Tried something new . . .

Ok, so I gave 10 Minute Solution 5 Day Get Fit Mix a try and here's the jist of the DVD. The workouts are broken down into 10 minute sessions. Fat Blasting Intervals. Belly Fat Burner. Lean Body Sculpt. Cardio Kickboxing. Power Yoga.

Fat Blasting Intervals - this is similar to the first 5 minutes of Jillian's 3DS where you combine cardio with weights for 10 minutes. She breaks them down into 5 intervals of 2 minutes a piece. It was rather enjoyable I must say. I was able to keep up with her the entire time.

Belly Fat Burner - um, ok so only Gumby would be able to do this workout. She combines a lot of yogaesque moves into the ab routines, and while they appear to be extremely effective, I am just not flexible enough to do about 4 minutes worth of the 10. Oh, btw, this totally kicks Jillian's ass. Talk about hard core fricking moves. If I get up the courage to try this one again I will do a play by play. The first several minutes are fun - they are standing ab moves with weights (so I used my kettlebell) and it was effective and a lot of fun. Then the routine moves to the mat and lets just say my body is not mat friendly when it comes to these kinds of moves. Here's an example - plank pose and then you move your right ankle around your right hand, hold and then back to plank and then do the same on the left side. Like I said, Gumby.

Lean Body Sculpt - I did not do this one today but it is basically pilates from what I gather. Simple moves intended to sculpt lean muscles.

Cardio Kickboxing - OOOH, this was my favorite. I love kickboxing, don't know what it is, but no matter how rough and tumble it gets I find it enjoyable ... maybe it's the constant motion?? I am not flexible enough to do the proper crescent kicks, but limiting the move to my knee works just fine (that is her modification). I don't know which is better - her's or Jillian's when it comes to kickboxing. Kathy Smith used to have a rather awesome aeroboxing and kicboxing VHS workout -- I LOVED those workouts and lost a ton of weight with them too. It really is too bad that the Aerobox never made it to DVD and the Kickboxing one is discontinued, so it's only available by greedy amazon sellers (can you believe the price tag??).

Power Yoga - I didn't have the courage to even attempt this one after doing the ab routine.

Overall impression of this DVD in the 10 minute series - this woman rocks. I really enjoyed working with her and she is a combination between Denise Austin and Jillian Michaels. My heart rate was up in the routines I tried, with the exception of my gaping mouth while watching the gumby routine, and I never felt like I wasn't able to continue. I think my HR got just as high as it did during 3DS (this is something I will have to check next time), but I think this one will definitely stay in the rotation. I recommend giving this one a try - especially if you want to really get an ab workout in that will leave you aching for days to come.

I think I am going to rotate through my workout DVDs and Jillian so that I don't hit a stalemate like I did in November and January.