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Old 02-20-11, 01:35 PM  
Gardengirl
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Georgia
So . . . help me with my "Express" rotation

I really need to put together some kind of rotation for my 20 minute workouts. I was looking at the Firm Express workouts and while I'm interested in a couple of them, I don't think I'd want the entire set (especially for $130.00), which got me thinking that I probably have enough workouts that would work. I like the idea of mixing up the cardio/sculpt/cardio sculpt and them being 20 minutes though!

See if I've got this right . . . the Express rotation consists of 20 minutes each of sculpt, cardio and cardio/sculpt workouts. (I guess the catch with the firm workouts is the "mini bursts".) But did I see that they actually want you to do 4 at a time? If that's the case, I'm back at an hour . . . and I don't have an hour right now!!!!!

If I didn't want to do 4 per day, how would you put a rotation together for cardio/sculpt/cardio sculpt? And is 20 minutes a day enough? I can work out longer on the weekends, but struggling time-wise during the week.

TIA!!
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Old 02-20-11, 02:14 PM  
cardiomama
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Hi Judy- If you're wanting a cheaper version of the Firm Express cardio and cardio & Sculpt workouts, the Firm Calorie Explosion is very similar in format to the Express series. Each segment (4 total, kickboxing is just cardio, the 3 others are cardio & light resistance/Sculpt) is 12 min plus a 3-4 min. warm-up & cool-down (can set-up to do which segments you like or do all 4). And the intensity & complexity is there in the workouts, I was surprised at the impact in the workouts and the different exercises (solid workout, there is a low impact/intensity modifier though). Amazon & Target sell Calorie Explosion for a fairly cheaply, and this could work well w/ your others workouts.


Other VFers had mentioned using Calorie Explosion and the Zero in Ten DVD to create a Firm Express-like rotation. I have not tried Zero in Ten, but it has 5, ten minute segments, I think it's similar to the format of FE, and the workouts have a mix of cardio, c & s & maybe sculpt (the sections are by body part).


You can take a look at the Firm Express intermediate & advanced rotations to give you an idea of how you may want to sequence your own workouts similarly to the FE rotations (mix in all workouts from each cycle not in separate weeks). The beginner rotation just focuses on 3, 20 min. workouts a week, if you're not a beginner to exercise, it likely will not be challenging enough for you. I have viewed it, I think it just alternates the different cycles of workouts (one cycle per week), making sure to get in a cardio, sculpt & cardio & sculpt workout once a week (alternates the days).


Here's those two rotations:

Intermediate Rotation:

Cycle 1 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 1 Cardio and Cycle 2- Cardio
REST
Cycle 2 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 3 Cardio and Kick Start Your Metabolism
REST
Cycle 3 Cardio + Sculpt and Sculpt
Cycle 4 Cardio and Kick Start Your Metabolism
REST
Cycle 4 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 1 Cardio and Cycle 2 Cardio
REST
Cycle 1 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 3 Cardio and Kick Start Your Metabolism
REST
Cycle 2 Cardio + Sculpt and Sculpt
Cycle 4 Cardio and Kick Start Your Metabolism
REST
Cycle 3 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 1 Cardio and Cycle 2 Cardio
REST
Cycle 4 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 3 Cardio and Kick Start Your Metabolism
REST
Cycle 1 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 4 Cardio and Kick Start Your Metabolism
Cycle 2 Sculpt and Cardio + Sculpt
REST


Advanced Rotation

Cycle 1 Sculpt and Cycle 3 Sculpt
Cycle 2 Cardio and Cycle 4 Cardio and Shortcut to Flat Abs
Cycle 2 Sculpt and Cycle 1 Cardio + Sculpt
REST
Cycle 1 Cardio and Cycle 3 Cardio and Shortcut to Flat Abs
Cycle 2 Cardio + Sculpt and Cycle 4 Sculpt
Cycle 2 Cardio and Pump It Up
REST
Cycle 3 Cardio + Sculpt and Cycle 4 Cardio + Sculpt and Pump It Up
Cycle 4 Cardio and Cycle 1 Cardio and Shortcut to Flat Abs
Cycle 3 Sculpt and Cycle 2 Cardio + Sculpt
REST
Cycle 2 Cardio and Cycle 3 Cardio and Shortcut to Flat Abs
Cycle 2 Sculpt and Cycle 4 Sculpt
Cycle 1 Cardio and Cycle 4 Cardio
REST
Cycle 1 Cardio + Sculpt and Cycle 4 Cardio + Sculpt and Pump it Up
Cycle 4 Cardio and Cycle 3 Cardio and Shortcut to Flat Abs
Cycle 3 Cardio + Sculpt and Cycle 1 Sculpt and Pump It Up
REST
Cycle 4 Sculpt and Cycle 3 Cardio + Sculpt
Cycle 2 Cardio and Cycle 3 Cardio and Shortcut to Flat Abs
Cycle 2 Cardio + Sculpt and Cycle 4 Cardio + Sculpt
REST
Cycle 2 Cardio + Sculpt and Cycle 3 Sculpt and Pump It Up
Cycle 1 Cardio and Cycle 4 Cardio and Shortcut to Flat Abs
Cycle 3 Cardio + Sculpt and Cycle 2 Sculpt
REST
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Old 02-20-11, 02:17 PM  
F1mom
 
