Sometimes, context is everything. My indoctrination into the world of Xtreme Cardio happened on a cold and rainy New York morning. Jaana Kunitz, the program's creator, was in town and had set up a special workout session to familiarize grumpy, desk-bound journalists like me with her own brand of "sexy, feminine" dance workout.

Kunitz, herself an award-winning dancer, has lately been making her mark behind the scenes training pros on FOX's "So You Think You Can Dance" and ABC's "Dancing with the Stars." She co-created the Core Rhythms exercise program, but Xtreme Cardio Dance is her first solo exercise franchise. A boxed set of four fitness DVDs, each promises an experience geared around a dance style: Hip-Hop, Disco, Latin Cardio -- and the ominously titled "Sexy Sculpt."

It's tough to think of a less ready-to-be-sexy crowd than the bleary-eyed assortment of writers and editors assembled for this event. (I also think that a tactical error may have been made in putting the refreshment table in the same room as the class.) So I'm going to give Kunitz major points for effort here. Also above-and-beyond were the moves themselves. They were driven and targeted, for one thing. Even between dance interludes she had us moving our lower bodies forward and back to the music to keep our core working.

When I found out I was getting to try the AlterG "anti-gravity" treadmill developed by NASA -- I think I told everyone I knew. Several times. The AlterG works by pumping air into a chamber that surrounds your body from the waist down. This increases the air pressure and that, in turn, lifts you up so that your feet feel less of your weight as you walk or run. Bring the pressure up enough and it's almost like walking in space. Pretty cool, right?

If you're in decent shape, and are just looking for a standard cardio, muscle-building session, there's not a ton of payoff to this contraption. The more body weight you carry when you exercise, the more burn and benefit you get, so removing weight without some purpose actually makes your workout less effective. However, if you've had a back or leg injury -- reducing your body's impact on the ground can alleviate that hurt. This means you can keep yourself in shape and slowly build back strength in a safe and non-painful way. (Indeed, the AlterG is being used in hospitals to help spinal cord injury patients retrain their bodies for movement.)

Additionally, if you're an athlete training for an endurance race like a marathon or triathlon, not only does the machine reduce the likelihood of stress-related injury, you can also use it to increase your speed and build up your non-dominant muscles. I found the reason for this fascinating: When we're responsible for less body weight, it's easier to loosen up and extend our stride, which increases the range and distribution of muscles we use. This, in turn, will translate to better performance back in the "real world." (Interestingly, the product's press materials say that overweight people can also benefit; it protects joints from weight-related stress, they may be able to work out for longer intervals.)

Zumba: The word definitely sounds more like a festive tropical energy drink than a workout and I'll admit, until recently I'd never heard of it either. But if trend tracking is to be believed, this Latin-themed aerobic dance workout -- sometimes called zumba dance -- may be on the way to your gym even as we speak. As of July 2009, classes were being offered at over 40,000 gyms in 75 countries. And spinoff genres--among them Country Line Dancing Zumba, Aqua Zumba, an even Zumba Gold for seniors are gaining ground.

The Zumba story's a pretty winning one: Back in the 1990s, Alberto Perez, a young aerobics instructor teaching in Cali, Columbia, arrived at his class only to realize he'd forgotten all his tapes. Luckily, he had plenty of salsa and merengue tracks in his car -- he grabbed them, and proceeded to improvise the whole class to those beats. People loved it and there was, he says, just no going back. In 1999, he paired with some enthusiastic backers and brought the concept stateside, where it became something of an American Dream fitness story. Zumba's landed everything from book deals and videos to a partnership with Kellogg's (it's been featured on the back of their cereal boxes as part of a fitness campaign for the Hispanic market).

This past Saturday, urban families poured into New York's Harlem Children's Zone for the first annual Weight Watchers Fun and Fit in the City, an event geared toward raising awareness of the growing childhood obesity epidemic, as well as showcasing simple at-home solutions for healthful eating (the center was packed with booths, from Whole Foods to the Food Bank for New York City).

Photo: Feldenkrais Institute

There's a definite appeal to a workout that begins with choosing a blanket and a headrest, especially when the next requirement is finding a comfortable place to lie down and close my eyes. Having gotten these instructions, I already say an earnest mental "thank you" to my friend Tessa for giving me the hard Feldenkrais sell. Things keep looking up as I walk out of the reception area and into the studio: I find myself standing in the middle of a group of people -- of all shapes and sizes -- who appear to be blissfully sleeping. It's a little Land of the Lotus-eaters, and (given my harried, deadline-filled week) I'm feeling exceedingly on-board with that.

Despite its rarity -- there are only about 1,000 practitioners across the U.S. and Canada -- I've been hearing about Feldenkrais for years, mostly through health writing. Because it takes a pretty well-researched scientific approach to the mind and body relationship (it was developed in the 1940s by a physicist/engineer with an interest in martial arts), it's won some key champions among healthcare experts and professionals, including naturopathic guru Andrew Weil.

The driving idea here is that by paying close attention to our bodies as we perform certain movements over and over, we give our subconscious minds an opportunity to find the smoothest, most comfortable way to do them. Ideally, this can help us have a wider range of motion, become more coordinated and gain more control over how we move and interact with the world. The approach has become exceptionally popular among dancers, actors and even athletes (professionals as disparate as Yo-Yo Ma and basketball star Julius Erving use it to improve their respective performances).

Photo: photobucket

I'll be honest: I've typically been that person who, when I see a cluster of people doing qigong (always seems to happen in a park, right?), thinks "how lovely for them," with a healthy subtext of, "yeah, not for me." Break it down, and I could probably point to the slowness of it -- your feet stay planted as your torso and upper body rotate -- or, for that matter, the fact that everybody doing it appears to eclipse me in age by at least three decades.

But then this happened: The fitness team at Stone House, a beautiful Rhode Island resort I visited not too long ago, told me that qigong -- which they had just started to offer -- was a "beginner's martial art." Qigong, it turns out, is actually a form of tai chi, geared toward building balance, strength and energy. (This is why it often appeals to older people.) I, in my infinite maturity, thought, "wow, how cool to update my Facebook status to say I just finished doing some martial arts." I signed up immediately.

And that was how I found myself feeling very small on an expansive plot of grass, facing Antonia, my new instructor. She was built, driven and clearly meant business. I am a laughably-slow, uncoordinated learner. Only now has it occurred to me that the stuff I lack -- like precision -- was probably key.