Four Pilates, martial arts and dance-inspired workouts, each one 15-20 minutes long and targeting a different body part. Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin instruct.

Advanced beginning exercisers — while these workouts are just moderately intense, they do have a lot of choreography and little cueing, so you need to be quick on your feet (and with your arms), and know proper form.

You either love or hate the whole Skinny Bitch concept — the attitude, the authors' emphasis on veganism, etc. — and you'll either love or hate the workouts. Body is a fusion workout that combines aspects of Pilates, dance and martial arts and is done barefoot. Although the routine was designed by veteran pro Patrick Goudeau, the authors themselves, Freedman and Barnouin, instruct. If you're familiar with Goudeau's workout style, you know that he can put together some pretty complex choreography, so having non-pros teaching the moves could have been a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, Goudeau left in all his signature fun and kept the moves fairly simple, so Freedman and Barnouin's lack of cueing and occasional mistakes aren't deal-breakers. You should be fairly well coordinated and a little patient, but you will catch onto these moves after a few passes. You should also have some exercise experience, since neither Freedman nor Barnouin know the first thing about teaching good form (they do perform the moves correctly, however). There are four mix-and-match segments, all running between 15 and 20 minutes long, and each targeting a specific section — abs, legs, arms and glutes. The workouts are fun, not too tough (although my inner thighs were sore the next day), and Freedman and Barnouin are friendly and chatty. They also swear a lot. Since I curse like sailor (only when the occasion warrants it, of course), this didn't bother me in the least, but if you cringe because they say "ass" instead of "glutes"... it only gets worse from there. So bottom line: semi-fancy moves, bad cueing, good production, some swearing, but I liked it anyway. If cueing is important to you, you'd rather work hard than play lightly, and four-letter words never leave your lips, then there are other workouts out there for you.