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Join Date: Jan 2002
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FIRM Ignite will be released soon and I think Mary had it for $12.99. It's the first cycle from FIRM Express.
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Old 02-20-11, 02:25 PM  
Lucky Star
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Join Date: Jun 2004
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gardengirl View Post
I really need to put together some kind of rotation for my 20 minute workouts. I was looking at the Firm Express workouts and while I'm interested in a couple of them, I don't think I'd want the entire set (especially for $130.00), which got me thinking that I probably have enough workouts that would work. I like the idea of mixing up the cardio/sculpt/cardio sculpt and them being 20 minutes though!

See if I've got this right . . . the Express rotation consists of 20 minutes each of sculpt, cardio and cardio/sculpt workouts. (I guess the catch with the firm workouts is the "mini bursts".) But did I see that they actually want you to do 4 at a time? If that's the case, I'm back at an hour . . . and I don't have an hour right now!!!!!

If I didn't want to do 4 per day, how would you put a rotation together for cardio/sculpt/cardio sculpt? And is 20 minutes a day enough? I can work out longer on the weekends, but struggling time-wise during the week.

TIA!!
It's completely unnecessary to do 3 or 4 FEs per day. That devalues the efficiency of the 'mini bursts'. I generally do 1, sometimes with a 10min add-on. It's quite tiring! If I feel like more, later on I'll add a cardio walk or bit of something else. But several FEs in a row? Purely optional imo.
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Old 02-20-11, 04:12 PM  
Gardengirl
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Georgia
F1Mom, I've been looking at Firm Ignite.

Thanks, Cardiomama. Great breakdown.

Lucky, yeah, I've already decided that 3 or 4 workouts were not in the cards for me, LOL! I may only get one workout a day in during the week and then do 2 on the weekend, with rest days that seem to occur unscheduled. It seems like I keep reading that these are really intense workouts, which would make me think I wouldn't WANT to do more than one per day.
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Old 02-20-11, 04:48 PM  
afirmrose
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Utah
Quote:
Originally Posted by F1mom View Post
FIRM Ignite will be released soon and I think Mary had it for $12.99. It's the first cycle from FIRM Express.
Actually FIRM Ignite only has Cycle 1 Cardio/Sculpt and Cycle 2 Cardio/Sculpt.
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Old 02-20-11, 04:53 PM  
counterclockwise
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: TX
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucky Star View Post
It's completely unnecessary to do 3 or 4 FEs per day. That devalues the efficiency of the 'mini bursts'. I generally do 1, sometimes with a 10min add-on. It's quite tiring! If I feel like more, later on I'll add a cardio walk or bit of something else. But several FEs in a row? Purely optional imo.
I agree! If you are working really hard, 2 in a row is plenty for an advanced exerciser (maybe not the Insanity kind of advanced, not sure). I am only doing 1 a day right now. Love these workouts.
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Old 02-20-11, 05:04 PM  
Gardengirl
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Georgia
Do these workouts get progressively harder or are the the same format with just different instructors for each cycle?
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Old 02-20-11, 05:18 PM  
F1mom
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by afirmrose View Post
Actually FIRM Ignite only has Cycle 1 Cardio/Sculpt and Cycle 2 Cardio/Sculpt.
You're right. It has those two workouts along with a download for Flat Abs.
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Old 02-20-11, 06:14 PM  
cardiomama
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gardengirl View Post
Do these workouts get progressively harder or are the the same format with just different instructors for each cycle?
I'm not sure, I thought it was supposed to set up that way (each cycle is progressively more challenging) because Emily's seems lesser intensive than the others w/ simpler sequencing of exercises and her's uses the lightest weight. But I think that Rebekah's (cycle 2) & Kelsie's (cycle 4, minus the cardio, it's not very intensive) were the toughest (and the resistance used is the heaviest range for both of those cycles).


I have not heard of anyone doing 4 or more of the FE workouts in a day. I have done 3, consecutively or 2 in the am, 1 in the pm (or a cardio as an add-on to another non-Firm workout). You should be good with doing 1-2 at a time/per day (couple times a week), you do get a lot of work done in that time frame.
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