That's Fit

Our pals over at DS Fanboy have taken an in-depth look at the pros and cons of practicing yoga guided by a DVD (Yoga for Beginners) versus using the Nintendo DS game, Let's Yoga. First, there was an awesome review of Let's Yoga, and overall, they were fans.

However, as with any at-home automated guide (including a DVD), it's easy to cheat or do poses incorrectly. The game itself sounds like it's easy to navigate and follow, and it has lots and lots of short lessons, so you can tailor your yoga workout to fit into your schedule.

After reading the review, I checked out the comparison, and, long story short, the game totally won. To demonstrate the differences, DS Fanboy provided a chart highlighting similarities and differences, so if you have a particular concern (like you don't want an annoying instructor), you can easily see which option would work best for you. I'm not normally a huge fan of video games, but this sounds like a cool way to get involved in yoga without dragging your karma-challenged butt to a class.

My mom is finding her way back to fitness following foot surgery and a five-week recovery. Feeling out of shape and a little loose around the edges, she's committed herself to an exercise comeback.

Since my mom's foot remains tender and her usual hilly power walks are on hold, she's discovered a few DVDs she really likes. I haven't yet given them a try but according to her reports, all three offer challenging workouts. Here they are if you'd like to give them a try.

10 Minute Solution: Tone Trouble Zones (comes with resistance band)

Jeanette Jenkins: Hollywood Trainer 21 Day Total Body Circuit

Jennifer Kries: New Body Pilates - Beginners Mat Workout

Have fitness questions? Fitz has your answer. Our ThatsFit.com fitness expert -- and now your own virtual personal trainer -- will help you get fit, increase your overall health and do it in a fun way. Drop your questions here in the Comments section below and we'll choose two per week to publish on That's Fit! Learn more about Fitz here.

Q. Hi Fitz, I'm trying to lose weight, but exercising is a problem for me since I am almost 300 pounds. I have a bad knee and my hip hurts, so I am looking for an exercise tape that is low impact but helps me burn as many calories as possible during the work out. Thank you, Paula

A. Hello Miss Paula, I'm glad to hear from you. I've trained many people who weigh between 300 and 500 pounds, and the pain you're feeling in your knees and hip is not unusual. The more weight we carry, the more strain our joints endure. You're wise to look for low impact exercises.

Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Pam

Age: 28

Occupation: Teacher

How often do you exercise? Three times a week

What type of exercise do you do? I work out at home to DVDs. My favorites are Tae Bo, Kickboxing, Turbo Jam and Denise Austin. In the summertime, I workout in the pool and do water aerobics. I also like to walk daily and jump on a mini trampoline.

Sabrina Bryan, former Dancing with the Stars hopeful and member of Disney's Cheetah Girl singing group, is committed to fighting childhood obesity and promoting health body image among young girls. How exactly is she doing it? With a hop-hop fitness DVD, that's how.

"My opportunity with the project was to bring a health-conscious topic up in a fun way for girls," says Bryan whose three-part workout (called Byou: pronounced Be You) was a team effort with Healthy Kids Challenge, a nonprofit that focuses on creating children's nutrition.

Bryan, 24, remembers clearly body image issues she experienced during her adolescent and teenage years.

"I went through this whole, 'I hate my body,' thing," she said.

Becoming active in sports and dancing was key for Bryan who practices balance in her adult life.

"It is good to have balance," she says. "Anything that is too one way or the other is where you end up doing binge kinds of things which is not what we want in the minds of young girls."

For more on Bryan's dance outreach, visit the official Byou site.

What were Ellen and Carmen Electra doing in bed together on Tuesday's Ellen Degeneres Show? They were, well, exercising.

With Carmen in her romantic, vixen-like bed and Ellen in her Hello Kitty-themed bed, the pair worked up a sweat while practicing routines from Electra's new DVD, Carmen Electra's Aerobic Striptease: Vegas Strip. The duo did a few leg lifts and some lunges from their side-by-side beds and if laughter counts as a workout, they surely got a good one.

Wanna see a video clip? Here it is.

Sesame Workshop, which produces the youth-oriented 'Sesame Street' television program for the PBS network, said that it will begin selling a DVD soon that is geared towards kids living in military families.

The DVD will have a touch more emotional compassion along with more emotional lessons instead of academic letters and numbers, according to production officials. Insured vets are the target market here, as they return and explain war to their kids.

This comes on the heels of a similar DVD released last year under the Sesame Street label that was geared specifically to open up family discussions about military deployments. With more than a million U.S. kids having parents in the military, these DVDs sound like excellent tools that can easily be relatable to those impressionable kids.

I just got hold of a cool new tool called the Bender Ball and a few of the videos that go with it. Cool tool! My clients and I have been working with it for the past week, and every last one of them, has been challenged. They all came back in the next day or so griping about abdominal soreness (in a good way!) I've experienced the same thing too.

Not only great for abs, the Bender Ball can be used for a total body workout.. The Bender videos are not the "woo-hoo fun" type, but they are the clear, concise instructional type and that's good enough for this sort of training. The videos are great for those who like to religiously work out at home, but they're also great for those who don't. Use the videos to learn how to use the ball and fill your head up with training ideas. Then, take the ball in your gym bag and use it at the health club. That's what I plan to do. The ball is small and light, and it will be easy to toss in the bag with my mp3 player, so I'll always have it with me.

