12-Minute Total-Body Workout

Rating:
Summary: Moving past my plateu!!
Review: At age 20, I had already been through 3 surgeries due to bowel obstructions and Crohn's Disease (chronic inflammation of the intestinal lining). Suffering with the disease kept me fairly slim through out my 20's, but completely inactive. My well known "coke bottle shape" has always looked fine in clothes but, over the years I have lost A LOT of muscle tone and definition.

At 30 I had my son, and thankfully, my Crohn's Disease took a dive...but as a result my weight shot up. I only gained 12 lbs. during my pregnancy with my son, but after having him, I found it difficult to control the amount of food I was eating. 4 years later, I found myself at an all time high of 206 lbs. I went on a reduced carb-calorie counting diet and lost 27 lbs, but was still unhappy with the way my body looked ...and I was at a plateau. Even with my 1300-1400 calorie a day diet (I'm 5'7"), and briskly walking 3-4 times a day for 15 min, I couldn't get anymore weight off. I searched the web for a solution. I came to the realization that I needed to rebuild my muscles to boost my metabolism and reclaim my body shape... without the fat and cellulite.

I stumbled across Dr. Vedral's book while looking for a weight-training program that wouldn't impact the already limited time in my day and would cut out going to the gym (I hate the gym!). After two weeks of continuing my own diet, following her exercises and cutting my wallks down to 2 a day, I have lost 4.5 lbs! Her program is direct and well spelled out. I wake up a few minutes earlier in the morning to complete the exercises. It does take me a little more than 12 min a day, simply because I find that I need to do some stretching before and after, which she doesn't really require in this program. My only gripe would be that some of the pictured illustrations are more "cutesy" posed, than the true form that you need to start at, but the written word for the start position clarifies it for you. All and all, I couldn't be a happier. I can FEEL it working and feel confident that within a few weeks I will SEE results of more muscle tone and definition. All of my muscles have a "good" soreness they haven't felt in years and it feels great!!

Because of the light weights and basic movements I think 12 Minute Total Body Workout is a great book for those who are desiring to boost your personal fitness program, no matter were you're starting point is. Thanks, Dr. Vedral!! I love this book!!

Rating:
Summary: Great book....
Review: Great workout for body toning. I loved it but I believe that in addition to her 12 minute workout, some cardiovascular exercise is necessary to be truly fit. Also, it is necessary to watch what you eat of course. I have personally seen and felt great results in a short period of time. I still struggle with some of the ab exercises and I did feel sore in my abs, legs and glutes for a while.

Rating:
Summary: Worked for me!
Review: I bought this book in 1992, a year after having my last child at the age of 43! At that time I was also traveling and found there was little time to get my body back into shape (as well as I could) and be healthy.

The three pound weights fit into my suitcase and all you need is a chair -- no fancy equipment. At home, I could always squeeze 12 minutes into my morning routine.

Using this book, watching my diet (she addresses that) and doing cardiovascular exercises (in-line skating was my choice then) I managed (in 4 months) to eliminate only 13 pounds BUT I lost an amazing amount of inches, going from a size 12 to a size 8.

I find this book very helpful -- I'm a sometimes exerciser, getting off the track periodically. This book is a joy to return to, a health and fitness aid I keep around, bringing it out to rejuvenate my routines. The exercises are effective and for some of us, are better than those you do in the gym because they are so easy to do, right in your own home or hotel room.

Rating:
Summary: Worked for me!
Review: I bought this book in 1992, a year after having my last child at the age of 43! At that time I was also traveling and found there was little time to get my body back into shape (as well as I could) and be healthy.

The three pound weights fit into my suitcase and all you need is a chair -- no fancy equipment. At home, I could always squeeze 12 minutes into my morning routine.

Using this book, watching my diet (she addresses that) and doing cardiovascular exercises (in-line skating was my choice then) I managed (in 4 months) to eliminate only 13 pounds BUT I lost an amazing amount of inches, going from a size 12 to a size 8.

I find this book very helpful -- I'm a sometimes exerciser, getting off the track periodically. This book is a joy to return to, a health and fitness aid I keep around, bringing it out to rejuvenate my routines. The exercises are effective and for some of us, are better than those you do in the gym because they are so easy to do, right in your own home or hotel room.

Rating:
Summary: This book will get you motivated with its quick results
Review: I love this book. Ms. Vedral can be seen as a role model for all of us. She is into middle age and still looks fabulous. If she can do it, so can most of us.

The intensity of the workout will be tough at first, but you will get stronger and be able to work harder very soon. I find myself now unconsciously flexing my muscles all the time now due to her workout.

Unquestionably the best thing about this workout is that because you work out efficiently, it only takes 12 minutes a day.

Rating:
Summary: Do you travel or are you overworked and have no time?
Review: If so, this is for you. Joyce Vedral is a very accomplished writer and also experienced in weight training (she is an English professor at Pace University) So she can write, and she knows about her subject.

