It’s been a very long time since I did one of my fitness-related posts. If you are interested in my previous reviews, you can jump here for a review of all Tony Horton’s P90X systems (link leads to the last one, but from there you can go back to the P90X2 and the first, original which is still a favorite of mine). You can jump here for a review of Focus_T25 and here for Jessica Smith.  The common denominator of all those systems is that they involve at least 30 minutes, some are quite a bit longer (P90X yoga will require 90 minutes to of your time).

For the most part these days, my exercises involve Jessica Smith and P90X (either several of my favorite videos from the original series (Kenpo, Plyometrics, Shoulders and Arms, Legs and Back, Ab-Ripper), or a few from P90X3 like Incinerator and The Challenge).

However, I find myself doing quite a bit of short videos available for free on youtube. They are great to add on a day in which I already went on the treadmill for a while, or walked our 3.5 mile route with the pups. Here are my favorites and why I like them.

MADONNA’s ARMS
This 10-min routine is perfect to tone the arms. It is amazing what you can do with just 2 sets of dumbbells, a 5 pound and a 3 pound. It is all based on fast repetitions with no rest. By the end of it, you know you challenged your biceps and triceps.

TANK TOP ARMS
Another 10-min routine by the same trainer. I must tell that my friend Elaine (sourdough bread baker extraordinaire) also does this one as well as many others (we are fitness buddies 6 thousand miles apart). We joke that this is the “Okaaaaaay” exercise. You will have to watch it to understand. Anyway, if you do this one right after the Madonna’s Arms you won’t need to exercise your upper body for another week. I promise you.

8-MINUTE TONING ARMS
This is a very interesting routine, only 8 minutes long. You use NO weights whatsoever but your arms will be moving non-stop and it is surprisingly challenging. And a lot of fun.

JESSICA’S SMITH 12-MINUTE ARM WORKOUT
If you are familiar with Jessica’s workouts, this is a typical short-video that is not going to kill you or even leave you too sore, but will do the job. Jessica has countless exercises for free in her youtube channel, you can search by time, body part, or level of difficulty. I highly recommend her videos.

10-MIN STANDING ABS
I am very fond of standing ab routines (although in my opinion nothing beats the original P90X Ab-Ripper), and this is a very good example of how to target your abdominal region in a short time. It requires a bit of flexibility in the hip region and could be a problem if you have issues with your lower back. But totally doable.

10-MIN ABDOMINALS
A more classic approach with exercises performed on the floor. Nice and not too challenging.

10-MIN BIKINI-READY WORKOUT
I really like this one a lot. I starts with planks in a few different ways, which sets me in the right mood for ab-exercises. I love doing planks because they are surprisingly efficient and all you have to do is hold your body in a certain position.

10-MIN FULL BODY WORKOUT
This is a very nice, short and sweet routine. It covers pretty much the whole body, and it is not too challenging.

10-MIN LEGS EXERCISE
This one targets mostly the legs, again not too challenging, but gets the job done.

I hope you will find these links useful. There is a whole universe of videos out there, for free. You can definitely find instructors that motivate you and exercises that target a particular type of exercise you need. I did not include yoga or flexibility-geared videos because I use exclusively Jessica Smith systems as well as P90X yoga for that. But you can easily find them searching youtube.