A Contest for Bendy People (or Wanna Be Bendies)

Does anyone else remember Gumby and Pokey? I used to watch them as kids and, strangely enough, right now Gumby is my hero. That's because of this:

It's the Biggest Loser Weight Loss Yoga workout. It kills me.

In my young, smokin' hot days I was a bendy person, like Gumby. Now, at 43, not so much. I'm trying to change that though. If I have any hope of conquering that chin-up bar this year, I need to get my muscles and flexibility back. Right now, when I hang from the chin-up bar I feel like I'm on a torture rack and someone is ripping my arms from their sockets. It makes me want to cry.

I don't like crying. I'm an ugly crier.

So, I've been doing this Yoga workout, alternating with cardio, for the last eight weeks or so, and I'm feeling a lot stronger. And a little bendier.

And I can pin Peanut Head down when I command him to drop to the floor, put one arm behind his back and use only his pinky finger to fight me off. Yeah, I really can't pin him ever. He's not ticklish and he has the advantage of leverage. And some extra muscles. Plus he's a cheater.

That's all beside the point though. I'm trying to tell you about this workout and how much I love it.

First, I have to confess, I used to think Yoga was a [air quotes please] "workout" for pansies, but that's because I had never tried it. And I had no idea what I was talking about. I tend to put my foot in my mouth from time to time. Okay, a lot.

Yoga is hard. Yoga is reeeeeeel hard. I used to think I had to do high intensity, sweatfest cardio to get a good workout. I don't think that anymore. Try holding plank pose for a minute or more, and you'll be begging to stop. You'll be shaking, your face will be turning red, and you'll have scary veins popping out of your forehead that you never knew you had. Go ahead, try it. I dare you.

Unless of course you're a Yoga expert, then forget it. You, with Gumby, are my hero. I want to be like you.

Anyway, my point if ever I should get there, is that I love this Yoga DVD workout. It has three levels, which is really nice if you're a beginner like me, and you can customize your workout so you are doing only the sections you want to do. Here is how the workout is broken up:

Warm-Up (5 minutes) - Gentle Yoga stretches

Yoga Level 1 (20 minutes) - Essential Yoga poses

Yoga Level 2 (15 minutes) - Poses that sculpt and define muscle

Yoga Level 3 (10 minutes) - Flowing Poses that challenge your strength and stamina

Cool-Down (5 minutes)

You can do the whole thing or just pick and choose each time what you want to do. I love this flexibility with workout DVDs. Some days I have less time and can only get 20 minutes in, so this flexibility is what I need.

The other thing I love is the trainer, Bob Harper. He's so Zen. I'm about as Zen as a Chihuahua, so I need this workout. Bob is always calm (well except for once this season on The Biggest Loser and it was awesome) and his voice is so soothing. Well at least I think it's soothing. Peanut Head disagrees with me on this point. He can't stand Bob's voice. But then Peanut Head can handle the Wii Fit trainers, so there's no reconciling that. I also think Bob is way cute.

I really want you to give this Yoga workout a try, so I'm going to give one away. I went out and bought one just so I could have this little contest and tell you all about it, so here's what I want you to do.

Leave me a comment telling me about your experience (or lack of) with Yoga and what you think of it. I will randomly pick one person to send this DVD to. Please make sure you have contact information in your comment if you don't have a blog or an e-mail attached to a Google account. The contest will end at midnight, Pacific Time, on Friday. Good luck!

Oh, and if you don't win and you want to just buy this DVD for yourself, here's a link for you: