Review: Beginner's Total Body Fat Blasting Workout

I did this workout in my living room

Sometimes I'm not so good about exercising, and I go for several weeks (okay, maybe a few months) where I don't do more than walk the dogs. Then when I try to get back into the exercise groove, it's a lot harder than I remembered. That's when a good beginner's workout is called for.

Time: About 20 minutes
Learning curve: Low - there's a great, helpful video that shows how to do each exercise
Effort: Medium to high
Equipment: dumbbells

The video was extremely helpful, and Mallory did a great job explaining how to do all the exercises - I definitely learned some new things about how to do squats and crunches correctly. Most of the excercises are at the same effort level, except for the push-ups. Maybe it's just me, but 15 push-ups is a lot, and I really struggled to do it. For someone who is more of a beginner than I am, they might want to just do 5-10 push-ups and work up to 15.

Review: 20 Minutes to Toned

This workout required some equipment I don't have at home, so I did it at the gym.


Time: About 30 minutes
Learning Curve: Moderate
Effort: Medium-sweaty
Equipment: Timer, resistance band, bosu balance trainer, medicine ball

This workout went pretty slowly the first time I did it, but I was able to pick it up pretty quickly, and by the third time I did it I was almost bored. The whole routine actually lasted about 30 minutes for me because of the time in between exercises setting up for the next one or reading the instructions on my phone.

The article recommends using a resistance band, but I used a Super Band instead, as I found it easier to attach to the gym equipment.

Resistance band

Super Band

I got a lot out of the bosu-based exercises, but had some trouble with the resistance band ones. It was hard to get the band at just the right height so that I could do the exercises properly and at the same time get enough resistance to get a workout, but not so much I couldn't do the exercise. I haven't used resistance bands much before, so your mileage may vary. I actually liked the 1 minute of cardio in between exercises (I just ran in place). I generally don't like cardio and have difficulty running besides, so one minute was right at my tolerance level.

All in all, I liked that this routine made me feel like I'd spent a quality half hour at the gym. But after a week of doing it, I was kind of bored and ready to move on to something new.