worst of 2014?

[Karen Beckwith]

Originally Posted by amery

This is one of the very few workouts I ever returned... Did not like them at all.

Yay! That's two.

[susan p]

Fe Fit was my big fail of the year too. I thought they'd be great, loved the length.

But UGH!! I did them for two weeks and BAILED.

[Demeris]

I bought two workouts this year that were horribly misnamed, and those misnomers irk me no end.

I got Tonya Larson's stretch--it was advertised as a Christian stretching routine. It was yoga, with a few scriptures thrown in.

I got Dr. Carol Someone's Anti-Aging workout, advertised as an anti-aging workout. It was yoga. Yoga on Prozac, but yoga, nonetheless. Forum rules forbid me from commenting on what annoyed me most about Dr. Carol.

If you're calling a yoga routine a stretch routine, please have a disclaimer. Some of us don't do yoga and don't want to spend money on a yoga dvd.

Neither of these was new in 2014, but they were the worst of 2014 for me.

[neatski]

Originally Posted by Lori_Michigan

--Toniques -- I bought a ton of them and they made by legs bulk so much I couldn't wear my pants! Plus, there's the endless reps--total dread!
-- Dreambody series -- bought them both and absolutely hated them.
-- KCM's Muscle Up and treadmill workouts -- love her, but too much for me to handle

Originally Posted by mtngoat

I hate to say this, but for me it's Toniques. I like Slywia so much I want to like these. I can't do endless lunges because they aggravate my PF (not her fault!).

So glad you guys posted this! I always feel guilty for hating Tonique so much because of all the rave threads, the great results people seem to get, and because Sylwia seems like such a sweetheart, but holy cow just thinking about doing them makes me want to crawl into bed with a bag of potato chips. In a weird way, I am so happy to hear they made you bulk up- now I can stop feeling like I'm missing out on the magic bullet and just be happy doing stuff I enjoy!

Also glad to hear someone else didn't like Dream Body. I loved the concept, but the workouts I tried (2 of them) were dread worthy for me. Is it really necessary to torture oneself for 45-60 minutes in order to achieve results?

[Mickey12]

Slim Series. Luckily I bought it during the Beach Body black Friday sale and only paid $10 for it. I have not gotten through all the workouts, but they all seem to be the same. The music is too low and unmotivating and Debbie's instruction does nothing for me.

Kim

[Lori_Michigan]

Originally Posted by neatski

So glad you guys posted this! I always feel guilty for hating Tonique so much because of all the rave threads, the great results people seem to get, and because Sylwia seems like such a sweetheart, but holy cow just thinking about doing them makes me want to crawl into bed with a bag of potato chips. In a weird way, I am so happy to hear they made you bulk up- now I can stop feeling like I'm missing out on the magic bullet and just be happy doing stuff I enjoy!

Also glad to hear someone else didn't like Dream Body. I loved the concept, but the workouts I tried (2 of them) were dread worthy for me. Is it really necessary to torture oneself for 45-60 minutes in order to achieve results?

Absolutely, no! I switched over to completely low impact and fun, fusion-style workouts, and mostly CS/Essentrics -- and lost 10 pounds this year!

And yes, I had terrible results from Tonique, but I'm short and tend to put on muscle easily, especially in my legs. So I basically overdeveloped my muscles from it. I'm sure it helps many other people, but I couldn't take the nonstop reps. She was quite inspiring though, and I enjoyed her, but it wasn't for me.

Same with Dreambody -- I hated both series. I've done one workout out of the 10, and will probably never do the other ones!

[isebelleg44]

Originally Posted by Lori_Michigan

Absolutely, no! I switched over to completely low impact and fun, fusion-style workouts, and mostly CS/Essentrics -- and lost 10 pounds this year!

And yes, I had terrible results from Tonique, but I'm short and tend to put on muscle easily, especially in my legs. So I basically overdeveloped my muscles from it. I'm sure it helps many other people, but I couldn't take the nonstop reps. She was quite inspiring though, and I enjoyed her, but it wasn't for me.

Same with Dreambody -- I hated both series. I've done one workout out of the 10, and will probably never do the other ones!

I am so glad I am not alone in not enjoying these workouts. I will say this this, that when I finished a Born to Move workout, I felt very accomplished! I just have no desire to revisit!

