Saundra

Rotation for February is simple. My morning rotation will alternate classic FIRM workouts with Kickboxing workouts. Every workout scheduled in this part of the rotation I have tried at least once, but a majority of them I have completed many times. In the evening, I will be dancing dancing dancing. Out of the 15 dance workouts I have scheduled, I have only tried 3 of them. I have given myself more rest time this month as well. I did pretty good with my January eating strategy so I am going to try to stick with that for February with a slight modification. Sunday - Friday caloric target: 1750 Saturday caloric target: 2000 Cheat Day: February 26th. (no counting, just recording) So I am subtracting 50 calories from Sunday - Friday. I will see how that goes.

Out of the 50 workouts (25 Morning, 25 Evening) I had schedule for January I did all but three of them. I think that is pretty good. I really enjoyed my morning workouts with Amy Bento cardio and Cathe strength workouts. I might try that combination again later in the year. I tried out the FIRM Express workouts . Overall I think they are pretty good. If I do them again, I will probably substitute some of the burst (make up my own). Many of the burst lack the "Oomph" I was looking for. I did like the 8/12 concept though. I also like that they were 20 minutes which is ironic because when I first heard the FIRM Express workouts were going to be 20 minutes, I was not enthused at all. Also in January, I did all of the Tracie Long Longevity and Focus workouts except for Lift Higher (just didn't fit in) and Reach Further (I had this schedule but didn't do it). I like these workouts too especially the Longevity series. A couple of them had to grown on me though. I know the fi...

Leaning Out is Volume 5 in Tracie Long's Longevity Series of workouts. The workout is approximately 50 minutes in length and it is predominantly a muscle shaping and strength workout with some cardio thrown in. Workout Breakdown Segment 1 - warm up functional ~4 1/2 minutes Segment 2 - sculpting, lat rows, squats, side lunge, overhead press, biceps ~5 minutes Segment 3 - more sculpting, dead lifts, lateral raise, ~ 3 minutes Segment 4 - cardio, basic low and high impact aerobics, athletic ~7 1/2 minutes Segment 5 - lower body, side lunge, dip, squats ~ 5 minutes Segment 6 - functional fitness ~2 1/2 minutes Segment 7 - sculpting, plies, bicep curls, triceps work, overhead rotations ~5 minutes Segment 8 - floor work, bomb diver push ups, plank into one arm row, superman ~4 minute Segment 9 - lower body, ankle weights, leg lifts, shoot outs, bridge, single leg press, ~5 minutes Segment 10 - abdominal work ~5 minutes Segment 11 - stretch- 5 minutes. There is not much that I do not...

The next volume in Tracie Long Fitness Focus Series is Volume 5 Break Through . Break Through is a 30 minute medicine ball cardio workout. The workout contains two chapter workouts "Have A Ball" and "Whittle Your Middle". Essentially, Have a Ball is the first 20 minutes of the workout and Whittle Your Middle is the last 10 minutes. Within the 30 minute workout, I counted 8 distinct sections. Section one : Med Ball Warm Up. I thought this section was rather fast or maybe I wasn't ready to work out but the tempo seemed quick to me. The warm up is about 4 1/2 minutes Section two : cardio no med ball. Side lunges, squats, jacks, and a quick tempo define this section. About 3 minutes Section three : Back to med ball. Overhead press, scissors, ball weaves and figure 8s. About 5 minutes Section four : Cardio no med ball. Side lunges, Lateral jumps, single leg balance work and power. 3 1/2 minutes Section five : Med ball. Sumo squats, releve' cir...

FIRM Express Cycle 4 Overdrive features FIRM Master Instructor Kelsie Daniels. In OverDrive "Now your body is primed for burning overall body fat, blasting belly fat and sculpting beautifully defined muscles." This is a quote from the fitness guide. Overdrive Cardio Sculpt follows the same format as the other Cardio Sculpt workouts. What I like about Overdrive's version is that it does not start with a fancy warm up. The warm up contains no-nonsense typical athletic moves. I appreciated that because I could just listen to Kelsie's cuing instead of watching the TV. With the other ladies, I had to watch the television to figure out what they were doing in their Cardio Sculpt warm ups. The Burst in this workout: Burst 1 - Single Leg Step Leap Burst 2 - Tuck Jumps Burst 3 - Dip Courtesy Jumps Burst 4 - Side lunge and courtesy . Some other moves featured in this workout are: Burpees with push ups, static squat holds with bicep curls, and courtesy dips with rows and tric...

