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Sexy Abs Cardio Sculpt with Kelly Rowland is a 85-minute total body workout that is lead by Jeanette Jenkins and it features singer Kelly Rowland.  Along with Jeanette and Kelly, there are three other cast members. One cast members does show beginner modifications. The DVD menu Play All with music Play All without Music, Instruction Only Chapters      Chapter 1 - Warm up      Chapter 2 - Metabolic Boost      Chapter 3 - Total Body Blast      Chapter 4 - Amazing Arms & Legs      Chapter 5 - Bye Bye Love Handles      Chapter 6 - Beautiful Back Chapter 7 - Booty Patrol Chapter 8 - Super Calorie Burner Chapter 9 - Long, Lean, & Toned Chapter 10 - Abs, Butt, & Thigh Blaster Chapter 11 - Ab Smash Chapter 12 - Lengthen & Meditation Most chapters are 5 minutes in length. Chapters 9, 10, 11, & 12 are 7 minutes long.  All the chapters feature a countdown cl...

More Cardio Strength is approximately 55 minutes in length. There is no warm up. It consist of 5 blocks that are about 10 minutes in length. Each block is composed of 2 rounds that are around 5 minutes. There is a cool down. This workout follows Michelle, Peak format. That format is: Base camp, Ascent, Climb and Peak. With the exception of the first block, which does not include Peak and really doesn't include a Base camp, the other 4 blocks do follow the format. In the Cardio Strength workouts (this is Michelle's third Cardio Strength Workout) the Ascent level is the strength level, and thus weights are used. Michelle does a lot of compound multi- muscles type exercises. On almost every exercise you are working both the upper and lower body and sometimes the core. The Climb is cardio level - no weights are used. The Peak level is heavy on the plyo. There is a modifier. The Peak Exercises in this workout are : Block 2 - 180 Squat Touchdown Block 3 - Side to Side Jump Sq...

Slim, Strong, & Sexy Body Sculpt - This is a long title. The workout - well it is not short if you do both portions, clocking in at just over 60 minutes. There really is two separate 30 minute + a few seconds workouts. The first workout is called Upper Body and Core. The second workout is called Lower Body and Core. Each workout is broken up into 4 blocks. The DVD is chaptered in a way that you can select individual blocks to do. Both workouts contain their on warm up and a brief stretch at the end. Michelle uses a band and dumbbells in both workouts. The workout comes with a band - it is blue. It looks similar to what Michelle is using in the workout. I am not a big fan of band workout, although quite a few of the band exercises she chose I like. Sometimes she has you using the band and dumbbell at the same time - wrapping the band around the dumbbell for even more resistance. Quite a few of the exercises I found challenging. Also I felt that I had enough time to set up t...

This was my first rebounder workout and I really liked it. G-Force is a 53 minute Cardio & Weights workouts. It stars Tracie Long as the lead. In fact, Tracie does the whole workout by herself. There are no cast members. If you think about old time FIRM AWT workouts, this is what G-Force reminds me of. However, instead of using the box step (fanny lifter) or floor for cardio, you use the rebounder. On average, you are doing about 3 cardio tunes on the rebounder and then a sculpt set. Several of the sculpt sets use the rebounder as a prop or exercise tools. For instance, you do the leg press off the rebounder. The workout even includes floor work. The floor being the surface of your rebounder. The set is okay - perhaps a bit busy. The music I like. Most of the workout is choreograph to the music and it flows well with the rebounder and sculpt sets. As this was my first time really using my rebounder, I had to adjust to some of the movements. Tracie started off teaching...

I thought Max 30 , featuring Toby Massenburg an interesting collection of workouts. There are three workouts on this DVD. However, the workouts are not chaptered. If you want to skip ahead to a different block, you can't unless you use the fast-forward option. The workouts are : ---Max Sculpt (~35 minutes) ---Max Cardio (~35 minutes) ---Max Core (~ 10 minutes) I did Max Sculpt and Max Cardio. Both of these are complete workouts meaning they contain their own warm up and cool down. On Max Sculpt's equipment list, you will find dumbbells and on Max Cardio, you will find the club step. Both workouts are set up in the same pattern. Within each block you have three drills and two exercises per drill. Within a drill you have a basic exercise and then you have a more advanced exercise which Toby calls "Max". You follow this with another drill in which you have a basic and max exercise. Then the third drill (which Toby call "the combo drill") combines the two ...

