9 Best Fitness DVDs for Over 50s Women  | Aging Greatly (2023)

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With gyms getting increasingly more expensive and personal trainers being a non-option for most people, it’s important that fitness be accessible to people of all ages, especially people over the age of fifty. Exercising can be an excellent antidote to some of the negative side effects of aging. For women over the age of fifty, workout DVDs can be an excellent option for those of us who want to stay in the comfort of our own home.

The best fitness DVDs for women over the age of 50 are the ones that provide a sustainable workout that will support the joints and connective tissue while still providing stretches and/or aerobic exercise.

Getting healthy and strong doesn’t have to be complicated. With only a couple of workout DVDs, a TV, and some consistency, you can easily become fit in the comfort of your own home and on your own time. Read on for more information about the best workout DVDs for women over the age of fifty.

Total Stretch for Beginners With Tamilee

If you are a super-beginner to working out, you’re probably not very flexible, and that’s okay! Flexibility takes time and effort to develop – contrary to popular belief, flexibility doesn’t come naturally to most people. To get started on your fitness journey, you will need to work slowly, building up strength, flexibility, and stamina gradually and over an extended period of time.

Flexibility is exceptionally important to the exercise process because it helps to prevent injuries such as muscle and tendon tears. Even though it’s possible to get strong and slim through exercise without stretching, stretches help promote recovery in the body. It’s pointless to get buff and lean if you can’t lean over to tie your shoes without cramping up your hamstrings!

Slow stretches are a great way to start your day or end your evening, and this video from Tamilee Webb is an excellent way to either warm up or wind down. What is convenient about this DVD is that it includes three 10-minute stretching sequences for people who want to start small or only have a limited amount of time.

Along with the smaller sequences, she also includes a full-length 30-minute stretching routine for people who want to work a bit harder and have more time on their hands.

Total Stretch is a great place to start because it guides the viewer through a variety of gentle and accessible classes that build flexibility. If you are very new to working out or are recovering from injuries, illnesses, or disability, this is the best option for you. Check out Tamilee’s video and get bendy.

Yoga for Beginners With Barbara Benagh

Slow yoga is one of the best forms of exercise for women over the age of fifty. It is a soothing form of exercise that feels like a moving meditation, with a focus on steadying the breath and creating peace of mind. This is because it allows you to gently build flexibility at your own pace and won’t overwork you.

It’s also an awesome way to start building strength little by little. Because yoga poses are so easy to modify, you can make yoga poses work for you at any level and for any ability.

Though it’s slightly more vigorous than the Total Stretch video we just covered, Yoga with Beginners is a great option for people just starting out on their journey towards fitness and total body wellness.

Barbara Benagh is one of the world’s most popular DVD yoga teachers who has filmed and taught a vast number of yoga classes for beginners as well as more advanced practitioners. She knows how to make yoga work for everyone, not just for people who might already be really flexible.

This video features Barbara’s sweet and kind personality while still encouraging you to find your edge in the poses. These videos are filmed in Half Moon Bay in Antigua, a gorgeous and inspiring backdrop that will encourage viewers to seek a more peaceful state of mind while they practice.

On this DVD, there are eight different sequences that vary from 10 minutes to 60 minutes, giving you a wide variety of options to choose from depending on your schedule and energy levels.

Tai Chi Fit: Over 50 with David-Dorian Ross

While yoga is known worldwide as a helpful form of exercise that allows the practitioner to get both strong and flexible, tai chi has similar qualities but is less widely practiced. Tai chi is a form of slow but strong movement that originated in China and has its roots in traditional Chinese energy medicine and bodywork. Much like yoga, it’s been brought to the West by master teachers and now is accessible to almost everyone through videos such as these.

Tai Chi Fit: Over 50 is a DVD filmed and taught by David-Dorian Ross, a master teacher whose tai chi videos are widely acclaimed and adored by many at-home students. His approach to teaching tai chi makes it easy to follow along to – he mirrors the viewer in his videos, making some of the more complex tai chi poses and movements easy to remember and perform.

