With the sunshine finally here, it has probably got you thinking about finally having to strip off our jumpers and jeans. With the sun and the warmer weather (which is great!), for some of us wearing fewer clothes is daunting. Whether it is your arms, tummy or legs, most of us have an area or two where we feel conscious and if truth be told, we would rather not reveal in the public!Holidays are also on our minds as we all know the feeling when on your first day at the beach or next to the pool, you reveal your white wobbly bits and you think everyone around you is looking and being blinded by the sun bouncing off your backside!
The other thing in the summer is that no one really wants to exercise for long periods of time indoors unless the air conditioning is really good. Shorter workouts are more appealing as lets face it, when the sun is out in England, we want to be too as it does not last long!
With these things in mind, I was sent a DVD series called ’10 minute solution’. Anchor Bay Entertainment is an American company who have produced 5 DVD’s, each containing x5 10 minute routines you can do at home. Given that most of us want to trim up for summer, I have given them a whirl and blimey, they are great!
Blast off body fat DVD
Out of the three which I was sent, my favourite was the ‘Blast off body fat’. The title accurately reflects the tempo and intensity! This is a hard and fast workout series and you only need a light set of dumbbells or two water bottles.
You have to gloss over the introduction by the instructor as it is very very cheesy, but skip through that and get to the exercises sessions as they are excellent. The 5 sessions target 5 different areas so you can choose which one/s you would like to do. They cover the whole body so if you did all 5 in a row (50mins in total), you would get a complete workout.
The idea is that we are busy people and have limited time. The 10 minute workouts means you can slot them into your day at any time. It has also been shown through research that shorter but higher intensity exercise sessions can be just as beneficial (if not more) than spending an hour solid in the gym. 
There is even a clever DVD function where you can pick which sessions you would like to do and in what order, and that customised plan will then be played for you back to back with no stops.
There are a lot of exercises performed within the 10 minutes so you have to keep thinking. I was very impressed with the range of exercises given, they are creative and mixed with different tempos. There are lots of small isolating movements as well as large dynamic exercises. You will not get bored put it that way! You can see that the sequences have been out together carefully and come from someone that has a wide ranging background of techniques. Influences from weight training, Yoga, plyometrics, Pilates and balancing techniques combine perfectly and really give you the benefits quickly.
The music is a little drab but you can always turn the volume down once you know what you are doing, and play your own tunes over the top. That would also solve the problem if you find the instructors voice and coaching slightly irritating (sorry Anchor Bay Entertainment!). The coaching style from the instructors are perhaps lost on the English although they do give you easy key cues to the perform each exercise correctly. The background set-up and production quality is not as high as some others I have seen, however the actual routine and content is excellent.
I was very impressed with this series and will be using them to add to be existing routine at home. These DVD’s will definitely help you trim down, tone up and define all areas of your body. You can buy them at Amazon for a very good price of £4.90.