I rented this tape out of curiosity and did it twice. If you own the later FIRM tapes, it is interesting as a piece of history that shows how the FIRM "got started" and how far they've come since then.
I found this to be an easy-to- follow 60-minute workout. Unfortunately, I think Vol. 1 shows its age, especially in the two "aerobic" sequences, where you jog with hand weights. I question the safety of these and many other moves in the workout. (Another example: the cast lifts their weights not by squatting, but by bending over and rolling up with weights in hand!) The warm-up, which seems like nothing more than a serious of pulses and stretches, is not vigorous enough to get the muscles warm for the workout that follows, and the cool-down stretch at the end is too quick--each stretch isn't held long enough. What finally redeems this workout is the killer floor work--the leg presses, which I did with a 5 pound dumbbell to force the reps and with no ankle weights, seemed much much tougher than the floorwork in Vol. 5 with 5 pound ankle weights. I think this lower body workout is valuable, but I wouldn't buy this tape just for that.

Susan provides more instruction than later Classic volumes (2 and 5 come to mind), but she could give more pointers on proper form. She seems a little more animated than she is in Vol. 4. Clearly, she is playing to the camera here, but it really didn't bother me much.

Elaine C.