Women’s Health Total Workout in Ten, GT Media, 39 minutes, DVD, $ 14. 98. Available at Amazon. com, www. ro dalestore. com and other retailers.
Ten seems to be a charmed fitness number, as it’s the number of minutes that busy people should find possible to rip from their daily schedules and devote to exercise.
That’s the main idea, anyway. But a secondary, perhaps better, one is that once you start moving, you’ll want to continue. Then 10 minutes turns into 20, 30... and so on. Before you know it, you’re doing an honest-to-fitness workout.
There are myriad 10-minute workout videos on the market, the newest being Total Workout in Ten. That means if you do four 10-minute workouts consecutively, you’ll have completed a total-body workout. It doesn’t mean that 10 minutes is all you need to do.
Total Workout in Ten includes four 10-minute-or-so segments focusing on cardiovascular exercise, upper- and lower-body work, flexibility and balance. A bonus section demonstrates how to work abdominal and oblique muscles using a stability ball.
Ebullient trainer Amy Dixon jumps immediately into the cardiovascular routine after advising viewers that they might want to march in place a few minutes before beginning the workout. Really, it is a good idea to pause and do as she suggests because the cardiovascular workout is high-energy all the way, and you need to be a little loose at the start or you’ll fade fast.
The workout includes standards such as rope-jumping, side kicks and punches. Dixon adds moves of her own, such as one she facetiously describes as “karate-inspired:” not a punch, not a kick, but a simulated tying of a karate belt.
For fun, a higher heart rate and taut oblique muscles, Dixon leads viewers in a “wood chop.” Even if you’ve never chopped wood, and most of us haven’t, you should be able to swing a straight arm diagonally from one side to the other. We’re chopping a big hunk of wood, Dixon says. Chop hard.
The first 10 minutes fly, as do the first beads of perspiration, so you may want to continue on to the second segment. If you follow the pre-built workout, this will focus on the lower body. But you also have the option of programming the segments in an order that suits you. Maybe you’d like to do the upper-body work first. Go wild.
For the three noncardiovascular workouts, you need 3-pound dumbbells and an exercise mat.
The lower-body workout begins with, you guessed it, squats. And, Dixon reminds us, “You only have 10 minutes, so mean business.” That means no cheating, no half-, um, hearted squats.
Once you’re squatting like a gym rat, Dixon revs the workout by asking you to pass a dumbbell from one hand to the other through the legs — this in addition to the squat.
But two-legged squats apparently don’t do enough to improve balance, so it’s on to single-leg squats performed as you lean forward with one leg lifted and extended behind you. Don’t put that leg down yet... you’ll need it up for single-leg deadlifts.
Here, we should note that if you are new to the fitness quest, you’ll want to perform the modified version of this move: keeping both feet on the floor.
The upper-body segment includes bent-over rows, triceps presses, lateral and front arm raises, pushups and biceps curls. And you get another chance at the balance thing by curling the biceps while perched on one leg.
The last segment, balance and flexibility, contains moves borrowed from ballet and yoga. You get grand plies, plies with pulses and a chair pose — although, by this point, your “chair legs” will be pretty wobbly.
People who are new to exercise probably can perform some movements on the video, but really need to start with a more basic workout and tackle this when they’ve built stamina and strength.
Workout veterans may also find some of the movements challenging, but will be familiar with most of them, which is good because Dixon provides little in the way of explanation.
Dixon does provide fitness tips in a bonus segment. For instance, she says, “Start with anything you can do.” How does 10 minutes sound ?
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