What Are the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Ten Minute Tony Horton Cardio Workout in 10 Minute Trai

One thing right off the jump about the ten minute Tony Horton workout “10 minute trainer” is that it doesn’t feel a lot like the normal workouts I undertook in my middle age years. I almost think it should be called the middle age body shock workout.

I figure I am probably like a lot of people who have crossed into their 30s and 40s where staying fit means jogging or walking or it means not doing it at all. So dropping into the controlled chaos of 10 minute trainer feels way different and takes some getting used to.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the cardio workout portion of the program. By way of review 10 minute trainer includes 4 base workout programs and a bonus abs program. Each runs 10 minutes and are made up of 10 moves that last 1 minute each.  The idea behind the program is to get you in and out and attempt to keep with the 90X strategy of a full body workout with muscle confusion.

The cardio portion of the ten minute Tony Horton workoutrepresents the most sweat inducing of the workouts in the program. If you are P90X graduate like me you will recognize a lot of the moves from the plyometrics workout. You have one foot movements known as “half backs” and variations on the “Mary Katherine” lunges, where you squat down low, one foot in front of the other with your hands extended high above your head and you switch your feet according to the cues.  These two moves alone will get your heart pumping.

That is the overriding strength of the cardio workout: the fact that it is hard work, but since it is 10 minutes only, you have an easier time persevering through.  In my assessment the workout far exceeds slow moderate paced jogging for longer times in terms of a workout. When you are done, you will feel refreshingly exhausted.

On the weakness side of the ledger, the cardio portion of the ten minute Tony Horton workout doesn’t have enough jumping and I don’t feel it uses enough of the large muscle groups. Having done the Insanity workout and seeing how it reshaped my body, I am a big believer in using maximizing the training of the quads and core in cardio-style workout.

The user should also be prepared  to add other workouts to the daily regimen to get in even better shape. 10 minutes is a foundation but only a start.  I look at this as tolerable because you are using 20 or 30 minutes as opposed to nearly an hour with many workouts.