Rating: Summary: Nice morning quickies Review: If you're in the mood for some morning quickies, this is perfect. Having to choose fromk 5 different workouts is great as well. Tailor to your mood or maybe where what you missed during your normal workouts. I did my normal workout on Sat. but because of interruptions wasn't able to finish my abs. So on Monday morning b-4 work, I programmed the DVD for Kickboxing to wake me up and finished with Pilates for my abs. Perfect! The only thing is that you can't really hear the music too loud.The most inspirational part of the DVD were her legs in Bootcamp!
Rating: Summary: Great way to get variety in your workouts! Review: One of my goals this month was to increase the duration of my toning/weight workouts (on the days in between cardio workouts). I had been just doing a 15-minute abs, arms or buns segment from TamiLee Webb's "I Want That Body!" workout on most toning days and it wasn't enough. Now, I do a 15-minute TamiLee segment PLUS one or two of the 10-minute solution workouts and it gives me a more varied (and less boring) workout that works more parts of my body and goes by very quickly!
Of the 5 workouts on the DVD, I was able to get through most of them on the first try. Pilates was the hardest for me. Then probably Boot Camp. Kickboxing is tough but it's one of my favorites. On first viewing, I thought the Ballet segment would be my least favorite, but I have come to really enjoy it--great workout for the legs/hips/behind! I have always hated yoga (I have arthritis in my spine and a very inflexible body overall and yoga always made me feel like an invalid), but this is a yoga workout I can do and feel good about.
After watching the DVD all the way through once without doing any of the workouts, I decided to do all 5 workouts, one right after the other so I could see which I couldn't do or didn't like and which I wanted to incorporate into my exercise routine. If you don't think that you can get a good workout in 10-minutes, I challenge you to try all 5 together--wow, what a workout! I was spent after that!
I liked the instructor but did feel that some of the workouts went too quickly. I understand that each workout is only 10 minutes so there is no time to waste but, even so, I felt that some things were difficult to follow because of the speed. That improves with repetition, thankfully, but until you know the moves by heart, it can be a challenge to keep up!
Rating: Summary: Need a bit more than 10 minutes!! Review: Overall this DVD is quite good - however I don't think you can do a proper workout in just 10 minutes. Therefore the option to customise your workout with any combination of those contained on the DVD is useful. Even though the DVD contains 5 workouts, you can use the customise workouts option to program 6 (ie do one more than once). The Boot Camp section is a reasonable cardio/weights workout, focusing on hopping from side to side, lunges, squats, bicep curls, triceps, push-ups and abs. I felt that this workout had a rushed quality, as if Michelle had her eye on the clock the whole time and just wanted to squeeze in one more exercise. The stretches at the end were minimal. This section uses hand weights. The Pilates section is quite good - although not necessarily a classical pilates workout. Michelle does "The Hundred" about half way through, and this exercise should be one of the first you do in a pilates session. Again, the stretches were rushed. I liked the Ballet section - particularly as I don't know anything about ballet. Michelle explained plies, releves, first and section positions, etc. I had put off buying the "New York City Ballet" workout after reading comments that there is not enough explanation on that DVD. So perhaps after doing this ballet workout a few times, I'll have enough knowledge to tackle the NY workout. This section uses a chair for balance. The Kickboxing workout needed to be longer, even just another 2-3 minutes. Then there would have been time for a better warm up and more stretches at the end. The sequences were quite good, although Michelle assumed some knowledge of punches and kicks and so not everything was fully explained. There were no side or back kicks. The Yoga section was very good, particulary if done at the end of an exercise session. The first couple of minutes are good upper body and leq stretches and there is a good sequence moving from Cat to Downward Facing Dog. The standing sequence is quite good, but more time should be spent in each pose. The meditation/relaxation section at the end was short. Overall, I thought this DVD was OK to good. If you really can't spare more than 10 minutes for a workout, then give it a go. Otherwise, you'll need to do more than one workout from the DVD and spend a little time warming up and stretching on your own.
