Social Workout

Home Workouts

Exercise DVDs for Sick Day Couch-Fusion Relief

Contrary to what your mom tells you when you call to whine, you can still exercise when you're sick. The general rule of thumb is this: If it's above the neck, and you don't have a fever, rock out with your fitness loving self. If you have a fever, and well anything involving the rest of your body, chill out, take a nap, and watch 9,000 Law & Order episodes. Having said that, there are some general rules of sicksercise ettiquette, like skipping the gym. The gym is a confined space with bad circulation, and spreading disease is just so rude. Let's be civilized, shall we. So basically, sick time is exercise video time. If ever there was a day to get down with Denise Austin, it's when your nose is rocking a crimson hue.

Without further ado, I present a whole bunch of lovely, lowish impact workouts that will keep you from fusing with your couch this cold season: 

Online & Video

DVD Reviews

A Hip Hop Home Workout To Make You Cooler

No longer will I scour the profiles of the men of New York on OkCupid during those long lonely nights; I have found a remedy to my loserdom, and it comes in the form of an exercise DVD. Hmm, that sounds a little creepy lame but I assure you I am a total badass now, thanks to Dance Off the Inches: Cardio Hip Hop. I would even go so far as to say that this is the most fun I have ever had doing an exercise DVD in my history of doing exercise DVDs.  I know, that's a big statement, that's what I'm trying to tell you—this one is awesome.

Online & Video

Fonda Fitness

New Jane Fonda Workout DVDs Just in Time For The Holidays

Early Christmas list-makers, get out your pens. Jane Fonda is releasing two new fitness DVDs: "Jane Fonda: Prime Time Walkout" and "Jane Fonda: Prime Time Fit & Strong." Walkout? How can you resist? On sale November 30th!

Online & Video

Home Workouts

Utterly Lost In My Yoga Download

During yoga class, I look around to see what other people are doing. It's usually not because I'm comparing or competing or anything horribly non-yogic. It's because I'm really bad at following directions. For one, I perpetually mix up my right and my left. For two, I'm hearing impaired. For real (like 30% loss). So while I'm fine when I hear downward dog, sometimes when I hear hum-uh-nu-vassana (what?) I need some visual cues. This makes yoga podcasts — with their total lack of visual cues — particularly amusing sometimes.

Insta-Challenge

And the Winner Is...

Earlier this week, we put three free months at Crunch on the line. The mlogger who sweated out the most "DVDs, Web Video, Wii Fit or Other Wired Home Workout" minutes this week and shared at least one tip for a successful wired home workout, would going home, or rather finally leaving home, with a quarter-year paid gym membership. Mlogging closed at noon EST today. Which means we officially have a winner! With 154 solid minutes of wired home exercise logged this minute, a serious raid of the library's fitness DVD section, and recommendations for fantasy workout/movie pairings (a la our earlier Glee+Piiates Workout), the prize goes to...SPINDIG! Check out her home workout adventures and suggested mashups. Shiva Rae + the Big Lebowski? Potentially brilliant workout combination.

Om at Home

Million Minute Month Home Workout Prize Alert

The Million Minute Month stimulus continues! Home workout fiends, this is your week. The person who logs the most "DVDs, Web Video, Wii Fit or Other Wired Home Workout" minutes this week (cut off, Friday noon, Eastern time) wins three months free at Crunch. Cause we figured, it might be nice for you to get out of the house occasionally too... Need ideas for home workouts? We've got suggestions galore!

• Online Yoga Studios
• Top Five Fitness DVDs of All Time
• Home Fitness for the Fellas

Workout

Glee + Guthy-Renker = Such a Happy Night

Oliver recently turned the SW office on to "Glee." "It's the voices of neurotic New York 30-something writers coming from the mouths of high school students, plus show tunes sensibility!" he crowed. Katie just confessed to watching it last night while sweatily building Ikea furniture. I confessed to having performed the following double laptop, Hulu + infomercial Pilates act twice already this week. Which maybe makes me a neurotic New Yorker. But I heartily recommend the workout anyway: 

SW Labs

As Seen on TV Fitness From the Belly Burner to P90X

If there's one thing I love, it's a good ole fashioned infomercial.  How else would I know I could cook six whole trout in a rotating oven?  Having succumbed to the call of the late night shopping gods one too many times, I have to confess to owning a fair bit of As Seen on TV fitness paraphernalia. Here's what's crap and what isn't: 

Home Workouts

Bootcamp DVD Blitz

Bootcamps are hard — afterward I usually feel like I've been hit in the face with a truck — and that may be the very reason my gym doesn't really offer them and instead serves up less abrasive options like Pilates, Spin, and Urban Rebounding. But I'm not ready to give up on Bootcamp, because even if I feel like I've been hit by a truck, I also feel like I've really worked. Some people with similar bootcamp hankerings turn to indy bootcamps. I turn to military-style muscle toning DVDs. My favorites: 

Online & Video

Home Workouts

How To Avoid At-Home Yoga Injuries

Yoga videos and downloads — oh so cheap and convenient, but no teacher in the room means no gentle hands coming around to nudge you out of your mangled Warrior and into a position that won't jack up your knees. But that doesn't mean you can't try to save yourself from the dangers of living room yoga. Today's L.A. Times is out with a series of photos of do's and don'ts for popular yoga photos. You'll cringe at the shots of scrunch-shouldered Cobra, and hopefully un-scrunch yours quite thoroughly next time you're flowing at home.