Customer Reviews

Dance Fitness for Beginners: Daily Quickies - Ten Minute Workouts

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

 

 

I have both Madonna Grimes workouts DVD's and fell in love with her 10 minute workouts. It was a great way to start my day, I was hoping that this tape included two new workouts alas they were the same, but with disapointment comes satisfaction. The other 10 minute workouts give me a chance to change my early morning workouts, and learn a workout that I never thought that I would learn and enjoy doing. Jayna's bellydance helps you to feel sexy and still enjoy the feeling you get from her low impact toning, also great moves you can use for other reasons. Rania's upper body is really fun, some of the steps are a little harder to do on carpet since you do this barefoot. Suhaila workout I am intimidated by. I have not been able to watch it long enough to complete it. I have a little trouble getting past the control that she has on her butt cheeks. She can contract them one at a time. Some mornings I get enough energy and do multiple workouts from this tape. They are really fun. This tape has a bonus YOGA, I had never tried YOGA and this gave me an opportunity to try it.
I highly recommeded this DVD/VHS. I love the 10 minute workouts. With this DVD/VHS there are no excuses you can always find 10 minutes in a day.

I hadn't exercised (other than walking) in years until recently when I started a weight loss program, so am definitely a "beginner". The tape has 5 10-minute sessions on it, 3 of which are bellydancing, which sounds a lot easier than it actually is especially for someone who has a hard time concentrating on on their feet at the same time as other body parts. Here's my take on each individual segment:

Parts 1 and 5 - MaDonna: these basic cardio workouts are definitely my favourites. They are easy to follow, fun, and give your muscles a workout. A beginner can do these and learn all the exercises pretty quickly. For a 20 minute workout, do one after the other. Excellent.

Part 2 - Suhaila: This is NOT NOT NOT for beginners unless you have bellydancing experience. I felt this segment was more of a showcase for what Suhaila can do. How many "beginners" can move each of their buttocks separately?! Poor.

Part 3 - Jayna: Sinous, slower movements - good for flexibility and toning. More relaxing workout. Good.

Part 4 - Rania: This is mostly a chest workout, good for toning - she repeated the movements a number of times, but I find it very hard to move my feet while moving my chest. This may improve with practice. Fair.

I purchased this DVD mainly for the Hip Hop sections. I was very disappointed to find out there is no Hip Hop dancing on this DVD. Madonna Grimes is the instructor for the Hip Hop section but it is basic aerobics and floor exercises.

These are all the bonus 10 min workouts from each of the mentioned DVDs. DVD has option of regular or letterbox screen & 2.0 or 5.1 dolby sound. Some workoutse may seem like they need more instruction because these are only bonus versions:
Modonna Grimes from her African Beat - 2 min of warmup with basic 80s/90s aerobics fast-paced arm & high kick leg movements, then 3 min of a $*#( of squats, then 1.5 min of basic plies, then 1 min of standing tonining abs/leg pose, then on the floor for 1 min for basic ab crunches w/legs in air, then 3 stretches for legs & spine. your basic gym aerobics instructor, no dance or flair.
Suhaila from her Bellydance fitness Fusion Buns - saddle squat doing for glut isolations (hard to do, but fun once you get it) for 1.5 min, then hip bumps which you do by contracting gluts as move knees slightly & walk (easier to understand with her instruction on the main dvd) but easy enough for those who pick up thing faily easily, (great workout) for 3 min, then 3/5 contractions of gluts for each step (great look) for 2 min, then full shimmy for 4.5 min with diff arm movements (great butt & leg workout.) She has a great personality & a great dancer.
Jayna from her Bellydance for Romance - chest slides, back/forth, lifts/drops, chest circles, hips circles, vertical & horizonal figure 8s & camels. Her pace is very relaxed, she goes slow at first, so even w/o the main dvd, you should be able to pick it up.
Rania from one of her Bellydance for Fitness - chest front/back, lifts/drops for 2 min, camels for 2 min, camels while walking for 2 min, chest circles for 1 min, chest cirlces while walking for 1 min, chest drops while walking, chest slides/drops while walking, chest figure 8s & chest figure 8s while swaying body up/down for 1 min. Actually great chest/upper back, upper ab toner.
Madonna Grimes from her Urban Street Heat - warm up with regular fast-paced arm/leg kicks aerobics for a 2 min warmup, squats & lunges for 2 min, standing ab crunches & oblique crunches for 2 min, squating abs crunches for 1 min, floor ab crunches for 2 min, leg/butt lifts for 1 min, basic spine & a couple leg stretches for 1 min.
BONUS Yoga w/Rainbea Mars from her Dusk OR Dawn DVD - sitting, child's pose, cat/cown, arm stretch, downard dog, held breath standing & shift hips, moutain/frwd standing bends & corbras, twisted lunges, downward dog, moutain, frwd st. bend, cobra, down dog, warrior 1, cobra, down dog, warrior 1, sun salutations, twisted lunges, sun salutations, chair pose, child's pose, laying down in cobbler's pose/butterfuly for 1 min with her positive thoughts. She speaks throughout with extra positive words, very relaxed.

