This video is so much better than the Blast tapes or Upper Body Split. It is very well-thought out and I only caught two editing errors. In general, the cutting and pasting of Firm segments is done better in the Split tapes than the Blast tapes. Having said this, I want everyone to know that I like the Upper Body Split and the Blast tapes despite their flaws (although I'm lukewarm with Bust & Butt). I just wanted to point that out so that you know I'm a Firm Believer therefore this review will be positive. It will also be very long so you get an idea of what the tape is about and decide for yourself whether you like it.

In comparison to Cathe's Pure Strength Legs & Abs, this tape is more endurance or cardio-like. Cathe gives you rest breaks in between sets so you can lift very heavy. There are no rest breaks here. The rest segments are leg exercises with no weights or cardio segments. You will definitely sweat with this tape. You can still lift heavy but not as heavy as with the PS tape. You can lift the same amount of weights as you can with Standing Legs.

This video is more fun than SL though. I also think it's better organized than SL. Unlike the Blast series, the warm-up and cooldown are nice and long. The warm-up is taken from the Strength tape and BB&B. The cool-down is from the Strength tape. The two noticeable errors are when Tracie Long says to get ready to do abs but we're not and when Tamela says to get rid of the weights after her lunge/plie section but we need them because Pamela's lunge/dip section is next. But there are so many more nice transitions that I would like to point it out. There a three giant cycles of leg exercises. They all start out with cardio sections. These cardio sections focus on the legs so you will do karate kicks, squats, and plyos. One of them is Tracie Long's karate/plyo section from MBS which I really like so I'm glad that they included it here. The first cycle works mostly the left leg. You will do two sets of leg presses with tall box climbs in between, lunges/dips and floor work for the left leg. The second cycle is the same but it works your right leg. What's nice is the floor work is taken from the Hare workout so Tracie does give you time to put on the ankle weight. I was afraid we would have to stop the VCR to put our ankle weight on.

At first, I wished they would have put a different floorwork section since this section is already in the Hare and LD&WO tapes. I was thinking of Heidi's floorwork from the Cardio tape. But then we wouldn't have time to put our ankle weight for one of the legs because Heidi works both legs at the same time. I like the floorwork from the Hare anyway. You can really feel the burn in your butt especially after working the same leg on the standing leg portion. In addition, the first cycle has weighted squats with side lunges with no weights while the second cycle has weighted squats with basic training squats (from Strength tape) with no weights. I thought this was clever since these two sections were taken from two different tapes but they both had weighted squats in combination with leg exercises with no weights. The third section mostly had lunge/dips for the standing leg work. I wished it had more leg presses instead of one of the sets of lunge/dips. For example, Pam's lunge/dip combo is already in the Strength tape and Tough Tape 2, so it would have been better to have leg presses instead.

After the standing leg work, Heidi has us do bridge work. Then we do bridge work with Dale using the ball. Then we keep the tall box so that we can do Heidi's ab section with the tall box. Then Heidi says to remove the tall box and instead of doing her floor abs, we will do abs with Lisa Kay. This transition is really smooth since Heidi states to get rid of the box and then Lisa will say "Get ready for your second set of abs" (which it is, I know I'm getting too excited about transitions).

I'm glad they put in Lisa's ab sections because I really like the rock/lift move with the extend & twist. Carissa's abs section is the last ab section. All three sections are very diversified so it's not boring. You will work all sides of your abs. The final smooth transition is that Carissa has you change directions after her ab section & you will end up on the correct side for Pam's cool-down. I think Anna B. is really good at putting segments together. That's why I was surprised that we caught a lot of errors in the Blast tapes. With this tape, you won't need to substitute any of the exercises like you have to with the Upper Body Split tape. All the segments emphasize the lower body.

I already listed some of the things that I don't like above. Other things that I dislike is Tamela's lunges. They are too fast. Her plie section is good though. I really felt the burn in my inner thighs and buns. There is no calf work which some people might like. I need to work on my puny calves so I wish there were some weighted calf raises.

Finally, since this is a parts tape, I have to work on my rotations so that tapes with the same sections are not done on the same week. Otherwise, I get tired of certain segments because I already did them that week. When are we going to get brand new tapes??? Even the retail version of the Blast tapes won't seem new since we've seen parts of them already (if not all of the segments).

Instructor Comments:
All instructors are o.k. in this video. Tracie Long is still my favorite. Instructors cue better for muscle conditioning than aerobic segments because they don't have to rush to try to cue on time. It helps that we don't need to know choreography either. Like other Firm videos, there's not a lot of form pointers. So I wouldn't recommend this video for beginners. The intensity level is not for beginners anyway.

Helen Stephens