The Firm: Cardio (aka Variety: Strong Heart)

Heidi Tanner
Year Released: 1995

Categories: Circuit Training (cardio and weights)


Together with Firm Strength, they were my first Firm tapes. At first after just previewing the tapes, I did not like them at all, especially Firm Cardio, but I forced myself to actually try doing them and liked it somewhat better. This was enough for me to give it another try and started slowly liking it more and more. Today I use Firm Strength and Firm Cardio regularly and I am glad I did not judge too fast ... I need to say I would not really call it a Cardio tape; seems more like a toning/strength tape to me although I am breaking a good sweat while doing them.

Things I really like about Firm Cardio: - excellent and very tough table work in the end
- the fact that the workout starts with pushups (after the warmup)
- leg lifts back
- little "cha-cha-cha" :) segment - aerobics with weights
- the flow in general
- As I already mentioned Heidi is very optimistic and warm

Things that I do not like:

-poor cueing - often
-all step aerobics - at first I avoided doing this tape because I could not make myself do these step segments! Now I just substitute all step aerobics with my own jogging in place or other high-impact athletic moves and I get a great workout
-abs work - I do Firm Strength's abs segment or my own simple abs work instead.
I find that abs segment has somewhat ackward moves that do not seem too effective to me, plus the cueing is bad, or maybe it is the flow of the moves, or music or .. may it's just me.

They are great total body workouts. I like Firm Strength more "evenly" - I like almost all segments; I feel pretty different about Firm Cardio: there are things I love, there are things I hate. Since I learnt to modify/substitute the things I do not like, I appreciate this tape much more and plan to continue to use it regularly. Both of these tapes are easy to make "light" or "heavy" depending on how you feel.

Olga

02/13/2002