The FIRM BSS1 - Cardio Sculpt

[Guest guest]

So Monday was my first workout from the BSS1 series. I was surprised

and pleased by the similarities to the classics! I've read mixed

reviews on the BSS workouts, but I could be thinking of some of the

later workouts. I've done so much reading on the FIRM series lately

that it all kind of runs together now, heh. Many of the exercises

were familiar to me, thanks to my past two weeks of classics, but

with the different set and music, I really got a different feel from

this workout – which is a good thing for short-attention-span me,

lol. I definitely like the tortoise (75% weights/25% cardio) style

workouts a lot, but that's no surprise since I'm not a big fan of

cardio, lol. But I don't mind the classic (50% weights/50% cardio)

style, either. I haven't done a hare (25% weights/75% cardio) yet,

but think I have one on tap for next week.

I followed the workout pretty much as it was, save for the leg floor

work. Allie takes a small dumbbell and holds it behind her knee for

the leg work that is done while kneeling over the step. That looked

tricky and uncomfortable, so I used ankle weights for this section.

She also used a dumbbell on her thigh for the leg lifts, and I used

ankle weights here as well. Oh, and I did the chest work on my ball

instead of the floor. Sadly, I couldn't keep up with all of the

moves in the short step segment, LOL! What throws me off are the

changes. I can do the moves one at a time, but once she started

switching them around I got lost. I just did several reps of one

move in a row, then switched to a new move, did several of those,

switch again, etc. As long as I get my HR up a bit for the cardio

segments, I'm not going to worry too much about following the steps

exactly, heh.

I wasn't happy to see the return of the hover squats, but even though

I don't like them very much, I think I'm getting better at them.

I also decided to try the tall box again for step ups, and that went

pretty well until I hit my head on the ceiling trying to keep pace!

I slowed down after that and made sure to pay attention and keep my

head straight, LOL! Oh, and hooray for concentration curls! That's

one of my fave biceps exercises and I was glad that the biceps seemed

to get more attention. And it was nice to see some hammer curls as

well. I was getting pretty tired of doing only reg biceps curls last

week – but I'll remember to change those on my own next time I do the

classics. I also liked the brief stretches at the end of the weights

segments. So another good FIRM for me! I'm so glad that I'm

enjoying these workouts as much as I hoped! Otherwise it would be

just plain silly for me to have bought so many, LOL!

Sara

Most of you already know this, but here's the breakdown from a review

from videofitness.com:

Warm-up (6 minutes) - lots of marching and stretching and simple

movements.

Weights section:

Pushups with hands on box

Hover squats sequence with weights on box (hover-sit, hover-stand,

hover-pulse, etc)

Lat rows with one hand on box followed by leg presses with weights,

then repeated for other side (long)

Bicep curls (sitting on box)

Cardio section:

Low impact - marches, step-hamstring, double step-touch, " take it

from the top " .

Weights section:

French press (sitting on box)

Hover squats sequence again

Double lat row (sitting on box and leaning forward)

Lunges with bicep curls, stepping forward onto purple section of box

(she has you remove it from the top of the box)

Overhead press

Plies with weights, straddling the purple box (legs are to either

side)

Plies adding delt lifts (tough set, lots of quick-quick-slow

sequences)

Plies adding hammer curls

Stretch

Cardio section:

" Samba " step aerobics using just purple section of box. Lots of knee

repeaters, big arm movements, hip swinging, samba moves.

Weights section:

Dips with weights, squats - repeat for other leg

Pulsing dips and squats - repeat for other leg

Triceps kickbacks on tall box, stretch

Leg presses with weights

Sitting French press

Leg presses with weights-other leg

Stretch for legs and arms

Cardio section:

Light dumbbells and purple box for four-limbed aerobics.

Weights section:

Concentration bicep curls sitting on tall box

Seated side bends

New move: hands behind head, twist elbow to meet opposite knee while

seated on box

Repeat entire sequence for other side

Pec flies lying on floor with feet on tall box

Stretch for chest

Kneel on floor and lay chest over tall box - delt lifts to front

Stretch

Tablework sequence for glutes and outer thighs:

Still kneeling over tall box, dumbbell behind knee, bent leg lifts to

ceiling

Leg up and cross down behind other leg

Lie on floor on side, dumbbell on outer thigh, outer thigh leg lifts

Leg shoot-outs

Leg shoot-out then up and down

Pulsing shoot-outs

Stretches

Repeat tablework sequence for other leg

Abs work:

Crunch sequence using various arm positions and leg positions. Allie

shows different arms positions for varying intensity.

Cool down & stretch (6 minutes)