Customer Reviews

10 Minute Solution: Rapid Results Fat Burner

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Each section of a Ten Minute Solution workout makes every minute count! As with most Ten Minute Solution DVDs, you burn the most fat in the shortest amount of time. This is the first time I have done a workout with Catherine Chiarelli, and it's her first Ten Minute Solution DVD. She doesn't say much beyond telling you what to do, but I prefer that to a chatty instructor. Although the moves are not very original, I liked the workouts because they live up to the DVD's title of fat burning. You know your burning calories when the instructor is occasionally breathing hard! You can program any combination of sections 1-5 below so that your workout is 10 to 50 minutes long.

Power Sports Drills

This section starts with 2.5 minute warm up with moves like step touches, squats, jumping jacks, leg stretches, "gate swings," which are plies with hands moving from front to side, and "leg crossovers." In the body of the workout there are 5 sport drills, and each is approximately 1-1.5 seconds long. The first drill takes you to the soccer field. You start by dribbling an imaginary ball with your feet. Next, you kick the ball. Then, you go back to dribbling. The second drill takes you to the volley ball court. First, you do a lunge wit underhand bump. Next, you "charge the net," spike an imaginary ball, and fast feet back to starting point. The third drill takes you to the basketball court. Step side to side, and then prep for and take fake jump shots. The fourth drill takes you to the hockey rink. You do "stop the puck" moves that look a bit like side lunges. The fifth drill is speed and agility. First, you do a lunging move forward and back on one leg. Second, you do a jumping back-front-side move. Third you switch to second leg for lunging move. Finally, you end with a cool down.

Extreme Intervals

The purpose of this section is to alternate between high intensity exercises and active recovery. You do a couple of sets of each interval. You start with 30 seconds of warm up with stretches. Some sample interval combinations are jumping and slow squats, jumping with high and low knees, jumping with split squat and alternating lunges, and fast and slow skaters. Last, there is a quick cool down.

Low Impact Fat Blaster

This routine includes "oldies, but goodies." The quick warm up starts with arm circles, hamstring curls, and marches. There are two 5-minute mini-routines of "back to basic" moves. The moves build on each other, so that you learn the moves in small chunks and repeat. Some sample moves form the first routine are mambas, pivots, "punch forwards," slides, leg lifts, step backs, squats, kicks, and lunges. Some sample moves from the second mini-routine are grapevines, v-steps, "punch-ups," out-out in-ins, hamstring curls, front kicks, and lunges. It ends with a quick cool down.

Rapid Results Kickboxing

This workout tarts with a quick 30 second warm up of squats, pulse lunges, and boxer shuffles. The body of the workout has basic kickboxing combinations of kicks, punches, and boxer shuffles. Finally, there is a quick cool down.

Cardio Max

This workout combines simple, high intensity moves into two 5-minute mini-routines. The moves in each routine build on each other so that you learn the moves in small chunks and repeat. Sample moves from the first mini-routine are side steps, v-steps. Hops, knee crosses, jumping jacks, and lunges. Sample moves from the second mini-routine are leg extensions back, knee ups, step touches, running in place, "hoping a box," squats, and side lunges. Last, there is a quick cool down.

Like all of the 10 minute solution workouts, this is broken into 5 10 minute segments. This one is targeted towards more high intensity cardio. The difficulty level of this workout is probably for advanced beginners to intermediate. It is not as difficult as any of the Jillian Michaels workout dvds or even the biggest loser cardio bootcamp workout. I was hoping for a more difficult workout so if you are looking for something on par with Jillian Michaels or Amy Bento, this is not that workout

No equipment is required for this workout and the moves are not very difficult to learn (and I am not particularly coordinated). There is quite a bit of jumping and plyometrics in this one which is good for the heart rate (not good if you have knee problems).

Minor faults:

The cueing between moves was not always very good and the low impact segment seems to drag on and the intensity (and my heartrate also dropped quite a bit). In the future, I will do this segment first as a 10 minute warm-up

Pluses:

The sports drills were quite a bit of fun as was the kickboxing section. For the most part, this workout does get the heart rate up. The instructor is peppy without being annoying and the moves are relatively easy to master.

