I purchased this tape to use on the days that I thought I'd be able to get in a good 1 1/2 hr workout and for the days I needed to do both cardio and strength. I think I made a good decision. This tape is very thorough. It gives you a great cardio workout and a great upper body and ab workout. You get, in my opinion, a decent lower body workout, but not a super intense one. The first part is all step and I think it's about 25 min.

The second part is step with lower body toning. The lower body toning consists of lunges, squats,... things of that nature. Since they are done at a fast pace, I find myself using a bit lower weight than normal; therefore, this is more a cardio/endurance workout for me than a strength/muscle building one (Cathe does state that if you are a beginner, this will be more strength and if you are advanced it will be more endurance). In a way, I feel like I am not getting as great of a lower body toning session as I think I should, but then again, I feel this tape wasn't made to stress that. I just do Standing Legs (Firm) or Cathe's new PS Legs workout the next day - and that more then makes up for it! Anyway, the second part will definitely keep your heart rate up. Added to part one, you get around 50 min of solid cardio.

If you are short on time, you could stop after sections 1 and 2 and feel good about having a great cardio workout. Or, you could continue on and do the upper body toning and ab work. The upper body is faster paced than MIS, but it was intended to be like that. Again, I found myself using a bit lower weight here. This really helps my endurance and I feel some toning as well. It's also a longer section than the lower body section, so you will feel like you are getting more of a solid strength workout here. The abs are really good as well. Nothing fancy, just tough crunches and such.

Overall, I'd have to say this is a great total body workout. It's similar to the Firm's Total Body series, but this tape gives you longer cardio. Plus, with a baby, I don't always have 1 1/2 hours to workout. So I will always keep doing the Firm Total Body tapes on those days where I can only do an hour of exercise. Since I try and work out everyday, I really like doing this tape on the days where I didn't get a workout in the day before. This way, I feel like I've "caught up". This is a must have for Firm Belivers. It has everything packed into one tape!

Instructor Comments:
The more I watch her, the more I enjoy her. She is very likable! She is in such incredible shape, too. I hope she does more tapes like this one!

Diana mason