Jennifer Carman, 2003 ***** (5 of 5 stars)

This is a 60 min mostly strength workout led by Jen Carman. There are 4 background exercisers with Suzan showing the beginner modifications. This is the BSS2 set-white with blue accents on the walls. You will need a variety of dumbbells, the Firm sculpting stick (optional), and a Fanny Lifter or other step for this w/o.

The warmup is kind of long but I actually really enjoyed it this AM. You use the sculpting stick to warm up your upper body and do squats and such to warmup the lower body. After the warmup Jen moves right into a heavy squat set, back work, pliets, and lat pull down with the stick-I just used dumbbells since the stick is only 8 #'s. She uses the stick in other areas of the workout too and again, I just use dumbbells because the stick is just too light to do anything with.

The majority of this workout is strength and includes moves such as: leg press (just use 2 dumbbells, not 1 and the stick), bicep curls, 4 limb work that is similar to her 4 limb section in Firm Super Cardio-(which I love), french press, pushups, tricep pushups, and more. She varies the tempo alot and uses a pretty slow tempo for a lot of it to really allow heavy poundage.

There are a few cardio segments-one on the floor and one on the step. She finishes with chest and ab work on the floor before the cooldown. The ab section uses teh 6# portion of the sculpting stick and I found it fun and effective. Not so boring & repetitive like the other ab sections in BSS2.

I would rate this an intermediate w/o done as is. If you skip the sculpting stick, use heavy dumbbells, use the 8" section of the FL, add a few more plyos (she does include some though!), and put a little pep in your step you can get a great sculpting workout with the usual Firm cardio benefit.

lindseylu8