The 10 Minute Solution (1999)
Review by Dindrane
Film:
DVD:

Producer: Andrea Ambandos
Fitness Consultant: Linda Shelton
Instructor: Michelle Dozois

Features:

• Routine customization
  

Rating: NR, suitable for all audiences

Anamorphic: N/A

My Advice: Great for those with little time to exercise

The 10 Minute Solution basically ruins the lives of exercise-haters everywhere. No longer can we say things like "but I just don't have time," or "but I have to do this and that before dinner..." Well, tough. Organized into five 10-minute segments (hence the title), it not only provides variety, but the short bursts of exercise many of us need. Besides, exercise professionals say it's better to exercise for a short period twice a day instead of one longer session, so with this disc, you might even get two sessions in today. The segments are as follows: boot camp, which combines aerobics and weight training, Pilates, ballet, kickboxing, and yoga.

The instruction is good without being intrusive or grating. There are plenty of health and stress warnings to alert you to any possible problem moves, as well as suggested alternatives. The choreography is a bit rushed in places as far as the instruction goes, but repeated viewings will allow you to catch on.

The sound and video quality are fine. The music is a bit soft in places, but that allows you to hear the instructor better. Her voice is certainly clear enough, and that's what counts. The camera angles could stand a bit more flexibility, but the camera does shift some, allowing viewers to see key moves from more than one angle, at least sometimes.

The extras are minimal, but the routine personalization feature is nice. You can set the disc up to play the routines in any order you choose, even repeating or skipping segments. That's great for when you have more than 10 minutes to spend on your body, but don't want to have to pop up and down choosing and starting disc chapters. Just set it up for boot-camp, ballet, and then yoga as your cool-down (or whatever), and go from there. It would have been nice to have had more text information about what the benefits of each segment are--this would help in choosing our personal regimen by more than just how lazy we're feeling. The ability to review each move from different angles, especially something arcane to many viewers like ballet or yoga, would have been nice, too.

Overall, if you, like me, tend to get bored very quickly with any given exercise regimen, then The 10 Minute Solution might just be the answer for you. Not only can you personalize your own rotation on this tape, but mixed with other exercise tapes in your home library, you'll reach for it very often to break up the monotony. A great way to start your day, this disc provides the motivation and brevity everyone needs.