Fit Fig & Friends

Today I decided to try one of my newer workouts (I’ve actually had it awhile now but I am just now getting back to regular workouts): Amy Bento’s 10-Minute Solution 5-Day Get Fit Mix.

In the interest of full disclosure and in compliance with a new FTC rule (seriously, can you believe the FTC cares what I write on this little blog?), I received this workout DVD free, compliments of Anchor Bay Entertainment.

Now that we’ve got that out of way, I decided my review this time would start off with just copying over the little notes I took between segments, so you can really get my fresh first impressions.

Here’s what I wrote for each segment:

Fat Blasting Intervals — challenging cardio sections; weight sections don’t feel very effective so I guess it’s mostly about the cardio.  Feeling a bit nipply, Amy?

Pro: great cardio moves; minimal equipment/space.  Con: had to clutch my boobs during jacks — need new bra! OK, never mind, that’s my own problem.

Belly Fat Burner — I just realized Amy’s personality/style seems different from her usual workouts. It’s like Michelle Dozois has possessed her.  My mat keeps slipping — am I losing the sticky bottom?  Should clean soon.

Pro: variety — not your standard crunches.  Con: standing work doesn’t seem very effective — the floor work is better.

Lean Body Sculpt — liked compound moves — love how efficient and gets heart rate up; feel uncoordinated on some of them, though.  Floor work all good.

Pro: all felt challenging, effective, fun. Con: not long enough — oh wait that’s what this whole DVD is about — quick workouts.

Cardio Kickboxing — problem with a 10-minute kickboxing segment is by the time you teach the combos, you don’t have much time to actually get the heart rate up — probably not effective first time but would get more effective with subsequent workouts.  Love the fun combos.  Eek jumping not so good with current bra.  Her personality is back on this one — yay!

Pro: really fun combos, goes quickly.  Con: hard to keep up first time.

Power Yoga– nice that they finish with  yoga.  Was very excited to do some yoga until I remembered it was power  yoga — too fast for little ol’ me (or big ol’ me as is more accurate at the moment).  Ewan (my 4-year old) wanted to joined me so I had to pause and get his mat out.  He likes yoga but thought she was too fast (he also likes slow yoga).

Pro: not that kind of yoga that annoys me with the spiritual mumbo jumbo; also very doable but still challenging. Con: moves fast (which is fine if you like that, I’m sure).

So now you know the kind of stuff I am thinking while I do a workout.  As you can see by the names of the workouts, there’s a lot of variety on this one.  The reviewers on Collage really seemed happy with that.  It is fun to do 5 different 10-minute workouts and feel like you pack in a lot of variety, but I think I generally prefer the 10-Minute Solution DVDs that have 5 different workouts but focusing on the same body part. Like 10-Minute Solution Quick Tummy Toners, 10 Minute Solution: Belly, Butt & Thigh Blasters.  Usually they will have a particular focus such as all Pilates or Kickboxing but the various segments are all for different body parts.  I wish they’d do an all upper body workout that could be paired with an all lower body workout. Then I could just choose how long to do each one and feel like I worked different parts more thoroughly.  That being said, the variety is indeed fun when that’s what you’re in the mood for, and these are a nice choice to add just a segment or two on another workout when you feel like you want just a little more.

The best thing about this workout (and any 10-Minute solution workout) is that it doesn’t take a lot of equipment or time. I did all 50 minutes today but of course you can choose to do anything from 10-50 minutes.  I was also happy to work out with Amy, one of my favorite instructors. The worst thing is just the fact that it’s really hard to pack a tough workout into just 10 minute segments. On the cardio segments, by the time you get your heart rate up, it’s time to bring it down again. On the weight segments, you don’t have time to work up a good burn in the muscles.  So I don’t think I’d make it my only workout, but I think it’s a keeper for the odd day when I just want that variety or can’t decide what kind of workout I want to do.

Tags: 10-Minute Solution, Amy Bento, Family and Fun, quick, variety, weights, workout, yoga