no more than a couple months--and all I did was cardio. I'm not the athletic type, but I enjoy dance of almost any kind--jazz, ballroom, hula, hip hop, modern, etc. However, I've never taken the time to join a dance studio or group. All in all, I'm just darn lazy. The hubs does his best to ensure that he gets regular physical activity (basketball, swimming, gym time). I don't.

That said, I know that regular exercise is healthy and can only do positive things for my well-being. That's why my goal for this Workout Video Challenge is not to lose weight or get beach ready or what not. My goal is to find a workout that not only makes me look and feel great, but also makes me WANT to keep pressing play. I want to find a workout (or workouts) that I will enjoy doing over and over, not for my short term physique, but for my long term health.

There are a lot of videos out there that promise to make you look awesome in a certain amount of time (ex. 30 Day Shred or P90x). I'm not trying to find out if their claims are true. I'm sure they're great workouts. What I want to know is, after the 30 or 90 days, would I still want to do this workout? When the 30 days are up and I look great, would I still pop that dvd in because I actually enjoy doing it? If the answer is no, then it probably wont make my favorites list.

I understand that this may cause me to find multiple favorites or need to keep videos on a rotation in order to stay interested. That's fine with me as long as it keeps me going.

Background

Where did the idea for this challenge some from?

Honestly, I'm not much of a gym goin' person. We have a pretty well stocked gym in our complex, but I don't like to go because...I get bored. That's also one of the reasons I don't like running. It's just not fun for me. I'll do it for a cause, but I wont do it for my own enjoyment. Lame as it sounds, I have a hard time motivating myself to get up and do an activity that I just don't find all that enjoyable, even if I know it's good for me.

I have the same problem with workout videos. If the video doesn't stimulate me and actually get me excited to work out, I'm very unlikely to stick with it.

As a result, I've gone through multiple gym phases, classes, a few marathon/half-marathons, and even a few workout videos without finding something that keeps me wanting to come back. I have, however, based on the workouts that have failed to excite me, figured out what workout characteristics are most likely to keep me motivated.

That's when I thought of this project. Since I have a good idea of what I like, I wanted to find the best combination of motivation and results for my personal needs. In my quest, I'm likely to find many workouts that wouldn't work for me but may be perfect for others, so I'm hoping that others will benefit from my crazy, research-obsessed-ness, too.

The Challenge

I guess beach/pool season must be around the corner because everyone and their mama's mama has been getting back into the workout game. I jumped on the bandwagon last week because, really, everyone around me started working out, and I felt like a lazy bum in comparison. I'm all sore now, but it feels so good. :-)

Then a friend mentioned that she just bought 30Day Shred. I had never heard of it, so I went online again...and suddenly I was pulled into another one of my obsessed researching kicks. I wanted to try so many different workouts...

So I decided to take on a little challenge...

I'm going to try out and review workout videos! Right now my goal is to try out one video a month for a year.

I have a few videos in mind to try out, but I'm open to suggestions. And just to show you how serious I am, I started a new blog.

Oh ya, baby. This is for real.