The Firm: Total Sculpt Plus Abs
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Movie Reviews of The Firm: Total Sculpt Plus Abs
Movie Review: Love the Firm.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a great workout video. Upbeat and motivating, this video gives you a great workout in under an hour. Stick with it and you'll see results.Movie Review: Great introduction to The FIRM
Summary: 4 Stars
Total Sculpt plus Abs is part of the Body Sculpting System 2 and uses all of the "required" equipment to the fullest. You'll need pairs 3, 5, and 8 pound dumbbells, the Fanny Lifter (or equivalent), and the Sculpting Stick (or equivalent). I acquired this DVD when I purchased the full BSS2 set with the Fanny Lifter and Sculpting Stick, however it also comes with the BSS2 4-pack and with a BSS2 set that includes only the stick. (Confused yet?)
I will admit a certain soft spot for this workout--it was the very first Firm workout I ever did. Jen Carmen got me on the road to a level of fitness I never thought I'd be able to attain. This workout is thorough. If you're a beginner or even just new to this kind of exercise, you're going to feel not only worked out, but worked over. I was seriously sore for a day or so the first few times I did this tape. Equal attention is paid to all the major muscle groups--shoulders, triceps, biceps, back, abs, inner/outer thighs, and glutes all get worked in this video.
The cardio segments are short and fun with moderately challenging choreography. If you're someone who has "two left feet," I highly recommend previewing this one a time or two before you attempt it. The four-limb segment towards the end is probably the most challenging--it's what tripped me up the most the first five or six times I did this workout.
The Sculpting Stick gets put to innovative use during the abs section of this workout. Jen uses it to add resistance to the brief but effective segment of reverse crunches. The shin crunches are fun too. As someone who absolutely loathed any kind of ab work before finding these videos, the ab section in this workout was a pleasant surprise. Having to use the equipment kind of distracted me from my hatred of situps!
As I've become more fit, I keep going back to this video if I want a long sculpting workout that isn't going to leave me reaching for the ibuprofen the following morning. If I want to make it more challenging, I'll add a dumbbell to my other shoulder rather than use the stick for balance and/or heavy up on a few exercises. This workout really can grow with you to an extent, but the short sets and short ab section drop it back to 4 stars for me. This workout is a total winner for high beginner/low intermediate exerciser. If you're an advanced fitness buff that's looking to get your butt kicked, you should probably look elsewhere.
Movie Review: Great workout for getting back in shape
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been a fan of The Firm for some time now and have had my Fanny Lifter for seven years. I was having trouble getting myself motivated to get back in shape after having twins, even though I still enjoy the original Body Sculpting System. This workout did the trick! Instead of finding excuses not to fit a workout in after my kids went to sleep, I found myself looking forward to exercising again.
Jennifer Carmen is an enthusiastic and motivating instructor, and the music helps keep me moving through the workout despite the burn. I'm not terribly fit any more, although I'm far from overweight, and I definitely felt the benefits of this workout immediately and for days afterward. I used 3 lb, 5 lb and 8 lb pairs of dumbbells, and subbed my 3 lbs in for the sculpting stick. I went up a set of weights on some of the arm exercises, but that may be a factor of my arms having been strengthened from lugging 60 pounds of toddler around rather than Jennifer cuing "easy" exercises. The only sequence in which I thought the stick might have been superior to the weights was a series of leg abductions while I'm balanced on one leg atop the Fanny Lifter. I was a little wobbly at first, but the balancing is good for my core. The Fanny Lifter is a convenient step to have, but any sturdy step would do.
Jennifer does not allow a whole lot of time to learn each movement, and some of the cardio segments move pretty fast. Someone unfamiliar with The Firm moves and cuing shouldn't feel uncomfortable pausing and rewinding the faster-paced sections the first two or three times they do this workout. I was very pleased with the variation in exercises targeted at single muscle group. The variety made it much more fun to concentrate on one area at a time. The cool-down stretch is, surprisingly for a Firm workout, quite adequate. This is an hour-long workout, so you may want to have some sort of backup for days (or weeks) in which you don't have an hour to spare.
My one complaint about this workout is that the ab section is far too short for something marketed "Plus Abs". If I were to want to work out my abs, I'd probably do the bulk of this workout, switch to Ab Sculpt with Lisa Kay, and then come back to Total Sculpt Plus Abs for the cool-down/stretch.
Movie Review: Shorter sculpting sets with room to grow
Summary: 4 Stars
I did this workout the day after Maximum Cardio Burn. This workout also has the same "fun factor"- Jennifer Carmen is enthusiastic, cues well, and is very encouraging. The music is very fast-paced, and that motivated me through some of the tougher sets.As I mentioned in my review of MCB, I don't have the Sculpting Stick, and here I also didn't feel like I needed it. I found some of the moves that it was used for ineffective. I was able to sub weights for just about everything, including the pushups on the stick- I just don't understand how that wouldn't compress people's wrists. It certainly wouldn't do any harm on the combination chest press and pullover, but as you progress you're going to need heavier weights anyway. The "lat pulldown" it was used for did nothing for me, even using weights that were heavier than the stick. I don't believe that exercise is useful unless it's attached to a pulley- you don't work your lats here, you work your shoulders. I was disappointed when I emerged at the end of the workout and didn't feel like my back had worked at all. Next time I'll sub some heavy lat rows.
So why the four stars? Because the rest of the workout is great, and as with almost all of the Firm workouts, everything can be made harder with the use of heavier weights. Jenn thoroughly works over the biceps, triceps, thighs (inner and outer), glutes, hamstrings and abs in this workout. Also, I like the variation they're using on the leg presses in this workout. Instead of using two heavy weights, you use one very heavy weight and then hold a dowel in your other hand. I really did feel like I was getting deeper into the targeted muscle groups for the leg presses as well as the squats, lunges and plies.
The aerobic sets are short here, and they're intended to be used more for recovery from your heavy weights than to significantly elevate your heart rate. Pick up Maximum Cardio Burn to cross train with for cardio.
Movie Review: Pretty good but you can make it tougher
Summary: 4 Stars
This is overall a pretty good workout. However, if you are an intermediate/advanced exerciser, you'll need to toughen it up a bit. Basically, she isn't as hard core in certain parts as she could be. For example, there is no reason to just stand there while you are lifting weights to strengthen your shoulders. You can just add a squat while you are lifting. Also, you really need to ratchet up the weight if you want results on the arm sections. She says pick up medium dumbells, but that's not going to give you the results you want for biceps. Finally, she wastes a bit of time having you do 3-part side leg lifts while you are on the top of the Fanny Lifter. You are better off just continuing to do leg presses and lifting your leg once--this will work you harder. Overall though, this is a good workout tape and at about 45 minutes long, it's a good length. Just toughen it up for yourself as you get stronger. Oh, and one final thing, the stretching part at the end is a bit long (I did not include this in the 45-minute estimate above). Emily Walsh's stretching routine on the other Body Sculpting II video is more appropriate for those of us who are always running against the clock. Anyway, this review actually sounds a bit negative, but I really do like this workout--it just needs to be modified a bit as you gain strength. Enjoy!