Jane Fonda: Resurrected

Exercise videos go through phases of popularity. Jane Fonda popularized aerobics in the 1980s, supermodels created their own workouts in the early 90s, and Tae Bo was a craze in the early 2000s. These videos are easy to laugh at-- uncomfortable looking leotards, perfect hair and makeup, and a perfectly sculpted group of demonstrators.
I had thought these videos were created exclusively for the suburban mom...until my sister took our mom's stash (and a pair of my old leg warmers) to her very urban abode. Then,at home on vacation recently, she relayed stories about her workouts and the pilates class she was taking. "The instructor really makes us work our abs" and "We do a lot of lengthening and strengthening in pilates" were a few exlamations she made while we cooked dinner one night. My mom asked if she had joined a gym.
Liz: "No..."
Mom: "Then who's 'we'?"
Liz: "Uh..the instructor and the class on the pilates dvd I have rented from Netflix."
While my sister's revelation was initially funny, I realized that she is in much better shape than me and that maybe she was on to something. I perused through the workout dvd selection on Netflix and saw a plethora of workout options: boot camp, ab attack, cardio salsa, strip tease (?!), belly dancing-- whoa, belly dancing?
I rented the belly dancing and invited some friends over and kicked G out for the evening. Veena and Neena are beautiful and the steps started off quite simply. As the Voice told us we were working the cardio and asked if we could feel the burn, we snickered. This was cake. And then we started to break a sweat. The steps increased faster and harder! How do Veena and Neena keep their upper bodies still while shimmy-ing? After 30 minutes I didn't feel like I'd run a marathon, but I did get my heart rate up.
Last week was my turn to lead the girlscout meeting. I decided to have the girls work on the Fun and Fit badge and thought how better to exemplify creative exercise than to have them attempt the belly dancing? The girls loved it and followed along quite well. We all laughed and the girls noted that holding their arms was hard, and that their abs were sore. We had to shut down the dvd before it was over due to time although none of the girls wanted to stop. And then one of the girls said, "Maybe I should do some of my mom's workout videos!" Ah yes, the Jane Fonda workout endures and is passed on to a new generation!