The Bostonista Workout: 5 Minutes, Max

Bostonista seeks: Workout that can produce Jessica Alba pre-baby (or, hell, post-baby) abs with minimal sweat output. And: By the weekend. Thanks.

We’re not lazy. We’re just busy. We’ve logged plenty of hours of back-breaking, pre-dawn, gym-based masochism. But it’s just so easy, especially in the summer, to give our workout the brush off in favor of more compelling uses of our time. Like, say, bargain hunting. Or drinking our co-workers under the table.

But at long last our excuses have met their match. Jamaica Plain-based Boston Pilates has teamed up with diet.com and YouTube to launch the kind of workout series even we can’t argue with—that is, the quick kind. Note: This is, unfortunately, not the same thing as the painless kind.

In “The Best Pilates Core Workout,” studio owner Paula Wood leads viewers through six short, somewhat excruciating mat exercises targeting the abs. “Scoop! Scoop!” she commands, and she’s not talking about ice cream.

You can do the video at home, or at work. Or, for you lucky iPhone owners, in the cab on the way to drinks. Coming soon, additional 5-minute videos for toning the arms, glutes, and thighs.

And then you can go back to whatever it is you’d rather be doing.

“The Best Pilates Core Workout,” by Boston Pilates.