Fit for giving

LITTLE ROCK — There she is again, and again, and … seriously, this is getting old.

Not you Denise, or Jackie, or Jillian, or Hemalayaa (not even close).

You all are perpetually young and cool,the enviable sort of friend who dresses stylishly, picks up the lunch tab (nicoise salad) and never misses a tennis date.

Not that we’d want to play tennis with any of you. We imagine Jillian has a killer backhand, and Jackie would show no mercy.

The queens of fitness DVDs and reality television - the dancers from that show on ABC are back, too - seem to put out a new release every other week, and all have DVDs that will be out in plenty of time for Christmas.

What better stocking stuffer for a fitness junkie? Think about it:

Kettle bells? Too heavy.

Resistance bands? Too much to coil.

Here are some of the releases from familiar faces that will be out in the next week or so:

DENISE AUSTIN

The Energizer Bunny of the fitness world, Austin is releasing not one but two DVDs on Tuesday: Shrink Your Fat Zones Pilates and Quick Burn Cardio (both $14.98 from Lionsgate).

Chances are you’ve heard of her

at some point in the last 25 years;

she’s sold more than 25 million exercise videos (DVD and VHS).

Her DVDs in general are easy to follow. The instruction is impeccable and, as is typical in most of her offerings, both of her latest DVDs allow viewers to pick and choose from a workout menu. Also typical of her oeuvre, they include proper warm-ups and cool-downs, and permit voice muting, for those who don’t want to listen to Denise’s soft encouragement.

Quick Burn Cardio has two 20-minute workouts, one of which requires weights. The moves in each routine are straightforward:simulated jump rope, kicks, jumping jacks - even speed punches. (Think Rocky hitting the little bag.) You’ll see moves that are common in kickboxing and boot camp classes.

The weightlifting routine incorporates resistance into many of those same moves.

Rows are combined with knee lifts and lunges, for instance.

She works all the major muscle groups and often throws in moves that challenge one’s balance too.

Shrink Your Fat Zones Pilates has three 15-minute workouts. One targets the midsection, another, the upper body, and the third, the lower body.

She keeps things simple. That’s not to say the workout isn’t challenging, but that the choreography isn’t taxing and you won’t need much equipment. The core workout requires a towel and a mat. The towel is put to good use, as a crutch to help exercisers roll up from a supine position or to cushion the hips and rear during leg raises.

Weights are used in the upper-body workout, making moves like plie squats and arm circles more challenging.

In the lower-body routine, Austin brings lots of twists and other challenges to the core (your midsection, basically). The DVD comes with a “21-day recommendation” on how often to do the workouts over a three-week period. She suggests exercisers start with two workouts and build up to three.

JILLIAN MICHAELS

Want a six-pack like Jillian’s? Well, you’d better work for it and listen to her. And if you want, you can bone up on your Spanish, too, since her latest DV D, 6 Week Six-Pack ($14.98 and available Tuesday from Lionsgate), can be played in English or Spanish.

The DVD has two roughly 30-minute workouts, and one would bewise to heed her advice and start with Level One. Even the names of the moves sound punishing - jackknives and prison lunges and burpees.

She keeps exercisers on their toes, and hands, and knees, and just about any other painful contortion she can think of. Level One is challenging enough because, as she puts it, to get shredded you have to keep your heart rate up. She calls this using “cardio intervals.”

In other words, expect moves like squat thrusts, not crunches.

“If you want a six-pack you can’t just do crunches,” Michaels says.

“I like to deliver results.”

She’s good at instruction in this DVD and helpers offer modifications even for the exerciser who’s doing the less challenging moves. (One of the exercisers does modifications aimed at helping the gasping newcomer.)

The Level Two workout is even more intense,adding weights and

more jumps and

twists and, oh my .... Michaels does a lot of coaching, which involves critiquing form, which is helpful, and telling exercisers things like when to keep their legs higher, pointers that may or may not help the exhausted exerciser at home trying after 25 minutes just to raise the legs at all.

Maybe they should really switch things up and see how it sounds in Spanish.