First of all, there is nothing "hip-hop" about the hip hop workouts. There are two by the same woman and they are essentially the same. There is no dancing and no dance moves incorporated into the boring routine which is done to a grating rhythm and not to hip hop music. The other three workouts are all belly dancing. I bought this for myself but was hoping I could use it in my junior high aerobics class. It is so boring my students would not enjoy it and I certainly won't use it. I've come up with more interesting routines on my own. This was a total waste of money and a complete rip off.

I bought this because I thought it'd be great to have some 10-minute workouts, if I feel lazy, that'd be enough to get motivated. Unfortunately I wouldn't call these mini-workouts, but most likely they're scraps from other videos these ladies have done, or maybe they're even outtakes. I really don't know.
I hoped to get a bit of a dance on with MaDonna Grimes, but the first workout is just a lot of squats and
floor work, with Grimes going, 'Aaaaah! I know you're hurtin' now! Aaaah!." Okay .... Her next workout is a bit more energetic, but it never really gets dancy, just a few back and forth steps, knees up a couple of times, and more floor work. I did, however, like the standing abs moves, working the obliques, but I still wanted to dance a bit. MaDonna, Natural Journeys: Didn't you have at least 5 minutes of boogie for me?
Suhaila is an awesome bellydancer, but so far her stuff with Natural Journeys has been a letdown. A lot of this is squatting and squeezing butt cheeks alternately, which if you're a butt freak, this is your workout to watch, but I didn't really enjoy it. Again, I'd have liked a few dance moves instead of squatting and squeezing, then standing and squeezing the butt cheeks while stepping to punctuate lower body movements. It's valid in bellydance, but it didn't make me want to do it again.
The Rania workout was more standing and tippy-toeing stuff, some moving the upper body, a bit of work on the abs and back, too, which wasn't bad, but I wasn't crazy about it.
My favorite was Jayna's bellydance workout, which had a bit of variety and the stretch felt good, and it felt sort of graceful and pretty to do, and I felt it in my shoulders and around my waist the next morning. It wasn't enough to break a sweat, but it felt feminine and fluid and I enjoyed it the most, and that's another 10 minutes I'll gladly go back to.
There's a bonus yoga workout too, which is pretty nice. I think Jayna does that one, too, and it's for the whole body and a nice series of stretches, too.
Not a horrible DVD, and the quality is good, but for 6 workouts, I'd really only want to do 2 of them again. I wish I could get two-thirds of my money back, but oh well. Next time, though, if it's marketed as dance fitness, how about making you feel like you're shaking it a bit for your money's worth?

Love the format, you can do it all or pick & choose. Some routines are more demanding than other, all are doable and lots of fun!

Buy it, it's great and it'll take off the pounds and shape the body. Plus it's loads of fun.

If you want to move for 50 mins, then this is for you. If you are looking for bellydance instruction of any sort - absolutely NOT.

The two MaDonna Grimes workouts are not hip hop, but do work your lower body and abs (in the 2nd of her workouts) quite well.

Suhaila - yes a totally amazing dancer but the individual glute squeezes? C'mon, I've been bellydancing for 8 years and teaching for 3, and that is certainly not for beginners.

Jayna's segment is lovely but I do have a comment about the Jayna and Rania segments. A beginner picking this dvd up and hoping it will give adequate bellydance instruction risks injury - movements like camels and chest isolations require a breakdown of the individual moves, not just "do this" - Rania's camels are ENORMOUS and I can imagine a few strained backs at the very least. Thank the gods for a the disclaimer!

As I say, if you want 50 minutes of movement go for it, but please do not rely on this for bellydance instruction of any sort.

This dvd is the best, I see an improvement already in movement and my shape. It is easy to follow and quick to do, but you are really working your muscles and building a foundation... I recommend this belly dancing dvd to everyone