The FIRM's Hard Core Fusion is a 56 minute workout and it features Allie Del Rio as the lead. This workout was and I guess still is part of the FIRM's Cardio Weight Systems. I privately have dubbed this system as BSS5. This is the system that came with the pink adjustable hand weights. I have the hand weights. I never use the hand weights. Instead, I used my regular dumbbells. This workout follows the classic FIRM pattern of aerobics and toning intervals. It starts with a warm up and then goes into a series of alternating toning and aerobic segments. The final toning segment includes ab work before going to the final stretch. Now the FIRM has always tended to layer moves but in this series of workouts, they started giving the multi-joint/compound exercise moves names. The Dip and Scoop (working legs and chest) Power Press (squat and bicep curl) Butt and Back Burner (deadlift, double arm row, one arm sweep) Corkscrew (lunges front and back with a chop to the ...

From the Wave system, The FIRM's Rock It Off is a 40 minute cardio sculpt workout featuring Alison Davis as the instructor. The Wave is a piece of exercise equipment that contains two workable sides. The stable side can be used just as you would use a normal step. It is different from a normal step in that the middle of the step is higher than the ends. Alison calls the middle portion of the step (when on its stable side) the crest. The unstable side is the rocking side of the wave. This is this side where you can really work your balance, your core and your legs. Depending on the position of the wave, you can rock side to side or front to back. Rock It Off Contains typical FIRM cardio sculpt sequences. The sculpting sets are more traditional and less functional. Segment 1 - warm up - stable side of the Wave. Wave in vertical position Segment 2 - total body sculpting using weights, Wave on stable side in vertical position Segment 3 - cardio (step) Wave on stable side in vertical ...

Cardio Pump Hi/Lo is another workout I have had for awhile and I that I just got around to doing. It features classic Amy Bento Hi/Lo followed by classic Amy Bento sculpting. . The Hi/Lo portion is sadly too short - only about 13 or 14 minutes or so. It is athletic in nature and I didn't find the steps difficult to pick up at all. I want to say there are two combinations but I really felt there was one combination and then some add-on moves to that. . The sculpting portion is about 20 minutes and it features lots of equipment - club step, tubing, weights, stability ball and mat. The sculpting portion has some unique and traditional exercises. . The workout flew by. Amy is full of energy and the music is motivating. There is a lot of counting down the reps - something that I don't always like. So at times I found this annoying but other than that I love the workout especially the Hi/Lo portion. . The whole workout clocks in around 46 minutes. 4 stars

Cardio/Sculpt Fitness . How many workouts do I have with those words? Many, I tell you. Well this Cardio/Sculpt Fitness work is a 69 minute workout that alternates cardio sets with sculpting sets. Kelly has a unique pattern that she uses in her workouts. Well at least I haven't seen the pattern in other workouts but I have seen the pattern in several of Kelly's workouts. She does cardio, sculpting set, drill based cardio for 1 minute, and she repeats the sculpting set. So you are hitting the muscle groups twice. In this workouts, I love the cardio, I thought many of the sculpting exercises awkward, and the drills were okay. For the sculpting exercises, I just could not get my body to cooperate. I ended up substituting different moves or changing the rep count for the upper body exercises. The only muscle groups I did as Kelly presented were leg and chest exercises. Almost all of the sculpting exercises were compound in nature. The music for Cardio/Sculpt Fitness is gr...

Total Sculpt Plus Abs is a 55 minute cardio sculpt workout. Jen Carman leads the workouts and it is part of the BSS2 (Body Sculpting System 2) group of workouts. The workout alternates cardio sets and sculpting sets. The cardio is very basic and consist of four-limb, box step,and low impact aerobics. The sculpting sets are sequence so you can go heavy with the workout if you like. BSS2 is the system where The FIRM introduce the sculpting stick which is a three part stick that comes apart. When taken apart, the ends call twigs can be used for 4-limb movement. Put together, the sculpting stick weigh 8lbs. The first sculpting stick I had broke. The middle part literally snap into two. So I ordered a new one and right after that The FIRM came out with a new shorter sculpting stick. BSS2 also uses the fanny lifter. The workout is okay. In many ways it feels like a beginner sculpting class with cardio breaks thrown in between sculpting sets. While I like the BSS2 workouts as a whole, Total...

