Review: The Firm Total Sculpt plus Abs

The Firm's Total Sculpt plus Abs is a circuit workout from their Body Sculpting System 2 (BBSS2). It is lead by Jen Carman. 

BSS2 uses the Fanny Lifter (which I like better than the Transfirmer or blue box ("death" box), but BSS2 is when The Firm introduced their "Sculpting Stick." I think it weighs 9 lbs. It is a cool concept, but in this workout it is misused in parts. For example, at times it is used for balance, and I actually like that. I also liked using it during the abs section of the workout, but they use it for things like lat pulldowns and 9 lbs isn't very heavy for back work. But I simply swap out to my 18 lb Body Bar for that section. For the other 'Sculpting Stick' moves, I use my 8 lb Body Bar. Works great!!  In one section, Jen uses the Sculpting Stick as a blanancing stick with one hand while she does leg presses holding a dumbbell on her should with the opposite hand. The first time I did this workout I tried that, then thought if I did them that way I would only be able to use half the weight I normally use for leg presses (since I’d be using only one dumbbell) so I ditched the stick in lieu of a second dumbbell. But I have decided that I actually prefer to do them with one dumbbell and a Body Bar. This is for two reasons – 1.) I have plenty of DVDs that do leg presses using a barbell or two dumbbells so I don’t mind doing them a little differently in this workout and 2.) I find that I get a really deep contraction and range of motion when I use the balancing stick.
Jen is strong and cues well in this workout. She is no nonsense and moves quickly. I prefer her in cardio workouts but liked her in this workout. She is much more serious here than she is in Better Body & Buns and Super Cardio, but she seems a little less dry than she did in Body Sculpt from BSS1.

This workout starts with a 5 min warm up and then goes into 33 min of cardio/weights. It is almost all weights; there are 3 brief cardio sections. Low impact floor aerobics, step aerobics (I really liked this section!), and 4-limb aerobics (this section is VERY similar to one of Jen’s 4-limb sections in Super Cardio). The music, for the most part, was really good. Some of it was bad but more than half of the tunes I really liked. After the cardio/sculpt portion of the workout comes a cooldown, a short 4-min abs section, and a thorough 7 min stretch. I really like this stretch.

This workout had a good amount of biceps and triceps work. It felt a bit light on back, shoulders, and chest, but my shoulders and back get worked a lot with kettlebells and boxing, and I could have added some pushups at the end if I wanted to (but didn't have time).

I would consider this a sculpting workout with cardio rests as opposed to a true Firm AWT workout, since the cardio is so sparse. But the leg work got my heartrate up so it did have a cardio benefit during those segments.  A pretty good workout from the post-BBH era Firms.

DOMS-inducing factor: 6/10
Fun factor: 7.5/10

Review: The Firm Super Cardio

The Firm Super Cardio is a rarity in the world of Firm videos, it is a pure cardio workout from the BBH-era Firms. It is lead by four Firm instructors: Jen Carman, Carissa Foster, Allie Strickland, and Dale Brabham.

Allie opens the workout with a 3 min warmup using no equipment. Shoulder rolls, squats, steto taps, etc. This is followed by a brief (1 min) standing stretch. Allie also leads the first cardio 'grouping':

Allie:
Four-limb step work (the DVD participants use the Firm short box, I used an 8" high step-worked perfectly!!) this segment felt longer than it was, but I think it's a good way to open the program – 3 min
'Oof ball' aerobics – 3 min
Plyometrics, jumps, bunny hops – 2 ½ min

Carissa

Low impact aerobics (squats, lunges, kick-ball-changes) – 2 ½ min

Step – 2 min

Mixed impact aerobics (toe taps, kicks side to side) – 2 min (love this section!)

Dale

4-limb aerobics – 2 ½ min

Mixed impact aerobics – 2 ½ min

Low impact aerobics with hop steps, skips, etc – 2 ½ min

4-limb aerobics (weighted plyo jumps) – 2 min

Jen

'Oof ball’ aerobics – 2 min

Low impact aerobics – 4 ½ min

Step – 2 ½ min

4-limb aerobics – 3 ½ min

Mixed impact aerobics – 3 ½ min (this section makes me feel like a cheerleader!)