Tai chi is excellent for women over 50 because, much like yoga, it calms the mind and promotes full-body relaxation. It’s also an excellent way to support joint and bone health because it encourages soft bends into the knees and slow movements that nourish the structure of the skeleton. What’s more, tai chi is also thought to promote immune health, an increasingly important issue as women age.

Walk It Off in 30 Days With Leslie Sansone

Walking is one of the most underrated forms of exercise. Because it’s something we do every day with our bodies, we often forget that walking (even slowly) has immense benefits for our bodies and minds and can burn serious calories. Walking is an easy way to get in aerobic exercise that helps boost heart and immune health, helps strengthen lung function, and can be a meditative form of movement for people of all abilities, shapes, and sizes.

Leslie Sansone’s Walk It Off in 30 Days is a more vigorous workout than the previously mentioned stretch, yoga, and tai chi DVDs, which is good if you’ve already developed a foundation for yourself and for your workout routine. This DVD has two separate workouts, an aerobic and cardio walking workout that includes some other fun moves, and a weight-based workout that helps tone the body even further.

What’s unique about this workout DVD is that it encourages its viewers to take on a 30-day challenge to better health. Leslie suggests practicing the “walk” on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, while practicing the weight workout Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sundays are rest days. People all over the world have seen excellent, long-lasting results from this video, and you can too.

Aging Backwards With Miranda Esmonde-White

One of the main goals of many women over the age of fifty is to fight the effects of aging. These can include loss of bone density, lack of elasticity of connective tissue, as well as general weakness and loss of stamina. What would you think if I told you that, not only can you halt the effects of aging, but you can also reverse the signs of aging completely? This is what Miranda Esmonde-White aims to teach you in her Aging Backwards DVD.

In this two-part set of workouts, Miranda works to help you stretch out your connective tissue, which is the layer of thin muscle, tendons, and ligaments that keep your body held together. The connective tissue is crucial to the health and mobility of the body because it helps you remain flexible and resistant to physical stress.

The system of connective tissue in the body is vastly interconnected, so Miranda believes that, by deeply stretching out some parts of the body, you can promote ease in other parts of the body as well. By using yoga-like stretches and smooth, fluid movement, Miranda helps you develop more flexibility and resilience, which can help you to decrease pain in the body as well as gain more energy.

Walk STRONG With Jessica Smith

Walking, as mentioned before, is one of the most beneficial activities for the body. Even though we walk around our houses, neighborhoods, and jobs every day, we often forget that the simple act of walking vigorously and for longer distances can be the exact sort of workout that you need in order to get healthy, become strong, and lose weight, if that is a goal of yours.

When combined with strength exercises, walking can be a life-changing way to work out in the comfort of your own home.

Much like the Walk It Off in 30 Days video by Leslie Sansone, this video by Jessica Smith is centered around walking and is combined with a few strength exercises to help boost your calorie-burning potential.

This particular video is centered around boosting metabolism and muscle. Boosting our metabolism helps to promote fat and calorie burning in the body as well as maintain energy for longer periods of time, and building lean muscle helps promote total-body health.

Jessica divides her DVD into three different workouts – the first workout is centered around the upper body, the second is about the lower body, and the third is a total-body workout. This strength-training DVD will give you an easy way to lose weight and get fit in your own home.

The best part is that to use this DVD, all you need is a mat and two dumbbells at a weight that is accessible for you. You don’t need an expensive gym membership or trainer – just pop this DVD on your TV and get sweating.

Sweatin’ to the Oldies With Richard Simmons

Anyone who has taken part in an at-home workout by using a DVD has probably heard of Richard Simmons and his program Sweatin’ to the Oldies. Richard Simmons is the most famous face in the home workout industry, and his Sweatin’ to the Oldies series is what launched millions of people into a fitness and health regimen in the 80s and 90s. This video is great for anyone who may have worked out with Richard in the past and wants a little dose of nostalgia.

Richard’s workouts are so helpful because he doesn’t film them with the expectation that everyone can do every part of the workout. He knows that everyone is working at a different pace and doesn’t portray any unhealthy expectations in his workout videos. His attitude is encouraging, his instructions are upbeat and kind, and the workouts themselves are fun, entertaining, and great for the body.

