10 Minute Solution: Rapid Results Fat Burner

Cat Chiarelli
Year Released: 2010

Categories: Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance



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The workouts have been broken down well by previous reviewers. I just want to add my 2 cents: I love this workout! I'm high intermediate and I would rate this as intermediate to high intermediate.

The only segment I don't absolutely love is the Low Impact segment. It is described as "old school" aerobic moves, but it was actually kind of dancey. And I'm dance challenged, so dancey choreo is NOT was I was looking for. It's not horrible, but it just didn't fit in with the other segments, and I would rather skip it.

I would describe the kickboxing as simple combos. It was still fun and interesting, even though the moves were simple.

The high impact segment was fun, challenging, and really got my heart rate up.

I love Cardio Max, where she starts out with a low impact version of a move then shows a higher impact version or "power" version. This was a lot of fun.

Overall it's a GREAT intermediate cardio workout! 4 stars!

Instructor Comments:
Upbeat and encouraging.

PeakFitness

09/03/2010

This dvd has five 10 minute cardio segments that can be mixed and matched to create a 10 - 50 + minute workout. Cat leads this workout alone in the modern 10 Minute Solution set- gray puzzlemats in a nice open room with some fitness "toys" around the perimeter.

Power Sports Drills: In this section Cat does various sporty moves such as volleyball spikes, soccer kicks, a basketball drill, and it includes a w/u and c/d in the 10 minutes. I am a fan of sports drills & enjoyed this section.

Extreme Intervals: In this segment you do 50 sec of higher intensity cardio followed by 50 seconds of low intensity recovery time & then repeats that set 1ce. The high intensity isnt that intense so I did the high intensity version 3X and then used the last 50 seconds as recovery.

Low Impact Fat Blaster: This is a traditional low impact floor routine including hamstring curls, V-steps, kicks, grapevines, and mambos. It has a bit of a dancy feel to it. It was really easy to modify up.

Rapid Results Kickboxing: This was my favorite section- she mixed and matched new & traditional kickboxing moves into fun little routines. Some of the moves include: shuffle, jab, pliet side kicks, punches, knee pulls, speed bags while bouncing.


Cardio Max: This section included 3 mini routines that were a bit dance inspired. The moves were hamstring curls, V-steps, V-hops, V-runs, some plyos, side lunge, fast feet, etc.

This is an intermediate w/o that really works for all fitness levels as you can easily up or down the intensity of all the segments. Though the routines were very athletic, I get the feeling that Cat is a dancer. Her cueing is ok. I am a fan of the newer 10 Minute Solutions w/o's and love addons so I see myself reaching for this often. This dvd contains tried and true cardio moves that most all of us are familiar with. This is a good w/o but not a must have IMO because theres not much too unique about it.

lindseylu8

08/26/2010

I’m reviewing this workout after doing the whole thing once.

General workout breakdown: As with all 10 Minute Solution DVDs, this contains five 10-min. segments, each with a different focus – and here that focus is a different type of floor cardio.
It’s worth noting that when I did all five segments straight through, the workout clocked in at 52 minutes. I believe Low Impact Fat Blaster and Rapid Results Kickboxing are the ones that run just over the 10 min. time.

- Power Sports Drills
Here Cat begins with step touches, shoulder rolls, jumping jacks (regular, crossing, and slow plyo or “gate swings”), and fast squats (and when Cat says fast she means it!). The drills alternate between a slightly lower intensity move and a higher one; you’ll do each pair twice. The drills are drawn from soccer (dribbling, three steps and a kick), volleyball (forward lunge & underhand bump, charge the net to spike the ball & then run back – note that Cat stays on the same arm, but I used my other hand the second time around), basketball (double step touch w/ 2 prep shots, double step touch w/ a prep & then jump shot), hockey (shuffle w/ hockey stop – i.e. a side lunge-type move, alternating hockey stops in place), and skiing (runners or forward & back lunge, ski jumps, or hops to the side, back, & side). Part of what makes this segment fun is the sports angle, which isn’t that common in exercise videos (Mindy Mylrea is the queen of sports-derived cardio, IMHO), and the moves can be surprisingly intense if you imagine you’re a pro athlete while doing them.

- Extreme Intervals
After a brief warm-up, Cat leads you through 8 sets of intervals, where you do 15 seconds or 16 of the high intensity move followed immediately by 15 seconds or 8 of an active recovery move, usually the low impact version of the previous move, and then take a quick break before moving onto the next pair of moves. You’ll begin with front lunges w/ an arm reach, side lunge w/ an arm sweep, knees to chest & runner’s lunge into straightened legs. The interval moves are squat jumps & slow squats, high knee power skips & slow high knee to chest, jump split squats & slow alternating (forward) lunges, skater hops & slow skater step, snowboard jumps (jump side – center – side – center) & alternating lunges on the diagonally transverse plain (i.e. a squat w/ one leg stepping back), high knee drive & jump rope, and mogul ski jumps & v-step. I wouldn’t say these intervals are “extreme,” but they’re nicely intense, and the short time means you can really go all out once you know what you’re doing. My first time through I didn’t go truly HIIT (which, as I understand it, is when your heart rate gets to 90% of the max), but I was close.

