Friday, April 30, 2010

The FIRM Total Sculpt Plus Abs Review

The Firm: Total Sculpt Plus Abs
Jennifer Carman, 2003

This is a 60 min mostly strength workout led by Jen Carman. There are 4 background exercisers with Suzan showing the beginner modifications. This is the BSS2 set-white with blue accents on the walls. You will need a variety of dumbbells, the Firm sculpting stick (optional), and a Fanny Lifter or other step for this w/o.

The warmup is kind of long but I actually really enjoyed it this AM. You use the sculpting stick to warm up your upper body and do squats and such to warmup the lower body. After the warmup Jen moves right into a heavy squat set, back work, pliets, and lat pull down with the stick-I just used dumbbells since the stick is only 8 #'s. She uses the stick in other areas of the workout too and again, I just use dumbbells because the stick is just too light to do anything with.

The majority of this workout is strength and includes moves such as: leg press (just use 2 dumbbells, not 1 and the stick), bicep curls, 4 limb work that is similar to her 4 limb section in Firm Super Cardio-(which I love), french press, pushups, tricep pushups, and more. She varies the tempo alot and uses a pretty slow tempo for a lot of it to really allow heavy poundage.

There are a few cardio segments-one on the floor and one on the step. She finishes with chest and ab work on the floor before the cooldown. The ab section uses teh 6# portion of the sculpting stick and I found it fun and effective. Not so boring & repetitive like the other ab sections in BSS2.

I would rate this an intermediate w/o done as is. If you skip the sculpting stick, use heavy dumbbells, use the 8" section of the FL, add a few more plyos (she does include some though!), and put a little pep in your step you can get a great sculpting workout with the usual Firm cardio benefit.

6 comments:

  1. Your sister's etsy shop is adorable! She's so talented!

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  2. Love the Walmart photos. Too funny! Your sisters shop is great. I really like the baby hammock. I went to Jennifers blog. I learned two new recipes one for a detox salad and one for a smoothie.

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  3. Just got back from a couple of nights at Harrahs Atlantic City and they now have free exercise videos on Demand. All were Acacia like on Mag Rack (Dance and Be Fit, Shiva Rhea yoga and Core Fusion Exhale stuff) but no Exercise TV as advertised by Jake on the previews so don't know if they used to have Exercise TV or will be having Exercise TV. This is just available in the rooms with HD tvs.

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  4. I just read Jennifer's Blog -- The Avocado and Parmesan sandwich sounds yummy

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  5. I checked out Jennifer's blog and learned that she recommends the movie Food Inc. I agree - it's a good one. Lindsey, I hope your move is going well!

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  6. I learned from Jennifer's blog that she is a real person with real emotions and very generous to share her experiences and personal feelings.

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