You know how some people spend a lot on gym memberships and never go?  That's not my problem.  I love going to the gym.  I love spin classes and the ellipticals and if I can hire a trainer to help me, I don't even mind lifting weights.  My problem is at home workout DVDs.  They don't work for me.  When I had a baby a year ago, I bought about half a dozen DVD's that I reasoned I would use while the baby "slept"... you can laugh, I won't take it personally.

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Luckily, there's a gym in my building and while I've managed to go three times a week, most of the last year, I really want to step up my cardio game. Enter Serena Williams and the spontaneous speed workout she created with Nike.  You can download it for $10.99 on Itunes.  It comes with 11 songs as well as the 12th track which is 30 minutes of Serena walking you, or rather whipping you, through a speed workout.  You run (or walk) slow with speed bursts that last anywhere from thirty seconds to two minutes.

I have to admit, I was a little intimidated to try it at first.  I'm not the greatest runner in the world.  So for a few weeks, I just listened to the tracks while I did weights. I love Serena's taste in music from Mary J. Blige and Keyshia Cole to Vanessa Carlton and Timbaland. Serena's DJ'ing skills helped me power through my weights workout when I'd just as soon skip it. 

But I needed to do more cardio, so finally I tried to do Serena's speed workout, going at my own pace.  I ran in slow and fast bursts for twenty minutes of the 30 minute workout, and I discovered something big.  Doing Serena's workout for 20 minutes was more of a kick in a pants than doing the elliptical for 45 minutes (especially when I was doing said elliptical while watching America's Next Top Model.)

Every time I do Serena's speed workout, I am not just panting, out of my breath, with my workout clothes covered in sweat.  I feel like an athlete.  One of my favorite movies is Love and Basketball.  I had season tickets to the WNBA for years.  I so admire women athletes, but the truth is when I went out for JV basketball in high school, those girls scared the bejesus out of me. I'm not fast. I'm not tough.  I don't talk trash with any degree of panache.

With the Serena speed workout, it doesn't matter.  It's just me, competing against myself and it feels great.

Have you tried any of the Nike plus workouts?  Do you have an out of the gym workout that really works for you?