- Low Impact Fat Blaster
Here Cat teaches you 2 combos (1 in the first 5 min., the other in the second) of basic floor aerobics that are indeed low impact. She’ll teach you a few moves, then add them onto the growing combo, for a TIFT (take it from the top), although the two combos remain separate, never added together for a big TIFT. After doing step touch w/ arm circles, hamstring curls, high knees w/ arm swings, and marches. The first combo has single single double (wide march with a shuffle in between), pivot, walk w/ a knee up, slide, step tap behind, side leg lift, squat, forward kick, and reverse lunge. The second combo has grapevine, side kick, v-step, step tap w/ punch up, hamstring curls, march back, out out in in, alternating front kicks, and lunge back. While some of the moves reappear in Cardio Max and Rapid Results Kickboxing, in general this style seems a little out of place compared to the other more athletic styles featured on this DVD, with Cat urging you to shake your hips, have fun, etc. I suspect this will be the most forgettable and/or least favorite segment for more than a few folks, especially those who love the three more intense portions. And yet this is the segment where Cat seems to be having the most fun, as evidenced by her warm, genuine smile throughout it and even some giggles.

- Rapid Results Kickboxing
In the first half, after a bob & weave with arms up and in guard, mini squats, pulse lunges & pull back, and boxer shuffle, Cat leads you through several mini combos: walk 3 & knee up, double jab, and double cross; shuffle into double jab, upper cuts; and 3-pulse horse stance into side kick / squat into side kick. In the second she builds up a combo, with step touch & step jab into 4 jabs, jab cross jab cross into two knees, and speed bag. Cat is no martial artist, but her form and especially choreography are more than acceptable as a kickboxing instructor. Still, I suspect that like Low Impact Fat Blaster this will also be somewhat forgettable to most users of this DVD. Personally I rather liked it, and it’s not that difficult to get some intensity out of it, although it’ll be a different type of intensity from the three impact-heavy segments.

- Cardio Max
The idea here is that Cat takes basic aerobics and athletic moves, then bumps up the intensity, usually by adding impact. Although Cat will start with the lower impact move, the final combo uses the higher intensity option. As with Low Impact Fat Blaster you’ll build up two distinct combos, with TIFTing to add in the moves you’ve just learned to the growing combo. Here you’ll begin with some lunging side to side w/ some arms to warm up the upper back. In the first half, the combo has step touches into power step touches w/ 2 step touches, v-steps into running the V & jump out & in, high knees into hopping knee cross, tap forward & back into lunges forward & back, and jumping jacks. The second half’s combo has repeater leg extensions & knee w/ walk in between into hopping leg extension / knee / leg extension, step touch corner to corner into “hop that box,” step touches into running (three runs & a knee), side lunge w/ a knee up, squat into jump squat, and hamstring curls into hamstring curls w/ power (i.e. a hop).

I found Extreme Intervals the most challenging, followed closely by Power Sports Drills and Cardio Max, and then Rapid Results Kickboxing, with Low Impact Fat Blaster the least intense.
Depending upon your level of fitness and comfort with high impact moves, some of these segments will work better than others when you’re gearing up for a workout session. Low Impact Fat Blaster and Rapid Results Kickboxing have the least amount of impact, while Power Sports Drills has the longest warm-up, although Cat does throw in jumping jacks (she’s apparently been talking to Jillian Michaels…). When I ran through all five segments together, I started with Power Sports Drills, did Extreme Intervals, allowed myself a breather with Rapid Results Kickboxing, put in a last push with Cardio Max, and then allowed my heart rate to drift down with Low Impact Fat Blaster. That series worked pretty well for me, and I’d program the disc similarly in the future when doing most or all of the segments.

I can read all of those minds dying to know if this has warm-ups and cool-downs in every segment, and I’m sorry to say that it has.
The warm-ups vary, with Power Sports Drills having the longest (about 2.5 minutes) and most others having more like 30 seconds to a minute. The warm-ups aren’t always so slow that you’ll need to do much to bump them up into the working zone if you’re doing several segments back to back, fortunately.
Every segment has basically the same cool-down: come to a march, widen the feet a little, take a deep breath or two, roll up for a low back release, do a very quick static standing calf and then hamstring stretch, maybe also one for the quadriceps, maybe take another deep breath, and you’re done. If you don’t want your heart rate to come down, pick your favorite filler move: jogging, jumping jacks, jumping rope, etc. If you do use several segments at once as your main workout, I highly recommend adding on a stretch afterwards, especially for the calves after all of that jumping (and you may want to do a little toe-tapping to warm up your shins if you’re sensitive to high impact).

This has quite a bit of impact. Cat doesn’t offer suggestions for modifications or substitutions, but most experienced exercisers can think of ways to take the impact and/or intensity down a notch as needed. (Some of these moves may adapt decently to the rebounder.)
As you can tell from the list of exercises, squats and lunges are common moves; those whose knees get cranky with too many squats and lunges may want to go less deep, make forward lunges into reverse lunges, or just skip this DVD.
There’s little pivoting or turning, even partial versions, however, and it’d be easy to leave out the one pivot in Low Impact Fat Blaster.

