Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Firm Express Review: Kickstart Your Metabolism





Today's Review: Firm Express: Kickstart Your Metabolism
Jen Ray, 2010  ***** (5 of 5 stars)

This is the (awesome) "bonus" dvd in the Firm Express kit. It contains a 10 minute ab workout and a 10 minute AWT w/o. Both are led by Jen w/ 2 backgrounders. The set is really cute-kind of  a basketball court floor w/ nice wood & light colors in the background. You will only need dumbbells for the Firm Express series. 

Pump It Up!: This is an awesome 10 minute AWT workout. In this w/o you do one set of 8 second bursts (w/ 12 seconds of recovery) then a strength and/or cardio move and repeat. So literally 1/2 of this workout is bursts- loved it! The bursts were all weighted and include: plyo jumps & then she adds in OH press, weighted lunges & adds in bicep curls, and plank moguls. The rest of the workout includes: ski w/ weights & alternating reach, side lunge w/ tricep kickback & dumbbell floor touch, squat- clean & press- abduction, dips & bicep curls, and pushups & renegade rows.

Shortcut to Flat Abs: This is a fun 10 minute weighted core routine. You will need 1 dumbbell for all the work  in this. Standing moves include: standing weighted crunches, squat w/ a chop & swing, and windmill. Floor work includes: clam shell crunch w/ a pullover, side knee drops w/ pec fly, roll ups, bridge w/ sky marches, V sit while rowing, supermans, scorpion low back work, and plank into side plank w/ hip raises.

I absolutely LOVED Pump It Up!- if all the dvds in this set were structured like this- I would be in heaven (well probably because they'd have killed me).  I would rate Pump It Up! a low advanced-if it were 20 min I would say advanced. Shortcut to Flat Abs is a great solid intermediate ab w/o. Jen is a great lead- good curing, nice demeanor. She didnt always use all 8 seconds in the bursts though.

These workouts move right along. No wasted time and you will work up a nice sweat in the 10 minute AWT w/o. These (like all Firms) are really easy to modify up or down in impact & intensity. These contain fun new moves and the time really flys. The intro is quick and says "I am Gaiam" and moves right into the menu- so combining w/o's is pretty painless! I received these dvds to review.

2 comments:

  1. OMG.....LOVE the "LOL" Walmart pic's!! Three words for you....SAD BUT TRUE. Can you believe some people? :)

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  2. so totally true! The last time I went to Walmart years ago the woman in front of us at checkout bent over to get stuff from her cart and her WHOLE hiney was haning out. No undies or nothing. ENTIRE hiney....

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