Lean Cuisine has a new snack item. They are spring rolls and they are part of the Casual Cuisine line. There are three varieties and they are: Thai-Style Chicken Spring Roll Fajita-Style Chicken Spring Roll Garlic Chicken Spring Roll I saw them at my local Wal-Mart and picked up the two varieties (thai and garlic) they had right away. Instantly, I like them and think they are quite tasty. Earlier this week, I stopped by my local Target and found the third variety (fajita) and tried that. I didn't like that flavor as much. Each serving is 200 calories and 7 grams of fat. There are two servings per box and one serving equals three spring rolls. When I first tried them I used duck sauce with them but later found that I preferred to eat them without duck sauce. At Wal-Mart they were priced $1.98 a box and at Target $2.99 a box. Just like workouts or even more so, food is very subjective but for my taste buds I give the following rating: Thai-style - 4 1/2 stars Fajita-style...

Cycle 3 of the FIRM Express system is TurboCharge . The three workouts in this phase is led by Master Instructor Alison Davis McClain. This cycle is suppose to "lean out your physique with the best in cardio coupled with muscle toning exercises". TurboCharge Cardio Sculpt by far is my favorite (so far) of the Cardio Sculpt workouts. This one had great flow between the cardio, the sculpting moves, and the burst. And yes I am thinking the "hinge move at the waist" is the FIRM's new signature move because it appears again in all three workouts. I will have to see next week if Kelsie includes this move. The Burst are: Burst 1: Power Step Touch Burst 2: High knee side to side Burst 3: Single leg lunge run Burst 4: Tire Run TurboCharge Cardio I am lukewarm on. I am usually a fan of Alison's cardio choreography and I while I think some moves are innovative, much of it I found repetitive. Also she uses a weight to get increase the intensity in some combin...

Cardio Coach Volume 3 is a downloadable audio workout. It is coached by instructor Sean O'Malley and it is a guided cardio workout designed to be used on fitness cardio equipment. I use these workouts with my treadmill but you can use them with bikes, elliptical machines etc as well. Volume 3 is approximately 45 minutes if you do the stretch that Sean includes. I stretch myself so I only ever do the cardio portion which is just over 39 minutes. To get the most out of the workout you will need a heart rate monitor. The way the workout works is based on your perceived exertion and level of effort. There are four zones or levels. Level 1 Effort - Blue zone equates to a heart rate range between 55% - 65% Level 2 Effort - Green zone equates to a heart rate range between 65% - 75% Level 3 Effort - Orange zone equates to a heart rate range between 75% - 85% Level 4 Effort - Red zone equates to a heart rate above 85% Sean directs you through the various levels and tells you what you ...

The FIRM Express System Cycle 2 Accelerate features Master Instructor Rebekah Sturkie. It also contains three 20 minute workouts and it is build as the cycle where you " Carve and FIRM muscles while blasting calories !" It uses moderate to high impact with weights in the range of 8 to 12 lbs. The first workout I did in this cycle was Accelerate Cardio Sculpt . I like the warm up and opening sequence in this workout. One thing I have notice is that there seems to be a lot of hinging at the waste across the board in the workouts I have done so far. This seems to be a pattern with the various FIRM systems. That a certain move will appear in all the workouts throughout at particular series. I don't know if it will turn out to be this way for The FIRM Express System because I haven't done the other cycles yet. The burst in this Cardio Sculpt are : Burst 1 - V Hops Burst 2 - One Leg Vertical Jump Burst 3 - Plie power jumps with scoop arms Burst 4 - Speed squat shuffle ...