4-limb aerobics – 3 min

Step – 2 ½ min

Short post aerobic stretch using step – 1 ½ min
Super short abs – 2 ½ min

Carissa
Stretch with some yoga-flavored moods (I do NOT like this stretch) – 3 ½ min

Before I get into the review I would like to ask/mention something.  Jen's last step segment and cool down, as well as Carissa's final stretch are clearly from different workouts than Super Cardio. What workouts are they from???  I would really like to know.  Not only do Carissa's clothes change for the final stretch, but the walls go from pink to green!!

I like this Firm workout.  Parts of it are high impact and challenging, but they are tempered with slower, lower impact moves.  Another nice thing about this workout is that it is totally adaptable to your fitness level or energy level on any given day. You can add plyos when the do wide marches or do wide marches when they add plyos. You can use 2 lb dumbbells during the 4-limb movements or 5 lb dumbbells (or no dumbbells for that matter)!  This workout is much easier now than I thought it was when it first came out (at that time, this was by far the longest cardio workout I owned), but it still gives my heart a good pump.  The music in this workout is some of the best in the latter-day BBH Firm workouts.  All four leads do a good job. In this particular workout, Jen and Allie are my personal favorites but Carissa and Dale are fit and worthy of a leading role.

Sweat factor: 7.5/10

Fun factor: 7.5/10

Review: The Firm Body Sculpt

The Firm Body Sculpt is part of The Firm's first post-BBH Firm series, Body Sculpting System 1 (BSS1). BSS1 is comprised of 3 main workouts and 6 "add on" workouts. Body Sculpt is one of the three main workouts. It is lead by Jen Carman. The workout tops and set lighting are green.

This workout is broken into two segments; lower body and upper body, though you can do the entire workout straight through for a total body workout. The workout is 48 min total, but that includes a 6 min warmup and 10 min of stretches. The lower body segment was about 16 min, followed by a 5 min cooldown/stretch, which also serves as the warmup for the upper body segment, which came in around 15. This workout uses the purple/blue Fanny Lifter (I used my High Step, which worked awesomely) and various sets of dumbbells.

Jen Carman did an okay job. I think she really excels doing cardio or aerobic weight training. This was straight sculpting. She seemed a bit more serious here than she had in her previous video leads.

The transitions between exercises threw me a bit. Upon ending one exercise she would say, "Reassmble your Fanny Lifter and grab your heavy dumbbells," but she wouldn't say what we were doing next. I think Jen used 2 sets of dumbbells but that didn't really work for me. I use differents weight for squats, leg presses, lunges, and hover squats. So though my 'heavy weight' for leg presses may be 15# dumbbells, that would be a 'light' weight for me for squats,so it would have been nice to know what came next. This is a minor quibble, however, because once I do the workout a few times, I will memorize the sequence and know what move comes next so I can grab the appropriate weights.

The lower body section included squats, lunges and dips (this segment really fried my glutes) plies, side lunges onto the Fanny Lifter, squats with leg abduction, hover squats, and 2 sets on each leg of leg presses. Though it was short, it felt quite thorough. I added a set of deadlifts at the end. I'm sure my hamstrings were worked during the lunges and leg presses, but I love deadlifts. I guess I could have added calf work too. Perhaps next time I will. I loved the first song during the lower body segment. I can't really remember the rest of the music so it must not've been annoying or anything.

Next came the upper body section. In my opinion The Firm has always lacked for upper body work (though it makes up for it with their stellar lower body work), but this routine was pretty good. Jen moved at a fairly slow pace so I was able to go heavier than I do with most Firm upper body workouts. The moves were typical but there were a few twists here and there. Kickbacks, lateral raises, overhead presses, biceps curls, pushups, etc. The only move I found to be awkward was when she got her body into table postion over the Fanny Lifter (so that her torso/stomach rested on the top of the Fanny Lifter). I simply sat on the Fanny Lifter for that portion. The triceps and shoulders felt thoroughly worked and there were a few sets of rows for the back that burned after a bit. It could have used more biceps work but those probably worked as assisting muscles during the back work. Chest was last and was comprised of presses and flies. All-in-all this was a good workout if you're looking for a total body weight workout in under 45 min. that will leave you feeling worked but not so sore you can't move afterwards.

DOMS-inducing factor: 6.5/10
Fun factor: 7/10