If you like to dance and can remember routines easily, this is a great workout. It got my heart rate up and I sweated plenty. If you are like me and learn steps slowly and have trouble remembering dances, you may not love this one. A couple of times, by the time I figured out exactly what she was doing, she started doing something new. I prefer a routine where she tells you to do 20 squats, then she tells you to do 20 jumping jacks etc. "Take it from the top" is not a phrase I want to hear during a workout. I find exercise relaxing, except when I'm trying to follow a routine I simply can't remember, then its just frustrating. I found myself doing jumping jacks when I was lost in the routine- I could have done that without a video. Some people may love this, I just don't.

I own almost all of the 10 minute solution DVD's and at least 200 workout DVD's. Some have great instructors, some I really like the choreography, and some are average. And I just have to say on this one - Cat, the instructor, NAILED it! She's fun, energetic, easy to listen to. The routines are easy to catch on to, get my heartrate going, and have a nice flow. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality on this one--I love it! Most of the moves are easy enough for a beginner, but challenging enough for an intermediate. Cat is pleasant, fun to follow, and motivating. This one's a keeper for my daily rotations! And I will watch for future DVD's by Cat.

But now I love it. It is difficult to follow at first; but I picked up the cues and moves quickly after just a few trys. My favorites are the Low Impact Aerobics, Kickboxing (though it is kind of dancy, not typical kickboxing - I use hand weights to bring up the intensity of it) and the Cardio Mix at the end of the tape. There is very little stretching (try zero) or warm up so I recommend stretching really before starting these routines to avoid joint issues - there's quite a bit of twisting and jumping in the first two segments of the tape.

The workouts were good except the "low impact fat blaster". I absolutely hated this routine. I'm not coordinated plus I hate prissy/frilly workouts. I will NOT play this while hubby is in the room as I would be embarrassed.

However, I liked the power sports drills, extreme intervals, Rapid Results Kickboxing. I would use this video while skipping the "Low Impact Fat Blaster".

I got this DVD expecting and wanting 50 minutes of high cardio workouts that would give me a fantastic workout. While the cardio was definitely there throughout all of the segments of the DVD, I just felt that some of the exercises were too repetitive/boring and the instructor Catherine (Cat) Chiarelli was way too fake. It felt like to me Cat was just forcing a smile on her face and not really enjoying the workout. She also seemed incredibly cheesy in some of her comments, which I usually don't mind yet found strangely annoying here. She also doesn't explain the movements well. She will tell you this complicated title of a move (example: we're going to do a jump on a diagonal plane) when in actuality it's not as hard as she makes it to be. There is virtually no break-down of the moves by Cat, which I personally like, but other may find it hard to follow along. Finally, sometimes Cat's technique wasn't correct, and I just found it odd that they would release the DVD with her doing some moves improperly.

Still, I really enjoyed the 5 workouts included. Each of them, like in all the "10 Minute Solution" DVDs, was 10 minutes and focused on a different type of cardio. I thought that each segment had a fantastic warm-up and cool down, which is sometime lacking in the "10 Minute Solution" DVDs. Here is an explanation/breakdown of each:

Power Sports Drills - This was one of my favorite routines as Cat took moves from sports, such as soccer and basketball, and put them into cardio combos. You start with about a 2 minute warm up before moving on to a soccer dribble (basically a shuffle), a soccer kick, a lunge forward with a volley ball bump (a short swing of the arms), and a volleyball spike. You then do some basketball prepares and throws, some hockey blocks (lunges to the side), and some skiing (jumping exercises done side-to-side, forward-to-back, etc.) Finally, you get to do a cool down.

