A little about me: I don't do Cathe. I've never done Cathe, I'm scared of Cathe, I stay away from Cathe. There! ;)

I got my first FIRM workout in 1992 (Vol. 1) and did the 90 Day Rotation with all the workouts in 2000. Then I sold off the workouts wanting something new, but never got the results that FIRM gave me originally. So I reacquired most of the older stuff, and a lot of the newer stuff starting with BSS1.

I'm an intermediate exerciser who got knocked back to the advanced beginner's level due to illness. Only in the last few months have I been able to do longer or intermediate workouts, and I started a rotation with the FIRM Classics and original FIRM Crosstrainers. This is my first foray into FIRMing without the fancy sets.

I was lulled into a sense of complacency by doing AbSculpt first. Then the truth came out: this might be "new" FIRM because of the sets, but the workout itself is serious AWT complete with leg presses, hover squats and lunges.I loved this workout!!!

It was harder than FIRM Cardio or FIRM Strength to me because the upper body work got the entire upper body, not just the lats, delts and triceps. In fact, I like this better than some of the Classics because it doesn't go overboard with lat rows and deltoid lifts, and includes new moves like side lunges on part of the Fanny Lifter, as well as variations on pushups and more work for the posterior delts and anterior delts.

I'd just purchased a set of 8 lb. weights because my strength has returned, but I ended up using 5 lbs. for lower body and most of the upper body work, and 3 lbs. for the shoulder work. I was drenched when it was over, total goo.

I like that ab work is *not* included with this workout because I would have been too knocked out to do it anyways. Lots of stretches are included after each set, which I also liked, and I think doing abs on another day using AbSculpt makes sense.

A+.

Instructor Comments:
Jen doesa great job leading this workout!

f1mom