Donna,
I believe it was you who actually made me buy Jane Adams' Gentle Yoga DVD and I agree with you, the lying down full body sequence is heavenly and surprisingly intense and feels lovely!!! So thank you for that hint! ;)

This. ⬆︎

Consistency is the key for me. The older one gets, the longer to see results.

One word - Cathe, especially the early MIS. That was a killer workout!

Rotations that changed my body visibly:

The Firm's original 90 day rotation: lost an inch around my waist, gained an inch around my hips (it was my pancake butt turning into a bubble, it was a GOOD THING!!), flatter belly, definition in my arms.

Les Mills Pump: same thing. My regular massage therapist said, when she saw and felt me after 8 weeks of Pump "oh my gosh what have you been doing?"

Less dramatic, but still visible: Suzanne Bowen BarreAmped 5 days a week.

Didn't change my body visibly but improved my life in some other way:

Couch to 5K --increasing my cardio capacity was the key to really increasing my ability to do a lot of strength stuff. I would get so winded doing, say, the Firm's tall box leg presses or Pump's endless squats... increasing my cardio capacity made me able to focus on the STRENGTH development of those moves rather than just pant madly, and that made a huge difference. I also felt like a million bucks when I was running, from the ankles up anyway. My feet, not so much.

Tracey Mallet's six minute workouts (I did a rotation of these years ago and don't even quite remember the name of the program!) --I learned the value of sticking with the same moves over time; really improved in specific moves and areas of strength. I'd always been sort of a non-rotation person before this: but since then (2005 maybe?) I've really learned the value of sticking to a rotation or modality for awhile and being able to see improvements and see what it does for you.

Rotations that just didn't cut it for me:

argh, I hate to say this, but Pilates by Lisa. I subscribed for a year and did three specific challenges during that year (two six week challenges, one 2 week challenge, in addition to using the workouts in a more miscellaneous way over time). Pilates makes a great add-on for me, but it does NOT make a good total workout plan. I lost SO much strength in my arms and legs. Great for core but my quads and arms turned to mush. I also had some back issues doing just Pilates. I personally blame this on being an ectomorph; it just takes a LOT of stimulation to maintain muscle and especially to build any kind of strength or muscle. Oh to be a muscular meso!! Alas, I am not.

I'm glad I have her a good, long try, though; she's such a sweet person!

at the other end of the spectrum, New Ways to Kill All the Women, I mean, uh, NROL for women. I went into this one with TREMENDOUS GUSTO and yes, I saw major strength improvements and it was amazing... but I also gained a lot of weight. I actually LOOKED less athletic, because I gained a nice fat layer over my muscles that wasn't there before. I was logging my food at the time and wasn't eating more; my body just went into some crazy hibernation mode. I built strength, but at a cost I wasn't willing to pay.

I used to do a lot of step workouts and those slimmed and strengthened my lower body. With my knees these days, I don't do them. I may revisit that trend some day.

Susan, we are polar opposite! SBF killed my knees, hips, and low back and GAVE me saddlebags worse than I ever had in my life and Lisa got rid of them. And I am a short, mid-framed meso.

NROL made me look like a bulldog. Not pretty.:eek::p

Walking.....lots of it daily.

Cheri, almost universally, the people I know who love Pilates and who claim it is their "IT" workout are mesos. I think that if you are more naturally muscular, as mesos are, Pilates is great. If you have to fight like heck for any muscle gain, like ectos do, Pilates doesn't cut the mustard. At least, that seems to be what I've observed. There are always exceptions to every rule.

Chalene Extreme and The original Firms

Adding in one Horizontal Conditioning workout per week is key for me