Saundra

It took me awhile to come up with March's rotation . I kept changing it. Still not happy with it. Mostly it is Turbo Fire with some other stuff thrown in. Roughly the break down is: Sunday - mostly lower body emphasis using no weights Monday - Cardio Intervals Tuesday - Cardio Sculpt Intervals Wednesday - Turbo Fire Fire Workouts Thursday - Sculpt (plan to go heavy) Friday - Turbo Fire HiiT Workouts Saturday - Rest March 14 workout is Core Cardio. March 15 workout is Core Strength. Hopefully I will be able to do these two workouts. Sometimes the DVD skips.

Oh I think the weather got to me this month. A couple of days I replaced my workouts with Snow Shoveling. I did manage to get all the FIRM Classics I had scheduled in, but I missed four Kickboxing workouts. Two I just blew off. One I didn't do because of shoveling snow and one I swapped out in place of CIA 2802 All Cardio Latin Xplosion . Love that workout. The two I didn't do just because I didn't feel like it were Patricia Moreno's Kickbox Core Cross Train and Kickbox Yoga Fusion . I did manage to get in a fair amount of evening dance workouts. I reviewed some of them. Others (Dancing with the Stars and Cardio Hip Hop ) I want to do a second time before reviewing them. I did do parts of Tracy's Dance Cardio 2 and Dance Cardio Workout . I decided I need to learn these a combo at a time. The Dance Cardio 2 has 7 combos and the Dance Cardio Workout has 8 combos. (This is what I will be doing in the evening in March - Learning Tracy's cardio workouts a...

Finishing up my FIRM Classic Rotation with the Prime Power Cross Trainer Series. A bit of history about these two workouts is when they were produced they came in a white card board box. The picture I have of both were the proposed covers. Only the Lower Body Shaping workout actually later came out with a cover. I forgot where I saw these two covers but I made a copy at the time because who wants a workout without a cover. Led by Kim Bartlett Prime Power Lower Body Shaping is a 45 minute beginner workout that is a total body workout with a heavy emphasis on the lower body. The workout consist of several sets of dips, 4-limb aerobics, abdominals, range of motion and bridge work. While I think Kim and the music pleasant, this workout is one of my least favorite FIRM workouts. I swear I think this workout made me hate dips (reverse lunges). There were so many of them. It seemed like all we were doing were dips. Also the 4 limb cardio was dull and lacked energy. Just not a fan. Stac...

Back in the 90s, The FIRM put out several pairs of Cross Training videos. One of these pairs included the workouts FIRM Strength (previously titled StrongBody ) and FIRM Cardio (previously titled StrongHeart). I don't know why the name change because the previous title made more since to me. According to FIRM literature: "The FIRM Cross-Trainers series offers workouts in pairs that cross-train with one another - a proven technique for boosting results and breaking through a training plateau." FIRM Strength is approximately a 58 minute workout led by Pam Cauthen. It is a total body workout that features mostly sculpting with some aerobic combinations thrown. The back cover breaks down the workout at follows : warm up - 6 minutes aerobics - 10 minutes body building - 32 minutes abdominal/inner thigh - 8 minutes final stretch - 3 minutes This is one of my favorite FIRM total body workout. It is no nonsense and classic FIRM. Pam is very easy to follow and the wor...

The following is a review I wrote somewhere else of the whole FE system. I was asked recently by a couple of people about my thoughts on the system as a whole so I am posting my ramblings here. I have posted thoughts on the individual workouts/cycles in January 2011 portion of the blog . "Okay. I just recently finished all the workouts in the FIRM Express System . I think many of the workouts are going to start showing up individually or in pairs in the retail market soon. I can give you information on an individual workout if you like but for now most of my comments will be on the system as a whole. The system consist of : Kickstart Your Metabolism - Includes 10 minutes Pump It Up and 10 minutes Shortcut to Flat Abs. Jennifer Ray Cycle 1 Ignite - Cardio+Sculpt , Cardio, Sculpt - 3 workouts each 20 minutes., Emily Welsh Cycle 2 Accelerate - Cardio+Sculpt, Cardio, Sculpt - 3 workouts each 20 minutes, Rebekah Sturkie Cycle 3 TurboCharge - Cardio+Sculpt, Cardio, Sculpt - 3 wor...

Oh, of course I had to buy this as I really like Chalene's HiiT workouts. So Turbo Fire Greatest HiiTs total workout time is 20:42. The workout contains a warm up, 4 HiiT drills, and a cool down. The warm up and first drill is from HiiT 15. The second drill is from HiiT 20. The third drill and cool down is from HiiT 25. The fourth drill is from HiiT 30. Drill 1 is 34 seconds. Drill 2 is 46 seconds Drill 3 is 55 seconds Drill 4 is 61 seconds Each drill is repeated twice. The Turbo Fire logo flashes and is used to transition the workout from drill to drill. Other than that, Greatest HiiTs is pretty much the same as the other HiiT workouts. Chalene marks the drill and then she does it. I don't mind the compilation and I like having another HiiT workout. I just wish they would have combine all the HiiT drills from all 4 workouts for a super duper HiiT workout - maybe doing each drill once to keep the workout shorter. Although as they already have a 15, 20, 25 & 30 minute worko...

Dance Off The Inches Hip Hop Party is a 43 minutes workout featuring Jennifer Gilardi. It features 3 dance workouts - roughly 11 to 12 minutes each plus a warm up and a cool down. The dances are : Basic Hip Hop Sexy Smooth Hip Hop World Hip Hop (African/Brazilian influence). Jennifer also includes a step guide that breaks down some of the moves in the dance. I didn't use the step guide and had no problem in picking up the steps a Jennifer taught them in the main part of the workout. Within each dance - or so it seem to me - it's like that the dance was broken up into two distinct sections or maybe it is the fact that the music change mid way through each dance that gives me that impression. Speaking of the music, I like it. I was expecting to hear the same old songs I always hear in dance workouts and that was not the case. My favorite dance was probably Sexy Smooth Hip Hop. I thought that routine had the best flow and it was the most unique. Yes. There is a lot of takin...

Prevention's Dance If Off workout features Jennifer Gilardi and it is approximately 52 minutes in length. It contains a warm up, 4 dance sections and a cool down. The dance sections are: Hip Hop, Latin, Jazz and Ballet. I didn't do the ballet section as it is mostly toning and I chose this workout to get extra cardio in. The choreography is basic. All the dances are very easy to follow and plus there's lots of breakdown - almost too much. Of the three dances I did do, my favorite is the Jazz dance. The Latin and Hip Hop dances are okay. Although, the music in the Hip Hop dance I have heard a million time before in other workouts. Prevention's Drop It With Dance features instructor Tabitha D'Umo. It is approximately 50 minutes in length. This workout has three ten minute dance routines plus a fourth routine that brings all the dances you learn together. So there is a warm up, 4 dance sections, and a cool down. The dances are: Jazz Funk, Hip-Hop, 90s Jam and...