Extreme Intervals - This was another of my favorite segments on the DVD; the idea behind it was that you would do a high cardio move, then a lower cardio move, and you would continue to alternate them. After a warm up you start with a type of jump squat, which you do 16 of before doing 8 slow squats and repeating. Next, you high knees with jumps before doing some slower knee lifts and repeating. Third are some lunging forward jump split-squats (lunges forward) and slow lunges forward. The next move are fast then slow skaters. Next are some jump squats diagonally, first done quickly then slowly. More knee lifts with jumps come next along with some jump ropes. Finally you do a jump side-to-side (like you're jumping over something) with a V-step. You finish with a cool down.

Low Impact Fat Burner - This section was the least athletic of them all, because it has more of a dance feel with it. Cat constantly says that these are old-school moves that you should already know, but I'll leave it up to you on whether or not you know the moves. After a warm up, there are two routines; the first is made up of a step step triple step with a swivel, knee lifts with punches and slides, step tap and leg lift, and a squat kick and lunge. The second routine has these moves: grapevines, kicks, V-steps, taps with punches, hamstring curls, more kicks, and lunges. You take each routine from the top several times, so it can get a bit repetitive. You finish, once more, with a cool down.

Rapid Results Kickboxing - This segment is made up of several kickboxing combos, which are all fun and surprisingly original. You start, of course, with a warm up before starting the first combo which is composed of a knee strike then jabs and punches (two types of punches). The next combo is a shuffle to the side with jabs then uppercuts; and the next combo is made up of squat pulses with side kicks. Combo number four is made up of a step touch step jab 3 times, 4 jabs, 4 more punches to the corner, and knee strikes. You then add speed bags (rolling arms) to the end of that, and you're done (after a cool down, of course).

Cardio Max - The theory behind this workout is that you take regular cardio moves and bump them up a notch to make them even more effective. I also noticed that a lot of upper body is incorporated to add to the moves. A warm up is done first before you start routine number one. The moves included are: triple steps with jumps, step touches, V-steps (running and jumping them), knee lifts with jumps, and lunges with jumping jacks. Routine number two is a bit more innovative with moves such as the following: back leg lifts and knee lifts, jumping a box shape, some fast runs, side lunges and jump squats, and hamstring curls with jumps. After yet another cool down, you are done.

You can customize your workout by playing the workouts in any order that you wish. Overall, I really enjoyed the workouts, for the most part; although I do feel that there was a bit too many moves repeated such as knee lifts, squats, and kicks. I think there could have been a little bit more variety. Also, I'm not a big fan of Cat's personality, although I do realize that it's just my personal opinion; others may love her. I'd definitely recommend this to intermediate/advanced exercisers looking for a very high impact, all-cardio, athletic workout.

Two of the workouts on this video are GREAT! (Power Sports Drills, Extreme Intervals)They are simple and easy to follow. They are challenging (which is what I was looking for, something to make me sweat). I love those two.

The remaining three are difficult in a different way. They take a lot of coordination. The instructor uses dance moves that seem complicated to someone who doesn't dance.

It was still worth the money, and maybe at some point I'll be able to follow the other three work outs! :)

I like doing workout DVD's and have a good collection of BeachBody programs, Jillian Michaels and 10 Minute Solution workouts. I was looking for something new and I figured a cardio DVD would be great. I was hesitate at the first segment because I didn't feel like I was working anything but then as I added the next few segments I could feel that my body was being worked! Not to mention I was sore the next day. I think this is a good DVD and the instructor is good. I would absolutely get another one of the videos instructed by her. I definitely recommend this one if you want to incorporate a different kind of cardio routine to your workout.

I am always trying to fit cardio into my workouts. This DVD is great for that since I can do 10 minutes or 50 minutes depending on my schedule. This really got my heart rate up. A couple of the segments were a little "dancy" for me at first, but once I got used to it I thought it was really fun and got my heart rate up. My favorite segment was the Power Sports Drills. The main thing I noticed about this DVD is that it was not some of the dreaded standard cardio moves but more fun, unique routines. Even though it was definitely a cardio workout, there seemed to be a few moves that snuck a little hint of toning (lunges, back leg raises) in there, which was great. I really like the instructor, too. She is very bubbly, but not obnoxious. I would love to do more of her workouts. This is a great way to add the right amount of cardio for your life.