10 Minute Solutions Fat Blasting Dance Mix Review

Price: £6

Amazon UK / Amazon US

No equipment needed.

    This is the first 10 Minute Solutions dance DVD I bought, and is also the only one I own with more than one person present in the film. This instructor is the one I deem to be the strictest. She's not strict, but she seems as though she could be if the time called for it. She has two other girls dancing with her behind her, but they don't do much but copy the moves. All they really provide is a good look at what you can achieve if you dedicate yourself, but I do think that that is valuable. Several times in 10MS DVDs, the camera will linger on their abs, and it certainly makes me work harder after seeing it.

   This instructor, like all the others is always smiling, but she seems quite down to earth. I think that's why I believe she'd be a strict personal trainer. Later in the DVD, she states that "instructors get tired too" but I think it's marvellous that she says that. Because of course they do! They might be might more used to it, but if you made a professional runner run for an hour, they'd still be tired at the end of it.

   Like all 10 Minute Solutions DVDs, the DVD is split into five 10 minute sections, and gives you the option to either play all, choose an individual section, or - the option I always choose - to select up to five workouts and play them in any order you wish. This gives you the opportunity to line up your favourite workouts, or arrange your own routine depending on the time you have or level you're at without having to touch the remote. 10MS also tends to flow in the same sort of way on each DVD: a slightly easier routine to start with, which, in the run of the entire DVD, can serve as a warm-up; a harder routine, and then a harder one still; and the last two are either toners, or slower to cool you down.

   Like all other DVDs, you can't expect to be able to pick up the workout immediately. Chances are, you won't do a very good job on the first run of the first segment of your first dance DVD. In fact, you'll do just awful. But these DVDs are not designed to just be played once. What I usually do is choose the third option to customise my workout, and just line up four of the same routine when I've not done it before. This gives me four straight run-throughs, which, when I first started, was what I needed to learn it properly. Then, the next day, I'd do a much better job because I was more familiar with it. Now, however, I only need 2 run-throughs before I get to grips with it.

   It irritates me to read Amazon reviews of these DVDs and see people complain that they can't pick the moves up, but some people just expect too much of either the DVDs or themselves and give up too quickly. What also has to keep in mind is that each segment is only 10 minutes long, so if they focused too long on how to do the moves rather an actually doing them, then when you replayed the DVD, looking for a familiar workout, it wouldn't be very demanding. After a few run-throughs you will pick it up.

   This instructor keeps you going, the moves are amazing, and the music is pretty good. I'm more interested in epic soundtracks like Skyrim or The Lord of The Rings, and in rock music, but the music in this DVD is excellent to dance to, and serves as a relatively neutral genre. It does the job to get you moving. There is one move that turns up twice in the DVD in seperate sections, and it took me a good week to actually get the hang of it. The only advice I can offer is to take it all one step at a time. If a move is too complex, then do half of it. If you get ahold of the DVD I'm sure you'll know which move I'm talking about, the "hop, step, tap". It's very difficult but I focused on the footwork, and got there eventually. Once I was confident with the footwork (like I said, after a week), I added in the arms. I have not encountered such a difficult move since. It may have just been me that found it difficult, though.

   Out of my collections of dance workout DVDs, I actually consider this to be the second hardest I own, the first being 'Urban Workout', but that one is not part of 10 Minute Solutions, and is a DVD I'll cover at a later date. It's the disc I put on if I want something familiar, but something hard at the same time.