Amy Bento: Abs & Stretch

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Two 15-minute ab workouts and two stretching segments, one 10 minutes long and one 15 minutes long, from Amy Bento. You can do one, two, or as many as you wish.

Intermediate exercisers &mdash Bento always offers a challenge, even when she’s not going all-out. You will need a mat, an exercise band, a light (1–3 pound) pair of hand weights and a stability ball.

First off, don’t expect Bento to get all mind-body-easy-peasy on you, especially with the two abs portion of this workout. These two workouts may not seem that hard, but you may be surprised at how sore you are later on. You start off with standing work that uses light weights. I left it at 3 pounds — even less might be appropriate, because after some of those twists, my obliques and intercostals (those little muscles that hold the ribs together) were definitely feeling it the next day. After the standing work, you get on the mat for more abs and core with the help of the stability ball. The feel-good stretching segments blend Pilates, Yoga and traditional stretching, and once again, you start off with standing stretches that use the exercise band, and then finish it out on the mat. Bento’s workouts are often equipment heavy, but I want to emphasize that this is all equipment it would do you good to have if you work out at home on a regular basis. This might be a good DVD on hand for those times you want to fit in some ab or core work, or when you feel like another DVD didn’t stretch you out enough at the end.