The Women's Health Big Book of 15-Minute Workouts: A Leaner, Sexier, Healthier You--In 15 Minutes a Day!

I love this book! I use it every single day! The excersises in this book keep you entertained and challenged all at the same time. I have been obsessed with Women's Health ever since I first pick up the magazine. Many other books will require alot of equipment and even recommend machines (which I do not have at home.) I have a gym membership so access to the equipment is easy. However, if you do not have a membership to a local gym, in the back of the book are excersises for specific pieces of equipment (ex. Medicine Ball, Kettlebell.) This book alone has helped me changed my mind set of eating habits, work out schedules and so much more. It's like having a personal trainer with me everyday!! Just be sure to pay attention to your form or the excersizes will obviously not be as affective. The only downfall to the book, is that because it is so big, it is not as easy to carry around the gym as the magazine. But I guess thats why they call it "The Women's Health BIG Book of 15 Minute Workouts." All in all, I LOVE this book!!! I recommend it to anyone and everyone!

This big book shows dozens of quick workouts. Many of the workouts are basically about 15 minutes of circuit training. These exercises are designed to get a lean, fit and toned body as pictured by the lady on the cover, as opposed to buiding up. Here's how the workouts go. In general, a few specific exercises are performed intensely and then repeated in a cycle or circuit. The key to getting the workout down to 15 minutes is that there is minimal rest between the exercises. The rest between the circuits is minimal too. In terms of layout, color photos are large and clear, illustrating the exercises well. I liked the range of workouts, including bodyweight exercises with no equipment required. Some workouts use dumbbells. If you are at a gym or have workout equipment, you may make use of the workouts that use a barbell, a step, a large (Swiss) ball, a medicine ball, tubing, a bench and a few other tools. There are 77 workouts. (71) 15-minute workouts (2) 1-minute workouts (1) 4-minute workout (3) 5-minute workouts Here is a list of some of the 15-minute workouts. Exercises are listed for a few workouts. High school reunion workout 1: Here are the exercises for this workout. -Test the water squat and biceps curl -Take a walk -Rotational lunge and shoulder press -Warrior 3 triceps extension -Plank with front raise -Sumo squat side knee raise and side crunch -Lying 1-2 punch High school reunion workout 2 Bikini workout 1 Get my body back workout 1 Stress Busting workout 1 -Runner's lunge to knee skip -Plie jumping jacks -quarter-turn squat jump -donkey kick Mood-lifting workout Tighter tush workout I need some lift in my Levis workout So long, saddlebags workout Jiggle free triceps workout Pushup bra workout Belly blast workout Pear body workout Hourglass body workout -Tai chi lunge -Side planks with moving knee -Lateral stepups -Glute bridge with triceps extension Kettlebell workout 1 Exercise band workout 1 Exercise band workout 2 -Squat -Standing incline fly -Resisted supine crunch -Rubber band sidesteps Medicine ball workout 2 Hotel room workout 2 Cowgirl workout Post partum workout Age eraser workout Golf workout -Windmill -Leaning hamstring curl -Lawn mower -Low cross chop Tennis workout Triathlon workout Yoga metabolism workout Fat burning flow workout Ballet workout Pilates workout Perfect posture workout ~~~ Besides this book, there is a men's version. It offers more use of different tools or equipment. If you liked this book, I suggest you get the men's version. Another fine book is, "You Are Your Own Gym: The Bible of Bodyweight Exercises" by Mark Lauren and Joshua Clark. This is excellent for exercises which do not require equipment. All you need is your own bodyweight.

The content of this book is great. I wish it offered a slightly more creative selection of exercises; I had already seen a lot of the exercises illustrated, but there were still some new ones that I have been able to throw into my routines to mix things up so I can't complain too much. Also, I was pretty dubious about the possible effectiveness of a 15 minute workout, but the book has some pretty convincing study based arguments to explain it's reasoning, and of course they are not advocating limitting your physical activity to 15 minutes if you have more time on your hands. I myself have not experienced shocking results, but I have certainly worn myself out and been solidly sore the next day using the proposed methods, which seems good to me. Admittedly, I am not in great shape, but I'm not in terrible shape either. If you are short on time, but want to get more exercise, this is a useful book. However, I feel like this would have been better in standard book form. It's not that the kindle layout is bad, but aside from the first couple of chapters, this is not really a book that one is likely to read from cover to cover in consecutive order, and like any book that one might want to flip through, it gets kind of annoying to navegate back and forth through it in electronic form. I do appreciate that it's available in electronic form because my current location would make it difficult to obtain if that were not the case, but if you are within easy shipping distance, I'd reccomend getting a physical copy. I feel it would be put to best use on the coffee table where you can flip through it and become inspired over and over, rather than having it in a list of titles on an easily burried kindle.

This is a great book for $3.40. It's $26.99 in stores. All exercises are fully illustrated w/easy to follow instructions including stretches. Quite a few exercises require equipment but the items can be purchased @ Walmart, Target, etc. You'll find them in the sporting department. Also included is a 25 minute kitchen overhaul w/a plan to fight fat w/food. I recommend this manual for anyone who doesn't have any major physical restrictions. There's something for everyone. You shouldn't be disappointed unless needing some equipment is a deal breaker. Good luck with your workouts. Be consistent & you will achieve your fitness goals.

So happy with this book. Bought the kindle version and I'm able to take screen shots of the excerises and make a collage to create my own quick workouts. Love this series from Woman's Health. Easy to follow plan and instructions and not an overwhelming abundance of info but very informative.

I have the Big Book of Exercises and have used it to the point that the pages are falling out. I've had it several years and used it religiously. Well, it's been a few years and when I saw that I could do a few selected exercises in just 15 minutes, I was sold. Some are meant to be done with equipment, so if you don't go to the gym, you'll need to improvise. Overall, I think it's a good book.