JACKIE WARNER

Apparently Jillian’s not the only exercise guru who hates crunches. Jackie Warner does, too. Her Personal Training With Jackie: Crunch-Free Xtreme Abs will be out Dec.7 ($14.98 from Lionsgate).

She has two workouts on the DVD that each run about 15 minutes. Stand in one, hit the deck in the other. Or, as the supercool blonde says, “Clear a space, and let’s do it.”

Expect todo a lot of lunges and squats in the standing routine. She adds twists and turns and balance moves to target the core.

One move in the floor routine requires exercisers to be in a sit-up position and then put their dumbbell between their knees and slowly lower them to the floor.

Think it’s hard at home? At least you’re not on the DVD. Warner likes to give little karate chops to the bellies of the women with her.

Moves like side plank are made more challenging, too. She has exercisers bring a knee in to their opposite elbow while balanced in side plank.

She also takes time to coach, showing how to make moves harder, as if we needed that. At one point she gamely sizes up a fellow exerciser, or should we say trainee, and says: “That’s the game face.” Don’t we know it.

HEMALAYAA

If this woman doesn’t make you smile, there’s probably something wrong with you. The ethereal beauty is back with Bollywood Party Workout ($16.99 and available Dec. 7 from Acacia).

The DVD includes five minute warm-ups and cool downs and two 20-minute dance workouts: Wedding Party and House Party.

The beauty of Hemalayaa, and we’re not talking about her waist-length raven locks here, is how simple she makes her routines.

Even when you’re not quite as fluid and graceful as she is, which is impossible anyway, you’re still getting a workout.

Her moves are never so complex that the viewer will stop and stare at the television in confusion. Don’t believe me? One of the moves is called “ride the horsey,” another, “lasso,” and yet another involves pointing to the “rump” and “shining up the assets.”

Don’t worry, it’s all PG at the raciest. The Wedding Party is more “innocent,” as Hemalayaa says. Roll those shoulders, swing those hips, sway those arms, march it out a bit. Just don’t wear gold tights like Hemalayaa - only she can pull those off.

The House Party is a bit more rollicking, by Bollywood standards at least. There are chest circles and more bouncing, but frankly we’ve seen worse at American weddings. There’s nothing gratuitous or overtly sexual here. Even the thrusts and pumps look like good, clean fun done Bollywood style. So have no fear, as the Bollywood princess says: “Be sassy, show it off.” DANCING

’S PROS

The Dancing With the Stars gals (aka Kym Johnson, ChelsieHightower and Edyta Sliwinska) have new DVDs.

Anyone who’s watched the show - not that I have ... well, OK, I have, for educational purposes maybe - knows how long it can take a novice to master a routine. The stars undergo intense one-on-one sessions and have a week, at least, to train.

We lowly viewers/dancers at home aren’t even given a tutorial.

Two DVDs including the dance pros from the show are coming out Tuesday (each $14.98 from Lionsgate). Dancing With the Stars: Fat-Burning Cardio Dance has three 15-minute routines: Mambo Mix, Hollywood Jazz, Hustle & Pop.

Dancing With the Stars: Ballroom Buns & Abs includes Paso Doble, Rock’n Abs and Argentine Tango. All last 15 minutes.

If the dancers are still at it in 20 years, maybe they’ll pick up some pointers from Denise or Hemalayaa and explain things a bit more.

Most of the dancers go through one move slowly but then just jump and jive right on in with no more of a warning than “now we’re going to go faster and do a chest circle.”

Prompts on when and which way to turn are woefully lacking. And the dancers seem to take for granted we know how to do a box step or triple step or worse, the dreaded box-step-triple-step combo. Sometimes the camera pans in on the dancers’ faces when those following at home really want to see the dancers’ shoes.

Some of the routines you may know already from the Halloween you dressed as John Travolta. Hustle & Pop gets its disco groove on. Those who’ve memorized the dance sequences in Chicago will enjoy Hollywood Jazz.

But the rest of us ungainly beings may just feel like we’re at the first practice of the first star the audience votes out.

The dancers sometimes explain things that are better left unsaid, like this gem: “We normally dance the Argentine tango with a man, but today we have a chair.”

Viewers might prefer to have a chair too - one to sit in.