Best news about the product is that it's DIRT CHEAP! The Bender Method Kit comes with a Bender Ball, the Bender manual, and the Bender Method of Core Training DVD. Only $12.98. Crazy inexpensive. Quite a few other videos are available on the website BenderBall.com as well. Oh! And what does Bender mean? Bender is the last name of the woman who invented the product and designed a training method for use of it. Leslee Bender has done a great job, and if you're in search of something new and challenging......give that Bender Ball a try.

Sometimes it is all those little distractions during the day that we curse under our breaths. But distraction is a good method to relieve pain. People use this method without even realizing it when they watch TV or listen to the radio to take their minds off of worry or their pain. Distraction may be used to manage mild pain or used with medicine to help manage episodes of severe pain.

Any activity that occupies your attention can be used for distraction. I personally play the guitar to "take my mind off of pain". Distractions could be doing needlework, model building, painting or diving into a good book. Use your hobbies as a way to focus and distract your attention off of pain. Listening to fast music through a headset or earphones keeps your attention on the music and tapping out a rhythm will help hold your attention away from the pain. Playing video games can be a way to keep your focus off of pain. Distraction can also be internal such as singing mentally to yourself, praying, counting or repeating yourself with statements such as "I can cope" or demand the pain away with statements over and over like "pain leave my body."

Of course the best distraction of all to me is to pop in a favorite movie in the DVD player and get focused on the screen.

"The Biggest Loser" TV show is full of hard-earned and truly inspirational success stories, so whether you're into workout DVDs or not you've got to agree that The Biggest Loser Workout, Volume 2 must be doing something right. A plan responsible for that many hundreds and even thousands of pounds lost can't be complete hype, right?

A general run-down of what to expect includes a short warm up followed by low intensity cardio, then high intensity cardio (both suited for men and women specifically), a power sculpt session for the women, 15 minutes of boot camp, some functional flexibility training, and then a cool down. I'll be honest and admit that I haven't seen it myself, but this review makes it sound pretty good. The idea of real people working out with me, grunting and groaning and generally NOT making it look so easy, is a big selling point as far as I'm concerned.

Does anybody have this DVD right now? What do you think?

Americans consume some 17 billion quarts of this whole grain, good for you treat that is low in calories. That's 54 quarts per man, woman, and child. Many people who have dietary restrictions regarding hulls can not tolerate popcorn. A favorite snack in our family and even for the dog, but with colon problems now affecting several family members, I decided to do a little research to see if there was some kinds of popcorn that had less or no hulls. We are going to give them a try knowing there can be no guarantee that they can be tolerated better. But to continue eating our favorite snack it is worth the try. So I thought I would pass along some information to those others that might have the same problem. Try at your own risk in small amounts first.

Popcorn is a whole grain. It is made up of three components, the germ, endosperm, and pericarp,also know as the hull. There is no such thing as "hull-less" popcorn. All popcorn needs a hull in order to pop. Some varieties of popcorn have been bred so the hull shatters upon popping, making it appear to be hull-less. Although there is no hull, there is still some fiber matter from the endosperm of the kernel. Turquoise popcorn is an heirloom variety which is Mostly Hull-Less. Another type of popcorn that shatters the hull when popped is Mixed Baby Rice which is small like its name implies and light tasting. The kernels are shaped something like rice and are white, red, and striped red in color. When popped,it has less volume than other varieties.

I think its time to go pop a movie into the DVD player and enjoy some light airy no calorie snacks.

It seems to me, that looking sexy and working out are mutually exclusive endeavors. When I get home after a jog, my sweaty hair looks like a steroid-induced Q-tip, and I'm more likely to spit than seduce.

Not the case if you're Carmen Electra, apparently. "Aerobic Striptease," Electra's booty-shaking, pole-dancing workout DVD, has been #1 on the Billboard charts for 24 weeks, and "Lap Dance," another similarly-themed fitness program, is just a few spots behind.

On the one hand, it sounds like these DVDs don't do a great job of raising your heart rate or your boyfriend's, but on the other, maybe it's just the incentive some women (or men) need to start exercising. As Mary Elizabeth Williams notes in the linked article, you won't have anyone encouraging you to "touch yourself" at Pilates class.

At least not like that.

Chances are, the DVD section of your local store devotes an aisle or two to the latest fitness DVDs, which all promise to deliver a svelte body within a seemingly impossible time frame. The amount of choices can be overwhelming, and you can't judge a fitness video by its cover, so how do you pick the one that will pack the biggest punch to your paunch? You could start by checking this out -- it's a review of some of the most popular DVDs. Unfortunately, only 5 DVDs are reviewed, and there are definitely more than 5 out there. But hey, it's a start.

I don't own many fitness DVDs, but I do have The Windsor Pilates set, and though I grew a bit tired of the 20-minute workout after doing it for what seems the 100th time, I really liked each of the workout DVDs. I would probably give it an A.

What DVDs have you tried?