Women's Health Workout Review: Body you Want in the Time you Have

The April issue of Women's Health Magazine has one of my favorite fitness idea compilations ever. Everyone is super busy these days, so they decided to make a few workouts that can be done in twenty minutes or less. Sounds perfect!

Last week we reviewed the Fast-Track interval workout, which I loved! This week we will be talking about the other two, shorter workout routines. ​These workouts are comprised of the twelve minute Cardio Burn and the fifteen minute Build Strength, Fry Fat. After the Fast-Track workout last week, I have been super excited to try the next treadmill workout and a workout that promises the fat to melt away.

Cardio Burn

This workout is the shortest of the three at only twelve minutes long. Don't let that fool you though, it is hefty. Jens Bangsbo (PhD) says that people who did this interval training sequence for 20-30 minutes were able to shave almost a minute off their 5K run times! This is due to the third level of interval training that keeps your heart rate higher for longer. ​

The workout uses the 30-20-10 plan to get our hearts going and fats burning. The 30-20-10 plan is 30 seconds of slow jogging, 20 seconds of moderate running, and 10 seconds of sprinting. The 30-20-10 routine is done five times followed by a one minute rest and five more. ​

I did the workout on the treadmill and goodness did the time go by. The entire workout, plus warm-up, took 15 minutes. I loved it. The intervals did seem a bit short, but maybe that is part of the appeal. Once you get up to sprinting speed, you have about five seconds before bringing it back down. This was my least favorite part, but it would not stop me from doing the workout again. ​

The workout burnt 145 calories in 15 minutes. Pretty good!

Build Strength, Fry Fat

​Next up on our list is the workout I was most excited to do. Fat is one of the hardest things for me (and most women) to loose. Since this workout promises I will burn fat and gain muscle, I am in. The workout uses sequences that alternate working the upper and lower body for greater results seen faster. There are six exercises that are each done for thirty seconds without breaks between. Women's Health recommends completing three to four circuits, taking a one minute break between each.

Maybe I was too excited about this workout and expected it to be more than it was. I ended up only doing three reps because I was so bored midway through. Everything seemed a bit repetitive and not very engaging. There was one exercise that I enjoyed in this and will be incorporating in other workouts. The push-up position row was fun and something that worked my abs and shoulders since you alternate doing rows with weights in plank position. After three sets I burned 93 calories in 12 minutes with 8 pound weights. Not as good as what I would hope for, but not bad either.

Women's Health Workout Review: Fast-Track Results

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The April issue of Women's Health Magazine has one of my favorite fitness idea compilations ever. Everyone is super busy these days, so they decided to make a few workouts that can be done in twenty minutes or less. Sounds perfect!

Since there are too many great workouts in this article, I cannot limit my review to only one. Instead, we will be review the three longest workouts that caught my eye first. This week we will review the longest of the three, then, next week will be the other two. These workouts are comprised of the twelve minute Cardio Burn, the fifteen minute Build Strength, Fry Fat, and the twenty minute Fast-Track Results workouts.

​Fast-Track Results

This treadmill workout is very similar to a few I have been eying, but quite a bit simpler. ​The mag says that participants who followed this treadmill workout three times a week saw the same results as those who worked out ten hours every week. Getting the same results with a fifth the time would be pretty awesome to almost every person out there!

I have been wanting to try a treadmill routine for a while, so this simple routine seemed like the perfect fit for this newbie interval trainer. The routine is very straight forward with a few minutes of warm up followed by one minute of sprinting and one minute of walking or light jogging done ten times. ​Sprinting should not be killer, they recommend keeping it at an 8 out of 10 on the insanity scale. I stayed between a slow speed of 4.5 and a sprint speed of 8 during the entire workout. And goodness, was this a workout.

The entire thing took me 27 minutes, including the three minute warm up and cool down. The time went by super fast and I burned about 266 calories. That it a much higher calorie burn than I thought my HRM would say. By the end of the workout I was dripping sweat and felt pretty good. After this treadmill workout, I am sold. Next week we will be having another treadmill workout review that I cannot wait to try!

If you are like me and do not do too much in the interval or treadmill workout department, I would recommend trying this to start. The workout flies by and the routine is easy enough that you will feel good afterwards, not dead. ​Plus, the workout can be done on a treadmill to spruce up a boring workout, or outside!

15 Minute Tone at Home

Total time: 15.5 minutes    Calories burned: 120    Workout intensity: Very intense

Amanda Russell has been featured in the latest Women's Health magazine with a 15 Minute Tone at home workout. I love these little tid bits on health and working out that magazines like Women's Health and Shape do, but I rarely every do them for fear that I will not get as good a workout. If you have ever felt this way, I completely understand! That is why, I have done the 15 Minute Tone at Home workout... to let you know if it is worth your time!

The workout is comprised of four exercises you do in 30 second intervals and with 4 reps each. The first 30 seconds was alternating leg squat kicks, followed by a one minute break and 30 seconds of jumping lunges. This was done 4 times total before moving on to the final two sets. The final two exercises were 30 seconds of stacked foot push-ups and 30 seconds cross body mountain climbers done in the same 30 second/1 minute ratio.

The first exercise was great, I loved the squat kicks and could definitely feel it in my legs. The jumping lunges were a bit more difficult and left me feeling very unbalanced quite a few times. I had to change from jumping lunges to regular after the second rep due to pain from an old ballet injury in my knee. The regular lunges were great and I do not feel I missed out on much. This first part of the workout was the cardio section for sure, my heart rate got up to 85 bpm and stayed there almost the entire time. 

Exercises three and four were more geared towards the torso and arms. The push-ups were rather intense for my arms, but I did not feel any real difference between the stacked and original versions. The cross body mountain climbers did a complete number on my abs, with a little extra for my obliques and inner thighs.

The work out was great, overall! I worked up quite the sweat in fifteen minutes, but was very happy it was over. Although it was nice to change up my workout routine, I did find myself bored about mid-way through.  This is the type of workout I would do again if I was short on time and wanted something very intense but did not care about fun. 

For the full article, check out the Women's Health November issue.