I've had mixed reactions to Selene Yeager's books before (some I like, some are just okay). This one is just okay. Yes, there's a lot of variety, and they're definitely 15 minutes, but there's a few things I wasn't as crazy about... 1. Most (not all, but nearly all) use at least 2 pieces of equipment and often 3: dumbbells, a step, a bench, a stability ball, a pull-up bar (have one of those handy?), a resistance band, a kettlebell, a medicine ball, a foam roller, a BOSU, and and for one medicine ball workout: a partner! I'd have liked it better if there were more workouts using just one piece of equipment for the entire 15 minutes - particularly since these are circuit workouts. 2. Names of routines were too cute by half, such as "Mood Lifting" and "Cowgirl." When I'm flipping through the book, I'd rather not have to use some of that 15 minutes to decipher what body parts a routine actually works. It seems they could have been categorized in way that could be accessed faster. 3. Circuits, circuits, and more circuits, and "15 minutes" is more a matter of approach. You get to 15 minutes by running through most of these routines 3 to 4 times. So I'm guessing that if I leave out a circuit, it's 10 minutes and if I add one it's 20. In that case, these aren't *necessarily* 15 minutes, depending on whether you complete the number of circuits as prescribed. (NOTE: I would NOT recommend performing the classic kettlebell 'halo' as it's shown in this book! You could seriously strain your lower back.) Generally, it's no worse than any other workout book, but it's not among my favorites. There's variety and most routines can be adapted to be more challenging. However, I can't past the fact that I really liked the The Women's Health Big Book of Exercises by Adam Campbell, and it's too bad more of those moves (and a little less equipment) didn't show up in this book. I think this would've been a better book.

I am an avid Tabata/HIIT person and I am always looking for different exercises to incorporate into my routine. This book provides so many ideas on different exercises and routine ideas that can be done with the minimal amount of equipment. My only complaint is that towards the end of the book, they stop listing the part of the body that each exercise is suppose to target, leaving some inconsistencies. Minor complaint and overall still a great book to own.

It is exactly what it claims to be: there are 15 minute workouts in it (shorter if you cheat;), which you can easily fit throughout your day. Highly recommended!

I was a bid fed up with all my workout DVD's but was unsure how to exercise at home, what exercises to do and for how long etc. This book has solved all of that, I can pick 1 or 2 workouts that are balanced. There is so much variety in the book, workouts will never get boring and you don't have the irritating people annoying you like you get on exercise DVD's. When you have done 1 or 2 of these workouts you really feel like you've done a good workout which is lacking in a lot of exercise DVD's. One thing I would say is to get a good selection of dumbbells, you can lift more than you think you can and the last few reps of any exercise needs to be hard work to gain the benefits. You can use other equipment if you want to, I have a Bosu, stability ball, step and a skipping rope but if you are new to exercise start with the bodyweight exercises which need no equipment, move on to using weights, stability ball or step later on if you feel you want to add variety.

This is a detailed book made for both beginners or novices. The explanation of each exercise and what muscle group it works is excellent and has helped me in preventing injuries. I highly recommend this book.

This is good for basic moves and also shows great progressions for more experienced athletes. Good clear photos and explanations.

I got this book on the recommendation of a (male) colleague who thought that this series is one of the best for a comprehensive and trustworthy source of exercises. In fairness, he recommended the “Women's Health Big Book of Exercises” – it was me that decided to go for the 15 minute version. You see, I was buying into the “less is more” approach that is sweeping the exercise world this year. No more slogging away on 2 hour runs, 15 minutes of the “right“ exercise will achieve the same results. Yeah, right! To put this in context, I work out a lot. But I was realising that I focus far too much on the cardio-vascular side (those 2 hour runs) and not nearly enough on exercises for strength, flexibility and balance. So I was looking to address this - but I was not approaching this book as a beginner. I should mention at this point that I bought the Kindle version (largely because it was half the price of the printed version). I quickly discovered that this has both good and bad points; it’s a lot harder to flick the pages(!), but I can carry it round with me (I do a lot of business travel) and it doesn’t weigh anything. The Kindle version is surprisingly easy to use; you can quickly get to any chapter and at the start of each chapter there are hyperlinks to each exercise routine; what’s more, you can use the notes function to annotate it with variations, or progress, on each exercise if you want to. As I said, I do a lot of business travel. So I avidly turned to the chapter on “15 minute Anywhere Workouts” and selected “Hotel Workout 1”. This starts with a Side Bridge Abduction. You what!!! This is a very advanced exercise; I work out a lot and am used to doing side planks, but to lift the top leg ... you must be joking! Nothing daunted, a few days later (having read an article about the value of stretching) I turned to chapter 15 – “15 minute Stretch and Strengthen Workouts” and started on the “Yoga Metabolism Workout”. The third move is the Half Crow Lift, which from a plank position requires you to bring your right knee up to the outside of your right arm; it then suggests that you might like to lift your left foot off the floor (pressing your right knee into your right upper arm will make this easier, apparently!). Now I don’t know who they think their target audience is, but I reckon if I took a straw poll around the office to see how many people can make a plank with their right knee in contact with their right upper arm (let alone taking the other foot off the floor as well), I wouldn’t have too many takers! Teething problems aside, I have found this book to be a good source of short routines that can easily be fitted in to a busy schedule, which makes it invaluable to me. What it desperately needs, however, is, for each exercise to have: (a) a difficulty rating (b) a little pictogram indicating which muscle groups are worked Overall, I am very happy with the book and would recommend it to seasoned exercisers (but not to beginners).