Saturday Morning-- 20 Minute Interval Workout

It's Saturday and I'm down over 4 pounds from last Saturday (man, what getting back into the routine after extended Christmas break can do!!). So, I celebrated with baking cinnamon rolls. :) Then, started looking for a 15-20 minute workout. I'm planning to some big cardio on the treadmill later, but started searching for intervals and ran across this one-->
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYsfecaHmBs

Note that I didn't have my heart rate monitor on (heck, I'm still in my PJs and socks) so I don't have official numbers for this one. :)

What I Liked:

• It didn't require tennis shoes; I was able to do this in my sock feet (Our T25 workout we do during the week requires tennis shoes and a mat... it's TOUGH on the feet! This is not!)
• They gave three levels-- the instructor does the "normal" and then there is an advanced and a level 1 person also doing the workout. Level 1 stays low impact all the time with no jumping. Advanced uses a hand weight during much of the workout and during the jumping jacks, she does air jacks (fun). I loved this option and used a weight to tone my upper body more (just a  5 pound hand weight). 
• The instructor was pretty good. She reminded you to "smile" all the time. You should be able to breathe and smile during the workout. So, if you can't smile and are huffing and puffing, you need to calm down a little. I thought that was a nice cue.
• It's intervals so you do cardio for 2-4 minutes and then strenghtening/toning for 2-4 minutes. The time seemed go really quickly, honestly. I did think some of the "down time" moments were a little too long, but I did get a decent amount of sweat and she really tried to get your heart rate to go up and down. 
• 20 minutes. The first 2 minutes are warmup, but then after that, she hits the ground running.  
• The cardio segments aren't just the same thing the entire time. She starts something and builds up.

Concerns:

• Not many!  I probably wouldn't use it as my one and only workout for the day, but if you want to squeeze in something early and then do something more rigorous later in the day, it's nice for stretching, getting your joints and circulation going, and for toning.

I really liked this workout. It wasn't greatly difficult and it wasn't going to put my heart rate through the roof, but it was enjoyable. For anyone new to working out, give this a try. It's a nice workout and since there are modifications, you can do it with friends and everyone can handle it their own way.