Rating: Summary: A bit jumpy and fast, but you'll get used to it...kind of... Review: There are 5 separate workouts here, each with varying degrees of fun and effectiveness. Because each workout is only 10 minutes it will take a few times to be able to keep up - Dozois (instructor) flies from movement to movement as if you've been working together for years, and it can be a bit frustrating at first (especially Pilates, especially if you've never done Pilates before). A workout video can succeed or fail based on the instructor, and Dozois is relatively harmless. She works out with little fanfare - very soft music in the background, peppy instruction, hard body, somewhat inspirational. All in all the video is OK, but nothing exceptional.
Rating: Summary: Variety workout Review: There are some good workouts on this DVD and some that just don't work in ten minutes. The toning sections (pilates, ballet, and yoga) are great, but the cardio sections (boot camp and kick boxing) are just too short. This is a great DVD to try out different styles of exercise, and each section is simple enough for a beginner, but also challenging enough to keep doing. Done together all five of these workouts do make a pretty good complete workout, but it's still short on cardio. Boot camp - try to cram in a cardio workout, weight training session, ab workout, and stretching into ten minutes, and you end up doing about one rep of each exercise. This session is okay for a warm up to other exercise or as part of a complete workout using the entire DVD Ballet - this session is fun. It's all bar work using a chair. Most of the harder moves are only done one time. The music used for this session (similar to the music used for the rest of the sessions), is horrible. Kickboxing - This section is really too short for a cardio workout. It's more like a warm up but it doesn't really have an adequate warm up. Pilates - This session mostly abdominal exercises. The moves are done pretty quickly and not as smoothly as other pilates tapes that I've seen, but it works. Yoga - I think the yoga section is great. It's a little bit fast paced for traditional yoga, but it uses some of the most common moves. It's slightly challenging, but definitely not too hard and is a great end to a workout especially at night.
Rating: Summary: Great Workout! Review: This a great workout video. I tend to become very bored when it comes to working out. This video keeps me interested and actively involved. Each workout is 10 minutes long. There are 5 workouts- aerobics, pilates, ballet, kickboxing, and yoga. You can even program a workout to tailor your needs. I tend to do 2 sessions of the pilates (it really works the abs), ballet (all you need is a chair to assist you), kickboxing (you feel it in your thighs), and yoga (a nice cool-down). I do recommend this product to anyone who isn't really into walking 40 minutes on a treadmill or going to a gym. I look forward to working out everyday with this dvd!
Rating: Summary: Great Workout Review: This is a great DVD if you are looking for variety and don't always have alot of time. There are hardly any props involved to do the workouts.
Rating: Summary: Workouts were just okay, but style is a dud Review: This is one of the worst put together exercise videos that I have ever seen. For starters, everyone else failed to mention that the camera moves while Michelle is moving. This makes you really dizzy just watching. Second, there is hardly any explanation given. Even if you're like me and watch it once beforehand to see what the workout is like, it's really hard to follow. Third, everything felt too rushed. In the pilates segment, for a brief moment you can see one of the cameramen holding up fingers to show Michelle how many repetitions were left. I guess we all know what she's interested in: hurrying up to go somewhere else. A much better 10 minute mix-and-match workout series is the QuickFix series.
Rating: Summary: Wonderful Review: This workout is the best. It is perfect for a busy person. She moves along really quickly with the exercises - probably not good for a beginner but great for anyone else. I love the workouts and I love being able to customize it.
Rating: Summary: This workout's strength is it's weakness Review: This workout's strength is it's weakness. Each section is 10 minutes, which means you get lots of variety. The routines work as much of the body as possible, since it is a condensed format. For example, while you are doing squats, you are also doing curls. This is a great workout to squeeze into a tight schedule. But some of the exercises, & the cool downs in particular, seem a little rushed. My advice is that if you need a structured cool down for any of the first four sections, go to the last section, yoga. I've got other workouts led by Michelle Dozois. The rushed feeling isn't in her other workouts. She's usually very thourough & precise. But given the format of this video, she does a great job.
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