Exercise Video Review: Crunch Yoga Mama

I'm a fan of exercise videos. When I'm not being lazy.

Before I got married, I did a stellar job at consistent exercise and was doing videos five times a week--had that little motivation of wanting to look great in my wedding dress. Since then...um, yeah, not so consistent. I take Hank for long walks most every afternoon, and that gives me some exercise, at least. But I figured pregnancy was a good excuse to try a new video. I find that if I spend money on a video, I'm more likely to actually exercise (for a while at least).

So I just completed my first (and last) time through Crunch's Yoga Mama. I am guessing yoga is not all that relaxing if you spend the routine mentally composing a negative blog review of the video?

I found the instructor annoying and cheesy (i.e. "Draw your muscles in toward your bones--like you're giving yourself a big hug!"). And I enjoy yoga for the physical benefits, but I don't like what I would refer to as the "woo-woo" side of it--meditation and "connecting with your inner whatever." (That's why I like The Firm Power Yoga. You get the stretching and toning without the mental woo-woo stuff.) Yoga Mama was a little too woo-woo for me: "place one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart, letting all the love you have in your heart go to your baby..."

If you've done yoga before, this feels way too slow and simple. I understand that in pregnancy you need to be careful, your body is different, your balance is off, your joints are relaxing, etc., but I was bored out of my mind. I am wondering if it would really be that bad to just do a yoga video I already like and just try to be careful and slow. This prenatal yoga video was a big strikeout for me.

Thankfully, Collage Video, where I typically order videos, has a 30-day money back guarantee even for opened videos. (It's a great website--they have reviews, clips of the videos, etc--this is actually the first one I've ordered from them and hated.) Maybe I will try Leisa Hart's Fit Mama--anyone have experience with that one?