Pilates and Yoga

I haven't tired this dvd yet, but one of my friends that is HUGE into fitness said that the Firm is a great series to go with for pilates. i would not recommend Yoga for Dummies.. it frustrated me and went way to slow.

My local cable has an exercise channel that i have flipped through and done a few on it.. do you have anything like that in your area to try?

I really enjoy Shiva Rea, she has many DVD's, the one I have is called Yoga Shakti. There's 4 pre-programmed workouts to chose from ranging from beginner to advanced (the two advanced sequences are really tough, not really suitable for a beginner, I have a hard time with them and I've been practicing yoga for years). But there's this cool feature called the Matrix that allows you to build your own sequence...I mostly end up using that because I find the beginner sequence too easy, and the others too hard and long, so I just pick what I want to do based on how long I have to work out and how adventurous I'm feeling. One other thing I like about her DVD's is that they're filmed in exotic locations, so they're really nice visually (as opposed to the tired "exercise studio" set that is used in most exercise vids).

You can also search for clips on youtube of different popular instructors like Shiva Rea, Rodney Yee, Brian Kest, etc and see which has the right feel for you.