And I still cringe when I think of that Fusion workout with Darby. Is there a reason to go so fast!

[PhyllisG]

And I still cringe when I think of that Fusion workout with Darby. Is there a reason to go so fast![/QUOTE]

IMO No.

[beyond.omega]

Originally Posted by Demeris

I bought two workouts this year that were horribly misnamed, and those misnomers irk me no end.

I got Tonya Larson's stretch--it was advertised as a Christian stretching routine. It was yoga, with a few scriptures thrown in.

I got Dr. Carol Someone's Anti-Aging workout, advertised as an anti-aging workout. It was yoga. Yoga on Prozac, but yoga, nonetheless. Forum rules forbid me from commenting on what annoyed me most about Dr. Carol.

If you're calling a yoga routine a stretch routine, please have a disclaimer. Some of us don't do yoga and don't want to spend money on a yoga dvd.

Neither of these was new in 2014, but they were the worst of 2014 for me.

Demeris, IIRC, you can't do yoga due to physical limitations? (I had the same problem for about 10 years.) If it is a Christian stretching workout, they might not be able to call it yoga for their target market. I know more than one Christian (one of whom is a very close friend of mine) who believes doing yoga poses is equivalent to participating in a cult religious practice and will lead them straight to the gates of heck and refuse to do anything they think is even remotely yoga. And as such, can't get the physical benefits of doing yoga poses.

I don't think a Christian who developed a yoga routine and called it stretching is trying to trick them...just trying to pass on the benefits without getting hung up on ideology. But I can understand your frustration. For a decade I couldn't do yoga - no matter what I modified I always ended up tweaking my back and being set back for two weeks. I actually avoided all stretching workouts because there was a high risk I couldn't do them, and I think a lot are based in yoga poses because yoga poses are effective stretches...for *most* people. I knew which 5 stretches I could do I and decided I was sticking with them until I could prove to myself I could do more.

Ironically, people who practice yoga see doing yoga poses as purely as a physical discipline without any spiritual benefit, and only exists to take care of the body so that it can support the spiritual development through other, more spiritually-oriented practices (such as meditation, spiritual reading, charity.)

(ETA: If it is you belief that doing yoga poses is a religious practice, I'm sorry you may feel you were duped but the workout creators. And while I don't agree with you I hope we can just agree to disagree.)

[Demeris]

Originally Posted by beyond.omega

Demeris, IIRC, you can't do yoga due to physical limitations? (I had the same problem for about 10 years.) If it is a Christian stretching workout, they might not be able to call it yoga for their target market. I know more than one Christian (one of whom is a very close friend of mine) who believes doing yoga poses is equivalent to participating in a cult religious practice and will lead them straight to the gates of heck and refuse to do anything they think is even remotely yoga. And as such, can't get the physical benefits of doing yoga poses.

I don't think a Christian who developed a yoga routine and called it stretching is trying to trick them...just trying to pass on the benefits without getting hung up on ideology. But I can understand your frustration. For a decade I couldn't do yoga - no matter what I modified I always ended up tweaking my back and being set back for two weeks. I actually avoided all stretching workouts because there was a high risk I couldn't do them, and I think a lot are based in yoga poses because yoga poses are effective stretches...for *most* people. I knew which 5 stretches I could do I and decided I was sticking with them until I could prove to myself I could do more.

Editing to add that I did Chinese Yoga and had no trouble--but it was more of a stretching workout than a yoga workout.
Ironically, people who practice yoga see doing yoga poses as purely as a physical discipline without any spiritual benefit, and only exists to take care of the body so that it can support the spiritual development through other, more spiritually-oriented practices (such as meditation, spiritual reading, charity.)

(ETA: If it is you belief that doing yoga poses is a religious practice, I'm sorry you may feel you were duped but the workout creators. And while I don't agree with you I hope we can just agree to disagree.)

Yoga--the various schools of yoga which I have tried--do a horrible thing to my knees and back.

Karen Voigt, Donna Flagg, Miranda Esmonde-White--all have stretching workouts/dvds that are not yoga--Karen's has some obviously yoga-inspired stretches--and do not hurt my knees.

If a stretching workouts relies almost exclusively on yoga, as do the two I mentioned in my original post, then those of us who don't do yoga would like to know before we spend our hard-earned pennies on it.