Level: I’d recommend this to intermediate through intermediate plus exercisers. Cat doesn’t provide a lot of instruction and sometimes she moves quickly, so you should have a decent enough idea of what you’re doing before you tackle this, and as mentioned she doesn’t do much for anyone who’d wish to modify. I suspect those who do Insanity, who breeze through Cathe’s IMaxes and HiiT workouts, etc., will find this easy, but for the rest of us this should provide a solid workout.
I consider myself an intermediate / advanced exerciser, and doing all five segments in a row provided a decent challenge to me, with my average heart rate in the moderately high to even high part of my working zone. I generally find choreography easy to pick up, and I felt comfortable with all moves after one run through.

Class: just Cat, who instructs live. (The filming at times doesn’t deemphasize that it was just her in the big studio.)

Music: mostly instrumental with a beat, somewhat techno-ish in some parts and somewhat standard exercise video fare in others (in fact, I think I’ve heard some tunes before in other mass-released series). It’s not bad, but I can’t remember what it sounds like without popping in the DVD and listening really hard for it.

Set: bright interior space, with mostly neutral colors, “windows,” and brick walls, plus some exercise equipment neatly organized here and there.

Production: clear picture and sound, helpful camera angles. (It’s a production by Andrea Ambandos, who could film these in her sleep by now!)

Equipment: sneakers and a supportive jog bra, if applicable. Cat is working out on puzzle mats, an idea if you have a hard surface like concrete.

Space Requirements: For the most part you just need enough room to kick forward, take a big lunge backward, and take a few big steps (think grapevine or two double side steps) to each side. There’s one part in the Low Impact Fat Blaster where without warning you’ll need more room than this, but if you’re tight on space turn the side kicks out into front or back kicks. At 5’8” I could fit this within a space that was no more than 4-5’ deep and about 6’ side to side.

DVD Notes: Cat’s introduction can be skipped. As with all of the 10 Minute Solutions, you can play all of the segments in the order they appear, choose one, or create a personalized workout by picking and choosing between the five segments.

Comments: I’m very pleased this is pretty much just what I expected based on description and previews: a DVD with short, straightforward, pure cardio segments. No, this isn’t my most favoritest workout ever, and I doubt it’ll be on many Desert Island lists, but it’s a solid, well done workout that I’m happy to own. This one definitely has its place in my collection with its usefulness and versatility: I can use it in parts as warm-ups, add-ons, or even finishers, or I can do most to all of it as a decently intense stand-alone cardio session.

I only have had a few other 10 MS cardio workouts, namely Michelle Dozois’ Carb & Calorie Burner (or whatever title they’re selling it under these days), Keli Roberts’ Kickbox Bootcamp, and Petra Kolber’s Dance off Belly Fat. One of the reasons I passed on Michelle and Keli’s titles was that they included some toning with the cardio, whereas I just wanted all cardio. Petra’s, which is all cardio, is still in my collection, but since that’s more dance-based aerobics it only really compares with the Low Impact Fat Blaster portion of Rapid Results Fat Burner. I would say Cat’s is the most intense of these. In a way it feels like the next step after Michelle’s, which was decently intense but spent more time breaking down things, especially the kickboxing moves.

This should not be confused with Lara Hudson’s 10 Minute Solution Rapid Results Pilates, which is a Pilates matwork video. Cat at no point drops to the floor for anything, not even a stretch or – thank goodness! – a burpee. This is also different from the controversially named 10 Minute Solution Kettlebell Ultimate Fat Burner by Michele Olson, which has kettlebell-inspired dumbbell moves. Is the 10 Minute Solution series running out of possible titles?

Instructor Comments:
Catherine “Cat” Chiarelli is a new to me instructor, although I hear she has led at least one Crunch workout and appeared as a background exerciser in several videos. She’s on my radar now.
Cat’s cuing overall is good. Because the moves are fairly simple and straightforward and the workouts themselves well and obviously organized Cat’s somewhat sparse cuing, relative lack of directional cues (although she mirror cues, with one exception, and includes some visual cues), and somewhat frequent changes between cuing well ahead of the moves to right on them aren’t an issue. Now that I know the workout her cues make more sense, and, yes, I really had to nitpick to pick up on those perceived defects. I feel like Cat counts down the right amount (sorry, Billy Blanks fans, but I’m just not one who loves constant counting). Cat does provide a good deal of encouragement, but believe or not outside of the intro she does not spend a lot of time on the expected “and burn that fat away” type of statements usually liberally peppered throughout these workouts (which is fine by me). I find her a pleasant lead, without being too big on the personality (which is also fine by me, as not everyone in my collection needs to be a Mindy or a Gin or a Chalene). Her upbeat-without-being-a-cheerleader-type persona and down-to-business, focused-on-the-workout approach works well for me. I appreciate her not overcuing or talking too much (think Kelly Coffey-Meyer level of cuing and talking), which will keep this video fresh as it gets continued use.

KathAL79

07/26/2010