Saundra

The FIRM - FIRM Basics 12 Minute Time Crunch Cardio contains 4 cardio focused workouts.  And like the "Weights" each of the workouts are longer than 12 minutes; more like 13 to 15 minutes. In the four cardio workouts, the cardio sets vary from 4-limb movement to floor aerobics to box aerobics.  There is a little bit of impact but most of the cardio is basic and low impact.  This is traditional FIRM cardio.  It is not "straight" cardio in that, dumbbells and toning moves appear throughout the segments.  So you are getting quite a bit of toning in as well. The workout is taught in "live" class format.  The set is the Mansion set with the Greek Statues. The music is familiar as it is music that was used in the "Classic" FIRM workouts.  However,  there were two tunes (one is Robyn Johnson's segment and another in Allie's second segment) that I didn't recognize.  I couldn't recall hearing the tunes in previous workouts. The...

The FIRM - FIRM Basics 12 Minute Time Crunch Weight s contain 4 separate toning workouts; 2 of which are lower body focus and two are upper body focus.  Each workouts has its own warm up and cool down. While the DVD states that each workout was 12 minutes long, I think each of the segments were more in the 13 to 14 minute range. The DVD allows you to select the following : Total Workout Lower Body with Libby Cowart Upper Body with Janet Brooks Lower Body with Nancy Tucker Upper Body with Summer Sparkman If you select the Total Workout option this will include all the warm ups and cool downs of each workout.  There is not an option of saying doing the warm up of the first workout and the cool down of the last workout. This is a very basic workout.  It is design for beginners.  Because it is a toning workout, you can make it more difficult by adding weights to the exercise or increasing your weight poundage.  Several of the exercises use light weig...

On several of the older SHAPE workouts, there is a bonus workout called the 12-minute Total Body Blitz . This workout is led my Tracy York. I have been short on time lately and trying to fit in workouts where I can. So I decided to give this workout a try because I was wanting to do some type of sculpting workout. Tracy does give you a brief warm up and cool down. Between the warm up and cool down, Tracy take you through a series of compound exercises that work multiple body parts at the same time. She uses light, medium and heavy dumbbells to get the job done. My major complaint about the workout is that I didn't think Tracy used the 12 minutes effectively. We did about 4 to 5 exercise combinations total. With each set of exercises, Tracy starts off with a very slow rep count and then half way through the set, she picks up the tempo. The name of the workout is Total Body Blitz. Blitz -get in get out. I think Tracy was very slow in getting in; and as a result I didn...