90 days in; guess I'm sticking to it. :)

Congrats on your success!
I would like to ask you about the yoga you do. I want to get my husband to try yoga. He hurt his back again this week, just pulled it doing nothing. What yoga did you start with? Do you have any favorites? I googled Hank Hill yoga hoping to come up with some manly yoga videos for him to try. He doesn't like my videos at all.

As silly as it may seem it started with this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIXOo8D9Qsc
After seeing how that guy started and where he got to I figured there was really no excuse not to try it.

DDP Yoga (http://www.ddpyoga.com/) was created by a professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page. He got in to it after he hurt his back wrestling and was recovering. There is a video out there of him talking about it; where he was at; what inspired him and how he got back in to shape. I was sold. I bought it two years ago; then I promptly let it sit on the shelf for a year. Go figure.

After another trip to the beach and seeing the scale pushing 350 I decided I had to make a change. So one night I pulled out the book and DVDs and started following the beginner program. The nice thing was that this was pretty easy to start in to and I could do it at home, alone so I wouldn't feel so self conscious. It starts off going through the basic moves then you work up in to different programs. It rotates between several of them over the course of time so it doesn't feel too repetitive. A heart rate monitor comes with the package I got; the idea is to keep the heart rate within the fat burning zone while doing the yoga. Which actually does get my heart rate up. By the time I'm done a workout I'm dripping with sweat.

There moves/motions aren't to bad. There are some I can do just fine and others that I'm not quite there yet on. My belly certainly gets in the way of some things. The videos show how to do multiple levels of the exercises so you can challenge yourself to a level you feel comfortable with. DDP constantly encourages working at a pace you feel comfortable with and going in to the 'safety zone' as needed (to keep the heart rate in the zone). The workouts I've done range between 20~25 minutes.

My progress with it fells pretty good. At the start there were plenty of times I would pause the video, go in to safety zone, drink some water and pick back up. But after a few weeks I was getting through a video just fine and starting to be able to stretch more and more. I can bend over and touch my toes now, which feels like something of an accomplishment. I don't feel nearly as many aches and pains as I used to. I am most certainly getting stronger as well. And the weight is coming off.

I'm in the 13th and last week of the beginner program. I've done all but one day. It's a M/W/F schedule with some optional weekend work. There is a great morning routine/stretch that takes about 10 minutes to do that I really enjoy. It wakes me up and I feel energized in the morning.

I'm most likely not doing the best pitch job here; check out the videos on youtube and their site. There are some videos that also show him doing some of the moves just so you can get a better idea of what's involved.

I'd be glad to try to answer any other questions if I can. Good luck; I'm sure he can do it.

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments and friends invites. It certainly helps to keep me motivated.

--
Brandon