I am a big fan of the Firm (from the BBH-era all the way through the Firm Express series) and while I waited for a bargain, could not wait to get this series. I am a BIG fan of the short (30 minute-ish or less) intense, HIIT-style workouts, and these do NOT disappoint! The exercises are sort of all over the place (I would not recommend these for any serious strength training) but are fabulous for short cardio routines, even the strength workouts. Each workout in the system effectively gets your heart rate up and makes you feel like you really got something effective done in just 20 minutes. I tend to add 3-4 minutes to the end to stretch. Like all Firms, there is a high production value, and I like how the instructors are somewhat coordinated (their outfits), and the backlighting changes color for the bursts (which also have an on-screen timer). I don’t like that the FE workouts are each on individual DVDs (so there’s 13 DVDs in the system – excessive!) and wish they would have put each cycle on one DVD so you could mix and match. There is a Gaiam ad at the beginning but isn’t excessive. I think my only other complaint would be that the warm ups (thankfully not the cardio or strength as much) can be unnecessarily complex, but I am choreo-challenged and still follow along fine.

I would rate all of the FE workouts in the intermediate range, maybe high intermediate depending on poundage used (but you can’t go too heavy due to the combination moves), and I often sub the bursts with a harder exercise to get my heart rate up more. They are definitely great to add on to another workout or to use on a day that you’re short on time. I have not done the system as designed and just use the workouts as a standalone or add-on. I really get a lot of use out of these and have paired them with lots of other workouts. They are so fun and short! I would definitely recommend these for anyone who enjoys short, high intensity workouts.

The Accelerate cycle (the second cycle in the system) is led by Rebekah with two background exercisers. One of them is supposed to be a modifier but they don’t generally modify, in my opinion.

All of the FE workouts have a brief (about 2 minute warm up) followed by brief cardio and/or strength intervals and four sets of bursts. Each set of bursts is 8-seconds of a high intensity exercise followed by a 12-second recovery. Each workout ends with a very short (inadequate) 1-2 minute cool down and stretch.

Accelerate Cardio + Sculpt: The c/s workout has combination strength moves (various lunge/squat variations with upper body work) including those kneeling to standing up/down style lunges and renegade rows. Fun choice of exercises. The bursts include jump jacks, jump lunges, plyo lunges, and side to side jump squats.

Accelerate Sculpt: The strength workout I thought was very lower-body intense and has some great upper body work as well. The bursts include skaters, lunge feet to hand while in plank, weighted plyo lunges, weighted side to side lunge hops.

Accelerate Cardio: This cardio workout is one of my personal favorites in the FE system! I liked that it isn’t overly choreographed and it is more drill-based. The cardio includes jumping jacks, heismans, plyo lunges, scissors, some kick/punch drills. The bursts include super fast heismans, plank weave-throughs, super fast jumping jacks, and 180-degree jumps. There is some ab worko at the end during the “cool down” with lunge variations and an upper body crunch twist type move.

Instructor Comments:
I like Rebekah as an instructor and in the FE series, and I think she uses marginally less choreographed routines than Emily and Alison (she seems slightly more drill based like Kelsie). Upon FE coming out, people said over and over how screechy/WOOOH-y Rebekah is in these, which I was dreading, but I didn’t think it was so bad. Maybe I am working so hard that I don’t really notice? Her instruction style is very similar to her Get Chisl’d workout and she says “listen up” a lot.

Emily B.