RSSCOLLAGE VIDEO:HOME IS THE BEST PLACE TO WORK OUT
October 31, 2007
You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to START.
You do not need a friend to work out. You do not need a gym. You are always enough for you. You have everything you need already in you, all the motivation and all the physical and mental strength, for anything you want to do. Never doubt that. Whether you exercise or not, you are a powerful person; DETERMINE that you will never doubt that fact again for the rest of your life. Resolve that it is part of your identity and your reality, like your eye color.
I exercise at home because I get to choose it all. I work out when I feel like it, when it suits my schedule and energy level. You can invest in some weights and exercise balls of different sizes and weights, this stuff is cheap. I wear what I want, I listen to the music I like, I put in a load of laundry, I walk around the house when I need a break, and I use my own shower when I’m done.
My children learned to leave me alone because they got used to it. I started with 30 minute sessions every other day. If they interrupted no for no good reason other than they were simply bored, I got a little angrier than I would have if they had waited till I was done.
I think it’s important that my kids see me exercise. They see the commitment, the fun, the variety, the sense of accomplishment, and the effort. Children will watch you more than they will listen to you. If they see parents who read, they are more likely to read. If they see Mom workout, they are more likely to make exercise integral to their own lives. I even buy them their own DVD’s. It used to be geared to kids, like imitating animals. Now they do hip-hop, yoga, and intensity circuits.
Collage Video
Collage Video
Call this number : 1-800-433-6769 and request the free catalog, or do it online at http://www.collagevideo.com/. This is Collage Video, a company based in Minneapolis that sells exercise DVD’s. Listen to me when I tell you, it is awesome.
They have hundreds and hundreds of DVDs from beginner to very advanced including all of the categories: stretch and floor type of movement, step, ballet and kickboxing. They do have a website, but the selection is so big that it’s hard to organize your own preferences on the computer until you become more used to the system and get to know the instructors a little.
Just make a phone call. Send a message to the Universe that you are ready to become more than what you are today. It will hear you loud and clear. It always does.
The 4 aspects of fitness
Think about movement as a square with 4 corners : strength, cardio, flexibility, and balance, and try to have some elements of each in the group of videos you highlight. Choose a few that seem interesting but a little too hard as well. We’re not going to buy anything yet.
Look at the choices in the catalog. You can see the length of the programs and how the time is used. You can see how difficult the movements are (Beginner to Advanced) and how complicated or dancy they are. Some are 20 minutes long, all about walking. There are DVD’s that are a compilation of several 10 minute segments just on abdominal toning. Choose a few that seem interesting. You do not have to imagine yourself out-of-breath and suffering. Anything counts that is not sitting on the couch.
A video at Collage Video
Watch the video clips
Don’t order anything till you sit down in front of your computer and look at the website. It really is easy to navigate. Find the programs that looked good to you by typing into the Search boxes in the left column, bring up the page with the program, and click on Play Clip . It’s slower with a dial-up connection, but I still wouldn’t order anything till I watched the clip.
Do the movements look reasonable to you? Does the style of the instructor annoy you or not? You don’t have to spend a day shopping with this person but you are going to have them in your living room several days a week. If a 1 minute clip doesn’t appeal to you, 30 minutes won’t be any better. You’ll get to know the instructors you like. It will be like having your own selection of personal trainers. You’ll know them by their first name.
You’ll notice that many of the programs, even the most advanced ones, often have a student modifying the exercises to make the level beginner or intermediate. I like the advanced programs because they allow you to work at whichever level of difficulty you feel like on any given day. You can easily change those exercises that are not comfortable for your body, and you can use the DVD over and over because it (is) will still be a workout that is challenging and interesting when you become more advanced.
Sometimes, if I’m feeling a little uninspired that day, and everyone has those days, I’ll do a few 15 minute segments on different DVD’s. I’m so busy switching DVDs that the time just goes. I also feel a little silly, so it’s a good exercise in not taking myself too seriously.
I try to choose DVDs that incorporate a wide variety of movements. I see this as a huge advantage over gym style workouts where you tend to repeat the same exercises over and over because you have a set routine that you go through each time. The DVDs provide new moves to work on with every program so your body is always challenged to adapt and the boredom factor is nil.
Place an order, get the newsletter
Order online or order by phone. It’s easy. Too easy. Maybe this is why I have about 60 of these things. I order a few new ones about twice a year, in groups of four so I get $3 off. They arrive within a few days, right to my mailbox.
Before leaving the site, sign up for the free newsletter. This is the easiest way to see what new videos are being released so that you can keep a wish list (though you can always click on New Videos to make sure you haven’t missed anything recent). They also have some good discussions about exercise concepts you hear about like ‘anaerobic’ or ‘core’, and what that means for those of us who are not exercise professionals. I enjoy the interviews with instructors because they’re always surprising; I’m always interested in life’s winding path and what brought us to where we are.
Shape magazine workout at Collage Video.
NOTHING changes till you do
Isn’t it funny (meaning funny peculiar) how, the closer you get to actually doing this, the more excuses flood into your head? It’s as though your brain is trying to protect and defend you from something. One of the best reasons for moving your body every day is to get daily practice in shutting down those useless resisting voices.
Soon, this will be a reflex, just second nature, and it will permeate your whole life. It will become easy to recognize and reject any advice or messages that hold you back, whether they come from inside you or not. Attempts to limit or restrain you will always be there but they will just pass through because you have decided that there will be nothing for them to grab hold of and nowhere for them to dwell. Tell the voices to take a back seat and watch what you’re about to do. As the Grandma in Hoodwinked said, “Bring it, honey”.
You get things by WANTING them
Movement is like every other thing in life that represents change and effort. You can have anything you can think about. The line that separates who gets what they want and who doesn’t is determined by one thing: how much WANT they put into it.
Can you want anything so much that it feeds the fire inside you? It takes some thinking. It doesn’t just happen. You have to let it percolate till it boils. Other things have to seem much less important by comparison. This doesn’t come from the outside. It is already in you.
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