Faced with a physique that tended to put on weight, Vedral took up weight training, fell in love with it, and has written quite a few books on the subject. Here she has done an excellent job of figuring out a weight program that can be done anywhere, by nearly anyone, with simple equipment, no gym and just a bit of time.

While this won't whittle your abs down to a washboard or create monster pecs, this workout will keep you fit when you are on the go. If you are stuck in hotel rooms with no fitness centers (most of the world) or at home with kids (rest of the world) you can do this with a simple set of dumbells and a chair and telephone book. (You can even get water-fillable, collapsible dumbells to take up no weight in your suitcase.)

The routine does work the entire body and while not as good as a full workout in the gym with free weights, treadmill and Nautilus, and won't bulk you up, it is a good fitness routine to keep you ever in shape, in a minimum of time. It is NOT easy (you will be pleasantly tired afterwards) but it is effective.

Rating:
Summary: my opinion
Review: This was a fast, very easy to understand and follow book. The workout program is effective and great for any person who is interested in an at home weight lifting program but has neither the time nor the desire to decipher a book to get an individual program started. I especially liked how each chapter represented a day of the week and the workout for the day. The things to keep in mind were also helpful.

Rating:
Summary: Moving past my plateu!!
Review: Though this book was published in 1989, its substance was recycled in other forms, spreading the same confusing message.

The author is unsettled on the duration of daily workout from 12 minutes, 15 minutes, and then 20 minutes. In this book, the author proposes 7 days a week of weight training. In others, she proposes working out twice a week. She talks about "total body building", "supercuts", and "fat burning" without having the slightest clue on the basic physical facts about their scientific origin.

Here are some absurd errors you will find in this book:

1) The book claims the "you can shape up in no time if you do not have time to shape up" which is a lie.
2) Page 32, "the trapezius muscle is labeled as the latissimus dorsi. Then on Page 112-113, she describes "shoulder press with dumbbells" as "lateral pulldown" and claims to workout the latissimus dorsii. Thus, she confuses pulling for pushing. Though the book is introduced by a medical doctor (Jude T. Barbea) and written by an author with Ph.D. in English literature, the book completely misrepresents basic weight training teaching.
3) Page 139, "Eggs help raise beneficial HDL, break up cholesterol deposits and carry them away from blood vessels". So, how many eggs do you need to completely get rid of atherosclerosis?????
4) Page 139, "fibers help eliminate 10% of fat intake since they (fibers) pass through unregistered". She does not know how the fat is digested in the intestine and assumes that fat elimination is simply "sliding through" with fibers.

Here is her list of books that demonstrate the mad zeal of recycling simplistic and misleading information:

1. 12-Minute Total-Body Workout
2. Bone-Building/Body-Shaping Workout: Strength, Health, Beauty, in Just 16 Minutes a Day
3. Bottoms Up!
4. College Dorm Workout
5. Definition: Shape Without Bulk in 15 Minutes a Day
6. Gut Busters: The 15-Minute-A-Day, 12-Week Plan
7. Hard Bodies Express Workout: The Twice-A-Week Fitness Program That Really Work

8. Now or Never: Keep Your Body Young, Fit and Firm with the Weight Training Program That Works Even as You
9. Supercut
10. The Bathing Suit Workout
11. The Fat-Burning Workout: From Fat to Firm in 24 Days
12. Toning for Teens: The 20-Minute Workout that Makes You Look Good and Feel Great!
13. Top Shape: 12 Weeks to Your Ideal Physique
14. Weight Training Made Easy: Transform Your Body in Four Simple Steps

When I browsed through similar books that claim to achieve magic fitness results in about 15 minutes or so, I stumbled on a general trend. Whether the author is a man or a woman, those books clearly show narcissistic authors, with simplistic views who claim to lead the world to perfection. All share fond of their bodily outlook, neurotic, and impatient in acquiring knowledge, or adapting to new trends in modern exercise teaching.

The simplest rule of staying fit is "simple counting of Calories". One Calorie per minute worth of work will amount to 60 calories per hour and 1440 Calories per day. If you try to condense that in 15 or 20 minutes, you will need to expend energy at a rate of 72 Calories per minute, which is impossible even by swimming in cold water or cycling at top speed.

Rating:
Summary: Cheap, Effective home workout
Review: When I picked up a copy of this book. I was already familiar with Joyce Vedral from years ago, when I used to read her body building books. I looked at this book, and all she required was a set of 3 pound dumbells. Had anyone else written the book, I would have started with my 5 pound weights, but trusting Dr. Vedral, I went out and bought 3 pound weights. Well, since she has you working with your muscles in an isometric fashion, it is far harder than you will expect. She mentions in the book that she developed this workout while she was on a book tour, promoting one of her body building books, and she didn't always have gym access. (She didn't want to get out of shape while promoting a bodybuilding book!) Well, in finding the perfect hotel workout, she perfected the cheap home workout. I can get this workout done in limited space, without a great expendature of time or money. This is a great workout for stay at home parents, busy working parents, in short, anyone! This is a workout that you can stick to. It doesn't require such a huge committment, as to make it difficult to stick to. 12 minutes a day is not that much to give.