The workouts in Sweatin’ to the Oldies are a combination of strength, aerobic, and cardio exercises all set to music from the 50s and 60s. In this six DVD set, there are nine hours of workouts to practice along with, so you won’t get tired of these exercises for an exceptionally long time.

These DVDs are a great choice for anyone looking to lose weight at home but who have a hard time getting motivated. Richard’s positive attitude and affirmations can change your life, just like they did for so many in the past.

Timeless Step Workout With Kathy Smith

Much like Richard Simmons’ Sweatin’ to the Oldies program, step aerobics is another fitness program that gained huge popularity in the 80s and 90s when the public interest in total body wellness became vast and everyone was looking for a way to lose weight, trim down, and stay healthy. Step aerobics is very simple to practice because you stay in one place, with the exception of using a step (a low, slightly elevated platform) to stand on and off of.

To practice this step aerobics DVD, all you will need is a small stepping platform to work with. This video series includes 70 minutes of workouts that are accessible for all levels with modifications for people who want to practice more vigorously. They can be used by anyone looking for an easy and low-impact form of movement that’s been proven for years to provide excellent results for calorie burning, fat loss, and general body wellness.

Step aerobics are a great option for people who prefer to stay at home but still want to get their sweat on. Kathy Smith has been teaching step aerobics since the heyday of this style of workout, so she knows exactly what she’s talking about and can instruct you in proper form and alignment. With just a little step and some uplifting instruction from Kathy, you can transform your body in the comfort of your own home with just a step and a DVD.

Original Workout With Jane Fonda

Much like the two previous workout DVDs, Jane Fonda’s Original Workout is one of the most widely beloved used workout videos in the world, having once been the top-selling VHS of all time. Her perky and encouraging style of instruction enraptured millions of people and helped them become slim, fit, and well-conditioned. She uses a combination of strength, flexibility, and aerobic exercises to help tone the body and offer workouts that are great for all kinds of people.

Jane Fonda has become one of the world’s most recognizable faces through these videos. While there are a wide number of classes that she’s recorded which are now available on DVD, this is the first and most practiced of all of Jane’s classes. This is the one that launched her into fame and gave her the spot as one of the world’s foremost fitness trainers.

This DVD offers two different workouts. The first workout on the disc is a thirty-minute exercise routine that can be a great option if you’re just starting out on your fitness journey, though having a little bit of experience with fitness programs such as this one can be helpful. The second disk is a sixty-minute advanced workout, which can be followed along to once you’ve developed the skills and stamina to follow along.

Summary

The best fitness DVDs for women over 50 are those that allow you to work out in ways that support bone health, connective tissue health, with a bit of strength and flexibility included. When you’re aging, it’s important that you provide nourishing exercises to the body in ways that won’t injure bones or muscles that don’t have the strength that they once did at a younger age.

With the help of videos from the aforementioned trainers, it can be easy to develop a healthier lifestyle from the comfort of your own home. Fitness DVDs are so helpful because they can be followed along to without the use of heavy machinery or a gym membership, and are a one-time purchase for workouts that you can use for a lifetime.

Pick a DVD that suits your workout style and get grooving – stay consistent and feel yourself get healthier day by day.

Sources

• Amazon: Total Stretch for Beginners with Tamilee
• Amazon: Yoga for Beginners: Yoga for Beginners DVD: 8 Yoga Video Routines for Beginners
• Amazon: Tai Chi Fit: OVER 50 Beginner Exercises with David-Dorian Ross
• Amazon: Leslie Sansone: Walk It Off in 30 Days
• Amazon: Aging Backwards Connective Tissues Exercises with Miranda Esmonde-White
• Amazon: Boost Metabolism + Muscle! Strength Training for Women, Low Impact, High Results Home Exercise Video, Walk STRONG 2.0
• Amazon: Sweatin’ to the Oldies: Complete Collection
• Amazon: Kathy Smith Timeless: Step Aerobics Workout
• Amazon: Jane Fonda’s Original Workout