A selection of five 10-minute workouts that cover everything from cardio kickboxing to sculpting to Yoga. The versatile Amy Bento instructs.

Intermediate exercisers — these workouts are fast-paced (out of necessity — after all, you only have 10 minutes), so you should be an experienced exerciser. You will need a mat and one pair of medium-light dumbbells, around 5 lbs. or whatever weight is appropriate for you.

I love spending my workout time with Amy Bento. She is lively without being too perky, and a total pro when it comes to cueing and putting together a great workout routine. She has really outdone herself with these five quickie workouts — each one takes a different exercise approach, and you can do one a day (if you're going through a busy phase), or you can do them all for a full workout that includes sculpting, cardio and flexibility. "Flat Blasting Intervals" is a creative blend of strength training moves and fun, one-minute cardio bursts. Half of "Belly Fat Burner" consists of standing exercises with a dumbbell, and the other half is a nice selection of mat exercises that don't rely on your usual, boring crunches. In "Lean Body Sculpt," Bento uses compound moves to wring the most out of your brief workout time. "Cardio Kickboxing," as its title implies, is pure cardio, and you do need to be familiar with kickboxing to get the most out of it because Bento tosses together fairly complex combinations. "Power Yoga" is a nice, basic Vinyasa series based on Sun Salutations. Like all 10 Minute Solution DVDs, you can program several segments together in any order you want, do one workout only or just go through the whole thing. For a Bento workout, this is moderate; she has other, more advanced DVDs, and I found her 10 Minute Solution: Hot Body Boot Camp was tougher (in fact, it was so hard I didn't enjoy it that much). 5 Day Get Fit Mix splits the difference between being challenging and being too much. It's fun that you'll feel the next day, and one of my most highly recommended DVDs of 2009.

 

 

 

Obtained via: publicist