The Best Women's Fitness Videos

Using workout videos allows you to work toward your personal fitness goals in the privacy of your own home. There are excellent workout videos available, particularly geared towards the needs of women, for all levels of fitness and all types of exercises. The main categories of fitness videos are cardio/aerobics, strengthening or toning, combination (cardio and strength training), and yoga or stretching (flexibility). This article highlights the best videos for beginners, intermediate exercisers and advanced users.

Beginners

Leslie Sansone is best known for her walking videos. Her style is motivational but easy to follow. She uses marches and kicks to elevate your heart rate. Try her "Walk This Way," "3 Mile Weight Loss Walk" videos or one of her toning videos.

Prefer step aerobics? Gin Miller's "Everybody Steps" and Keri Anderson's "GO: Step for Beginners" are both good choices. Miller's is very basic. Anderson's is slightly more complicated but moves are broken down and explained. Miller's "Build up Your Muscles" introduces you to resistance training equipment, such as resistance tubes and dumbbells, and shows you the best ways to use them. The "For Dummies" Series is good because the instructor is alone, making it less distracting, and the exercises are shown from multiple angles. The "10 Minute Solution" videos allow you to choose from toning, aerobics or yoga. Each series is divided into six 10-minute sections so that they can be mixed and matched.

For Intermediate Exercisers

Jillian Michaels is best known for her role as the star trainer on "The Biggest Loser" television program. The DVD entitled "Jillian Michaels: No More Trouble Zones" is a fantastic strength training video. She combines classic total body exercises, such as squats with bicep curls, with innovative abdominal exercises. The "Prevention: 2-Week Total Body Turnaround" features two workouts, a muscle toning segment and a walking-style cardio segment (each around 40 minutes) which can be done together or separately. Gilad Janklowicz's workout videos are effective and motivating. Try his "Express Workouts" video. It features two challenging workouts (total-body aerobics and an upper/lower body toning workout). The choreography is basic. If Pilates is more your thing, nobody does it better than Mary Winsor. Her "Mary Winsor Pilates" workout is appropriate for intermediate and advanced exercisers and features her signature moves, no equipment needed.

Advanced Exercisers

If you have been exercising for a long time, try these challenging exercise video picks. Cathe Friedrich is known for her challenging workouts, often using an ultra-high step and very heavy weights (dumbbells and a barbell). Her "Kick, Punch, Crunch & Legs & Glutes" DVD features two workouts--aerobic kickboxing and lower-body sculpting. Check out some of her other advanced titles.

Love aerobics? Kelly Coffey's 30 minutes to Fitness: Cardio Blast is chock-full of heart-pumping moves in two workouts. One workout is step, the other features plyometrics. If you are an advanced exerciser, chances are you have heard of Patrick Goudeau. His "Hard Work Conditioning" alternates easy-to-follow aerobics intervals with compound muscle toning moves. You recruit multiple muscle groups for each exercise. Try any of his challenging workouts.