The Shape of Things to Come . OK. I recently - August I think, acquired this workout. The Shape of Things to Come is a 50 minute cardio sculpting workout. It is basically divided into two segments. Segment one alternates standing sculpting with cardio burst. Segment two alternates chest work with abdominal work. In each each of the segments you are doing two sets of everything with about 8 to 14 reps in each set. The workout moves at a brisk pace with minimum rest between exercises. Kelly uses an 8 inch step (I did too) and two sets of dumbbells. The pattern for the workout: back, cardio burst, back cardio burst shoulders, cardio burst, shoulders, cardio burst biceps , cardio burst, biceps, cardio burst triceps, cardio burst, triceps, cardio burst Leg superset - squats and courtesy dips chest, abs, chest, abs. There is a warm up and a cool down/stretch. The cool down/stretch segment is very brief. The cardio burst are simple get your heart rate up type segments. Kelly calls them ...

Burn & Shape is a 40 minute cardio sculpt workout led by Emily Welsh. It uses the same plain, uninspiring and disappointing set as Total Body Time-Crunch. This is another workout that I haven't done in quite some time. I would consider this workout to be low intermediate in terms of intensity but you do need to pay attention because the choreography is at the medium intermediate level in terms of complexity and it moves fast. I liked the moves in this workout. The choreography, especially in the cardio sets, has attitude. There is a dance feel to the choreography. My only beef was that the steps in the later combinations tended to repeat themselves a lot. The sculpting sets were okay. They were compound in nature so choosing an appropriate weight became the challenge there. Emily is fun and encouraging. Equipment used is dumbbells. I went and found an old review that I did of this workout. Here is what I said on 2/27/2008. " This is a workout that you need to be m...

From the Body Sculpting System 3, Total Muscle Shaping is a 45 minute Cardio and Sculpt workout featuring Stephanie Huckabee and the FIRM Blue Box. Love this workout. This is one of my favorite FIRM workouts. Stephanie combines upper and lower body moves so you are working extra hard during those sections and she adds cardio in between the weight sets to give the body a break. All three positions of the blue box is used. This is a workout that you can go heavy with. The upper body work done when the box is in the incline position is just killer. Only thing I really didn't care for was the abdominal work that was done on the blue box - working the lower abs in this position was just tough. Great music. 4 1/2 out of 5 stars

Complete Body Sculpting is a 45 minute workout featuring FIRM Master Instructor Christa Suggs. This workout is from the Body Sculpting System 3 set of workouts featuring the blue box. Some call the blue box the "death box". I actually like the blue box because it is less cumbersome to move around than the TransFIRMer. The workout is a slower pace workout that alternate lower body with upper body weight work and there are cardio burst throughout. You can go heavy with this workout. The blue box can be and is used in an incline position, six inch position or the full 14 inch position. The set is dark but that didn't bother me. I thought the music was good. When this workout came out several years ago, one of the things that bothered me was that you couldn't always see the beginner because the set was so big and spread out. Great workout. 4 out of 5 stars

Complete Aerobic & Weight Training is a 55 minute workout led by Emily Welsh. It is part of the Body Sculpting System 2 series of workouts. That particular series features 5 FIRM workouts. I will say as an overall system, BSS2 is probably my favorite of all the FIRM system. I really like this workout. After the warm up this workout starts with a series of challenging squat dip combos using the step. If you use a challenging weight, the first part of this workout is tough. And you can go heavy with this workout. This workout features the fanny lifter and the FIRM sculpting stick. The FIRM sculpting stick is an 8 lb bar. I didn't use it. Depending on the exercise, I either used my 12 lb body bar or 15 lb body bar. The exercises in this workout are synchronized to music. By the end of the workout, you have hit every body part. There are 3 cardio combination placed throughout the workout. I really enjoyed the cardio combos as well. I remember when I first did this workou...

Pump, Jump n Jab Well I wanted to do a Kickboxing workout and probably shouldn't have grabbed this. Not that this isn't a good workout but it really isn't a Kickboxing workout. It is really a Cardio Sculpt workout. Kelsie includes two kickboxing sections as the cardio for the workout. The workout is about 41 minutes long and uses medium weights for sculpting throughout. I used 5 and 7 lbs dumbbells . It is kind of hard to go heavy because of the way the exercises are constructed. There is a lot of compound and 4 limb FIRM signature movement. Kelsie is excellent. The music is so-so. What is great about this workout is that it features two FIRM Believer forum members, Nikki and Jen. They do an excellent job as cast members. My favorite sections, of course, were the kickboxing sections. I would have like to see more kickboxing. 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.