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  FIRM & Cardio Upper Body is set up very similarly to its Lower Body counterpart. The DVD menu gives you the following options : Play All Cardio Workout Upper Body Workout Hitting Play All gives you a 30 minute workout.  Selecting either of the other two option would give you an 18 minute workout. Both of the workouts feature 3 segments (either cardio or sculpting) followed by an SBT (Short Burst Training).  The SBT is 30 seconds of intensity followed by 30 seconds of recovery before moving on to the next segment. Like the Cardio Lower Body workout, the Upper Body Cardio Workout contained a lot of 4 limb total body exercises.  So you are working both the lower and upper body.  For example, in one of the cardio segments, Emily has you lunging and dipping off the dome in addition to performing upper body moves with the core ball. For the Upper Body Sculpting Workout, the segments are divided into the following categories: Segment 1:...

 FIRM & Cardio Lower Body is one of the DVDs that come with the Ultimate Set of The FIRM's ZipTrainer System. It is lead by Allie Del Rio.  Emily and Alison are the cast members. Alison is performing beginner modifications. You can do this DVD, one of three ways.  If you choose Play All, you will get both the cardio which is about 12 minutes and the lower body sculpting which is about 12 minutes plus a warm up and cool down.  This workout is about 30 minutes. You can also choose just to do the cardio or just to do the lower body sculpting set. If you choose either of these options, your workout will be about 18 minutes which includes the warm up and cool down. The Cardio Workout uses the ZipTrainer and Core Ball for added intensity. There are three cardio segments and two of the segments contain total body 4 limb movement so you are working both your upper body and lower body. In this workout, Allie and Emily mostly use the 7lb core ball and Alis...

If you choose to order The FIRM's ZipTrainer Ultimate Edition , you will receive in addition to the basic set, a 7 pound blue Core Ball and  2 DVDs with additional workouts. Unlike the basic set DVDs, the DVDs in the Ultimate set do not come with a Customize Your Workout feature. However each of the DVDs do come with three options which are to play all, to play the cardio workout or to play the sculpting workout. Any of the three selections will come with a warm up and cool down. The two or four (depending on how you look at it) workouts that come in this set are definitely my favorites out of all the workouts in the ZipTrainer system.  A workout that I think they could have included with the system is a standalone stretch workout.  I think the uniqueness of the ZipTrainer and the added bonus of being able to put it in the dome position would have lent itself well to a stretch workout. If I can nitpick, one of the things that irritated me is that all the instructo...

Cycle 2:  Peak! is the second DVD in The FIRM's ZipTrainer System.  This systems comes with three workouts. The first workout on the Peak! disc is Cardio 2 .  Cardio 2 is lead by Alison Davis.  Alison's workouts is a 15 minute high energy workout. You are constantly moving and going from one sequence right into the next without much of a break. There are two other cast members, Annie and Stephanie. Annie is performing the advance moves which are often high impact and Stephanie is performing the beginner modifications. This workout features 4 SBT's or Short Burst Training Cycles.  You do two rounds of each SBT. During each round you work for 30 seconds and rest for 15 seconds. The SBTs in Cardio 2 are: Front/back Squat with an overhead raise with the ZipTrainer Step, Skip, or Jump over the Zip Trainers (Dome Positions) with an alternating kickback Hitchkick Football Shuffle into three alternating rows. There are burpees in this workout but they are not...

Barefoot Abs is a "bonus" workout that comes with The FIRM's Zip Trainer System.  This workout is lead by Alison Davis.  Alison is joined by Stephanie and Allie.  Allie performs beginner modifications and Stephanie performs the more advance movements. This workout clocks in right at 15 minutes.  Alison does give you a brief warm up. In the warm up you are doing these side bends where you are alternating four fast and two slow while holding the ZipTrainer.  I was getting dizzy doing this move. Once you are out of the warm up, you moved into standing core workout using the ZipTrainer in the fully zipped position.  There are a lot of moves where you are extending the ZipTrainer, reaching it out from the body. This workout does contain Short Burst Training (SBT).  The first SBT is a burpee into an overhead press with the ZipTrainer. Standing Core continuous but now you are using the  ZipTrainer in the dome position.   This sections ...

Cycle 1 Rev! is the first DVD in the FIRM's ZipTrainer System. This DVD comes with four workouts. The workouts are Jump Start (I did not do this workout but I did preview it), Cardio 1, Sculpt 1, and Amp Reps 1. Jump Start introduces you to the exercise moves that will appear in the other workouts.  This workout is led by Emily.  She is the only cast member.  Emily takes you through a series of 8 moves without the use of the Zip Trainer or core ball.  So your are pretending or imaging that you are working with the core ball or zip trainer.  Also Emily introduces you to Short Burst Training (I am abbreviating this as SBT).  In this workout, the SBTs are 30 seconds.  This workout is about 15 minutes. Rev Cardio 1 is led by Allie.  The other cast members are Kelsie and Emily.  Emily does the modifications.  In this workout, Allie includes 4 - Short Burst Training that are 30 seconds each.  Including the warm up and stretch, ...

The FIRM Zip Trainer Workout System ZipTrainer by The FIRM is the The FIRM's newest workout system. The system comes with 7 short workouts, a Fitness Guide, a Nutrition Guide, an over sized large medicine ball (the Zip Trainer) and a smaller core sculpting ball that is 3lbs.  All of these items come in the basic set. There are two pictures above that show the ZipTrainer unzipped.  The domes or pink side is the position you will use to perform all of your exercises when the ZipTrainer is in the up-zipped position. In the workouts, the cast always has a mat underneath the Domes when it is in this position.  My workout surface is hardwood flooring.   At first I did not have a mat underneath the domes and I found that the domes were slipping all over the place.  In the fitness guide, workout tip number two suggest "adding an exercise mat for more traction".  I think they should have included a mini mat if this were the case.  Althoug...