TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : VIDEOCASSETTES : Excellent Good Fair Poor

Times writers take a look at a new batch of exercise videos released in time for the ’86 Christmas season. Why do workout/fitness tapes keep on coming? Partly because they sell, and sell big. Beyond that, the growing emphasis on “low-impact aerobics” incorporates alternate and newly developed methods (the “body band” is one of the latest crazes) and takes into consideration safer and more efficient ways of shaping up the old bod. Above all, exercise videos make good sense and--if they’re used properly and regularly--healthier people, destroying the conception that all TV watchers are couch potatoes.

“Spa Styles.” McGraw-Hill. $24.95. Mary Hart of “Entertainment Tonight” hosts a magazine-style look at four “super spas”: Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa, Turnberry Isle Yacht & Country Club, Canyon Ranch and The Oaks. Half of the hourlong tape is a routine beginner/intermediate workout consisting of stretch warm-ups, aerobics, spot-toning and cool-down. The last half consists of beauty and nutrition “secrets,” including low-cal recipes, tea-bag eye compresses and a daunting do-it-yourself herbal body wrap. The tape comes with 32-page recipe book. First in a planned series for “men and women who believe in the new-fitness life style.” Information: (800) 624-7311. 1/2