The FIRM 20 Minute Workouts - Thoughts

Weighted Cardio Gloves Workout is a FIRM 20 minute DVD that comes with a pair of 1lb weighted gloves. Rebekah Sturkie is the instructor.
The weighted gloves felt big on my hands and my hands aren't small. When I first saw that this kit was coming out, I thought the workout was going to be primarily kickboxing, but it is not. There is actually very little kickboxing in the workout. Instead, Weighted Cardio Gloves is a power cardio (athletic style) workout.
It features traditional high impact athletic style moves that Rebekah first teaches the low impact version and then she bumps it up to high intensity.
I had a good little sweat going. You are jogging, hopping, jacking, lunging, squatting, and jumping throughout the whole workout. I thought it was a good solid 20 minute cardio workout and I happy to report that through all that, no BURPEES were included and I was waiting for them to show up. She does have a set of planks at the end, but they were done as a set of plank crunches and weren't so bad. The only thing that bugs me about the workout is the music. If I hear that tune "Pump Up the Volume, Pump Up the Base" in one more workout, I swear I will scream. And the FIRM has used this tune in several workouts.

Core & Lower Body Workout is also a FIRM kit. It comes with an inflatable ball and a loop. Emily Welsh leads this workout and it is 20 minutes in length.
This workout annoyed me. First let me talk about the equipment featured in the workout. The ball is inflatable and it super light weight. I would be surprised if it weighed a pound. It is very easy to hold and maneuver.
Then there is the loop. My issue with loop is that it is not the same loop that Emily is using in the workout. Her loop had a lot more elasticity than the loop that came with the kit.
As a result, I was trying to execute the same moves as Emily with a loop that didn't move as freely. And yes I know about the break in period of bands, loops and tubes. However, not only is my loop a different color than Emily's but her loop looks longer as well. The FIRM has done this before. They have shot workouts with different equipment than the kit comes with; and I think they need to stop doing this. The same equipment that the consumer gets is the one that they should shoot the video with.
Okay. The workout. What can I say? I like Emily, I do but this workout is all over the place. First it is super quick. You might me spending 15 seconds, maybe 20 seconds on any one exercise before Emily is moving on to the next exercise. It really does seem the workout is moving that fast. You are switching the loop in and out. You are switching the ball in and out. You are switching both the loop and the ball in and out. Now maybe this is done for the cardio effect, but I didn't feel my heart rate getting up, I just felt myself getting annoyed as the workout went on.

Oh and Emily does include a set of burpees. Although, this didn't bother me because she pairs the burpees with a deadlift using the loop and I thought that sort of cool. There are some nice exercises included in the workout and I like the use of the ball and even the loop on some exercise. However, the workout, itself just felt scattered and rushed.


Note: Both Weighted Cardio Gloves Workout and Core & Lower Body Workout come in cardboard CD size cases. They do not come in full DVD cases.

Power Sculpt Workout is an older FIRM workout that is also a kit but his workout comes with a 9lb sculpting stick or it did. I don't know if you can buy it anymore. The sculpting sticks separates into three separate pieces that are 3lbs each. You can assemble all three pieces or just two of the pieces or you can leave is disassemble. In the workout, we use all three version.
There is a real cardio factor with the workout. Allie combines lower body moves with upper body toning using the sculpting sticks.
For the lower body, you are doing a series of squats, front lunges, side lunges, dips, leg abductions, deadlifts. You are then pairing an upper body moves such as biceps, front raise, upright workout, triceps, back rows with the lower body moves. The last part of the workout, Allie takes it down to the floor for some lower body side leg work and core work.
While, there were a couple of times that I would have like to have a heavier bar for some of the upper body moves, I felt overall that this was a solid 20 minute workout.
The set for Power Sculpt is that warehouse looking set, which a find to be very drab and the music is just background music.


The FIRM Weighted Cardio Gloves Workout - 3 1/2 stars
The FIRM Core & Lower Body Workout - 2 1/2 stars
The FIRM Power Sculpt Workout - 3 stars