Yum!!!. Just add one cup of skim milk (or slightly more if you want it more smooth and less thick) to the contents of the bag, blend it up and serve. I just recently found the Yoplait Frozen Smoothies in my local grocery stores and decided to give them a try and I like them. There are currently four flavors: Triple Berry Strawberry Mango Pineapple Strawberry Banana Blueberry Pomegranate The Strawberry Mango Pineapple and the Blueberry Pomegranate are my favorites. There are two servings per bag and each serving is 110 calories if you use one cup of skim milk. I usually have two (the full bag) servings - replacing my oatmeal and toast breakfast. It pours nicely in a 16oz cup and that is great if you are "on the go". They can be pricey depending where you shop. At my local grocery stores, they are between $3.79 and $3.99 per bag. At Target, I think they were priced at $3.25 and this past weekend I found them at Wal-Mart for $2.50 a bag. When I first tried one, I thought it c...

Taken straight from the literature in The FIRM Express Fitness Guide is the following on what The FIRM Express System is all about: "Here's how it works: Instead of starting with cardio, then sculpting each muscle group separately like most traditional workouts do. The FIRM Express compresses cardio and sculpting moves into twelve, rapid-results workouts. The routines are grouped into four progressive cycles that include the hottest studio moves, plus The FIRM Express Mini Bursts , the fast-blast interval technique that gets targeted results burning up to 9X more fat than traditional cardio workouts. All segments feature no-nonsense moves designed to work all your muscles at once-and your abs continually." Definition of The FIRM Express Mini Burst - "Mini Bursts alternate 8 seconds of fast paced exercise with 12 seconds of slower paced "recovery" movement." So this week, I did the workouts from cycle 1 Ignite of The FIRM Express System. The FIRM Expre...

High Reps is approximately 65 minutes long and it is a muscular endurance total body workout. The workout is set to ten songs. Each song is anywhere from 4 to 6 minutes and each song is dedicated to working a specific body part. You are working that specific body part for the entire length of the song, hence the name of the workout, High Reps, because you are doing a lot of reps for that body part within the song. Now Cathe does vary the exercise within each song and then you might get a 15 to 20 second break/rest but the reps are pretty much none stop and the only thing that varies is the tempo. For example you may start with a 4 count, then a 3 and 1 count then a 2/2 count followed by single counts and then there is a good chance you will repeat the sequence. This will be the pattern until Cathe either changes exercises or the song ends. The workouts uses dumbbells, a barbell, a mat, a gliding disc, and a band. Cathe does give you time to set up your equipment before each s...

STS Total Body is phase 4 in Cathe's Shock Training System which is a system about building strength, muscular endurance, and muscle definition. Where the other phases in the system work the various muscle groups across three (or four if you are counting abs) different workouts, STS Total Body aims to work the entire body in one workout. The main part of the workout clocks in at 66 minutes long. It features a warm up, a series of trisets, an abdominal section, and a stretch. The warm up uses a barbell to warm the muscles. I forgot about this. I don't like warming up this way - starting off with weight right away. Cathe does caution that the barbell should be light in weight. During the warm up you are doing dead lifts, barbell rows, squats, lunges, shoulder press, upright rows, and some bicep curls. The reps are maybe around 8 to 10. The main part of the workout features tri-sets done for two sets each. A tri-set is when you do three exercises back to back before you rest. Th...

Kick Start Your Metabolism is a bonus workout that comes with The FIRM Express system. The FIRM Express system is the most recent (release December 2010) FIRM weight loss system. The system comes with twelve 20 minute workouts and also includes this workout, a 4 day Kick Start Plan, and the FIRM Express Fitness Guide. Kick Start Your Metabolism includes two workouts. The first is Pump It Up and the second is Shortcut to Flat Abs . Both are 10 minute workouts and both feature one of the FIRM's newest instructors, Jennifer Ray. Pump It Up is a Cardio Sculpt workout with emphasis on cardio. It featured 4 mini burst done practically back to back. Jennifer uses one set of weights to increase the intensity. The burst include squat jumps, alternating plyo lunges, plank jumps side to side, and ski hops with alternating rows. There is a count down clock that counts down the 8 second mini burst but there is not a clock that counts down the 12 second rest and I would have like to ...

Happy New Year everyone!!!! I hope we all have a fabulous 2011. May all your goals be achieved and I wish all of you much success in health and fitness. Saundra