10 Minute Solution Dance It Off & Tone It Up

This DVD is led by Jennifer Galardi, who was also the instructor of a prior 10 Minute Solution release, 10 Minute Solution: Fat Blasting Dance Mix. Since I really enjoyed Jennifer's style in that video--I found her to be motivating, and the workouts were both fun and easy-to-follow--when I had the opportunity to purchase this DVD used, I thought I would give it a try.

Like all of offerings in the 10 Minute Solution series, this DVD consists of five 10-minute segments. The Main Menu of the DVD offers you the opportunity to customize your workout: you can select "Play All" or you can choose up to five segments to play in any order. Jennifer teaches all of the segments live, working out alone in a large, bright studio; for the dance workouts, she tends to build up to a longer routine by gradually adding on choreography. Two of the toning workouts use a stretchy fitness band. I have listed the individual segments below, providing an overview of each one.

*SEXY SLIM DOWN*

Rather than a traditional march, Jennifer begins this workout with a tap step. She adds a wide jump out and hop in, adding in a head drop to the side. Some of the moves are relatively simple--e.g., a diagonal push step forward to either side--while others are more complicated, including a jump step that moves into a hip drop. Jennifer does try to give colloquial visualizations to help with the moves: "imagine pulling your shirt off over your head." She also says "don't worry about the choreography," and I definitely had to take that to heart in order to follow along with this workout.

*HIGH ENERGY FAT BURNER*

As the title suggests, this segment IS more high energy--as soon as the music starts, you can hear that it is more upbeat, and there is a bit more impact to the entire workout. There is a somewhat 60s feel to this routine. Jennifer begins with a hip rock side-to-side. She then does a move that is sort of like a front pony, later adding on a knee drop and an actual side-to-side pony. The final move in this series was a surfer "riding the wave" that I found a bit tricky. Otherwise, I thought that the choreography was a little easier in this second workout despite the fact that the workout itself was more challenging.

*DANCER'S ABS*

This routine starts out VERY similar to the abs routine in Jennifer's 10 Minute Solution: Fat Blasting Dance Mix--i.e., you will be doing ab isolations to the front/back and side-to-side as well as hip rolls, adding a side-to-side movement to this. Jennifer also teaches a sort of hip dip move that she says is similar to a belly dance move; she adds some additional dance shakes and hip side-to-side moves to this. I found this segment harder to follow along; I think your form would really have to be impeccable in order to get a decent abs workout here.

*UPPER BODY TONE UP*

To my surprise, this was probably my favorite segment! Jennifer uses the band here to work the arms, and you get a nice little workout in a short period of time. First, Jennifer begins without the band and just does some basic neck stretches, shoulder rolls, and hamstring curls. Picking up the band, she begins with a back row, adding in a nice twist. She then performs bicep curls, doing several variations, including to the side. She counters these with triceps kickbacks. Next comes delt raises, also to both the front and the side. Jennifer finishes with lat pull-downs, a chest move (again adding a nice twist), and a few quick stretches for the upper body.

*BUNS AND THIGH SCULPT*

This toning routine also uses the band, but it didn't feel as effective to me. Many of the movements were ballet-like leg extensions (i.e., to the front, sides, and rear), but because Jennifer does not do many repetitions, I didn't feel like I got much out of this. Similarly, she ties the band around the thighs for some plie work, but this segment was very brief.

As you can see, I have mixed feelings about this video. In comparison to Jennifer's 10 Minute Solution: Fat Blasting Dance Mix, I found the choreography to be a bit harder to learn in this DVD, which was disappointing. However, I also found that the cardio segments of this DVD were a little more intense and interesting, which I liked. I also liked the upper body toning segment quite a bit, although I didn't get much out of the lower body segment (or the abs--not sure whether to call that one cardio or toning). For now, I will be keeping this DVD.