Sweatin' to the Oldies

Last week I ordered the 20th anniversary collection of Richard Simmons' Sweatin' to the Oldies from Amazon. The 5-DVD set arrived on Tuesday, but this morning was the first chance I had to give them a try. Fred had told me he wanted to reinforce the living room floor boards before I started, but too bad; I decided to risk ending up in the basement for the sake of fitness.
Anyone familiar with Richard Simmons knows that he wears a tank top and way-too-short shorts to lead his merry band of chubby people, dressed in various attire, through aerobics accompanied by music from the '50s and '60s. I was wearing shorts, a Brewers T-shirt, and my glasses, accompanied only by cats with assorted looks of puzzlement on their furry faces. Thankfully Katie was still in bed and missed the spectacle.
The first song was "Dancing in the Street." Not too fast, just a good warm-up--but I heard body parts popping and cracking almost immediately. Richard's moves are easy to learn and follow, and in the more up-tempo songs like "Peggy Sue" and "Great Balls of Fire," the sweatin' he promised was definitely delivered. I looked like I do after an 8-minute performance of "Paradise by the Dashboard Lights." I noticed that the really overweight people in Richard's back-up group seemed to sit out every other song to catch their breath. The only short breaks I took were to get some water, turn down the thermostat, and answer a call from Fred. I was huffing and puffing into the phone in the middle of "Wipeout"--a song I'd last performed solo at a teacher's union Christmas party in 1983.
I completed the first DVD in about a half hour, feeling like I'd really gotten a good workout. The living room floor is intact, and I hope it doesn't start to smell like a gym in here. I'll probably have sore muscles tomorrow--the cool-down stretching gave me a charlie horse. Fred says he's going to join me doing this on weekends. I hope I won't be laughing too hard to do the routines.
If you're interested in a fun way to exercise at home, I recommend these DVDs--the complete set was $35.99 on Amazon with free shipping. It's also a trip down memory lane, reminding me of the bad dancing we used to do in high school. Tomorrow I'll try DVD #2, which includes "Jailhouse Rock". I'll try to do it justice on Elvis' 75th birthday--maybe I'll wear a jumpsuit.