Save money, time and gas with these ingenious new workouts you can do at home (bonus: none involve jumping jacks).
Yoga Classes for the Overscheduled and Unorganized
Going to yoga class can be more stressful than staying home: You hustle to get there but still arrive late, squeeze into the last few inches of space and modify the poses to avoid accidentally punching someone in the face. Members of the online community YogaGlo can download videos to watch at home, allowing them to take whatever kind of class they want, any time of day or night. For $18 a month, you get unlimited access to more than 2,000 streaming online yoga videos taught by certified instructors, and you can search classes by style, duration, personal goal or body part. So while you won't get hands-on adjustments from a live instructor, you can find exactly the class you're looking for―like a 20-minute Hatha sequence for lower-back pain―and you're guaranteed to get a spot.
Exercise Videos Cool Enough for Rock Stars
The Pound series ain't your mama's home-workout routine. This online version of a popular fitness class at Crunch gyms involves constant simulated drumming with lightly weighted drumsticks. Each 45-minute jam session combines cardio, Pilates, isometric movements and plyometrics. This concept was developed by two certified group-fitness instructors who also happen to be recreational percussionists, and they swear Pound torches fat and sculpts drummer-chick arms (we can attest to the fact that all that pounding made our biceps burn―in an awesome way). For $14.95, you get a pair of Ripstix and a month's access to online classes (after that, it’s $9.99 per month). You also get the freedom to rock out like a Muppet in your living room without feeling self-conscious.
The Workout That Helps You Feel Like a Million Without Spending a Million
You may have heard celebrities like Kelly Ripa and Lisa Rinna raving about the transformative effects of Physique 57, a boutique fitness class that combines ballet, Pilates and isometrics. The intense moves done on the floor and at a ballet barre are designed to improve your posture and strengthen your core, which can help you look longer and leaner. The studios are currently located only in New York and Los Angeles, and classes can become addictive ($31-36 for one class; $110-$250 for the first month). For $5, you can get instant 48-hour access to videos led by the same graceful-but-ripped instructors who teach at the studios (all are dancers). You'll need a sturdy piece of furniture and a set of hand weights for some workouts, but you might not need to get a second job to afford them.
The Videos for When You're Just Not Feeling the Afro-Pop
Love Zumba but crave something new? Mix up your routine (and your tunes) with the new Doonya Bollywood Workout DVDs ($24.99 for a set of 3). The wonderful thing about Indian dance is that it can involve high-impact, celebratory moves like hopping, stomping and spinning, but it never feels like aerobics. These routines are set to invigorating music that fuses Indian classical and folk tunes with jazz and “Bolly-pop”―stuff you most likely haven't heard outside of a Bollywood musical or an Indian wedding. Instructors, who teach at studios in New York, Los Angeles and Washington, DC, break down the individual moves and explain how dances are incorporated into Bollywood movies (a replay-able gift for the uncoordinated). So once you get it all down, you’ll feel as if you're performing on set...even when the only other extra is your cat.
