Classic Firms

[lizh]

Not to enable anyone or anthing, however, the classics are on sale at the moment at http://www.fitnessfavorites.com/.

The website has them listed as full price, but once you put them in your cart, you will see the half price show up.

Liz

PS, if you have a VHS player, you can get the classics on tape on ebay pretty cheap. (which is what I did to re-acquire them)

[gilbjeter]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond.
Can I ask what is so effective about these workouts that give such great results? Are they high rep / low weight? What is the "style" of the workout that makes it work so well?
And, is there any more current workouts that you would compare the Firms to? I just cannot see myself working out to dated material. I can't get past it for some reason. I subscribe to Cathe on Demand but I cannot bring myself to do her really old stuff, no matter how effective!

[muddjeansgal]

At the time they were released there wasn't much else out there like these as far as weight training workouts. Absolutely you can find a comparable workout that is high rep, low to medium weights. But there is a certain ambiance to these that makes the magic or maybe I just have a fond memory of my own workout journey with them.
The music is really in sync with the moves too.
You may want to try the WHFN workouts to get a feel for the style. WHFN are more current but not quite as tough since they also include yoga and pilates moves along with the AWT. Goodtimes Firms and pink Firms are really very different than the Benson era Firms but I still like those too.

[KarenJo]

The Firm had a 90 Day Rotation that included categories like Total Body, Cardio, Cardio+Strength, Tortoise, Hare, etc. with Abs and stretch added in often though many added more stretch back when doing this was a January VF tradition.

Using Tabs Search I found This Thread that lists the original rotation. The classifications of the older Firm workouts is in This Thread from 2004. I think it includes all of the Firms of the Anna Benson era - Classic and BBH.

There were other rotations created both by The Firm and by vidiots. This Thread lists some and has a list of categories for some of the BBS workouts if you want to expand beyond the most classic Firms.

There used to be a web site with a nice calendar of the rotation using icons that made it easy to see at a glance what you were to do that day but I think the site is gone. Not sure if anyone still has a linkable version. I just printed it off. But I never made it further than 3 weeks and I subbed other cardio than The Firm regularly.

[SeptemberGirl]

Originally Posted by gilbjeter

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond.
Can I ask what is so effective about these workouts that give such great results? Are they high rep / low weight? What is the "style" of the workout that makes it work so well?

They aren't high rep/low weight workouts. I think because you quickly transition from move to move, the types where you may work a body part at a traditional weight-lifting pace, and then move to a faster-paced weighted move where it might have a combination of upper and lower body together, and then do cardio moves... that whole mix, to me, just all seems to work!

I have been tracking my calories burned via classic Firm's since the holidays and the numbers haven't been below 400 calories burned on them. The last two times I did Cardio Step Mix, my heart rate monitor reported 711 and 728 calories burned. I don't get those numbers when I do T25 or 21 Day Fix--those are in the 300 calories burned range--and I have yet to track my calories burned during Cathe workouts because the monitor was a recent gift.

[athompson10]

Originally Posted by gilbjeter

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond.
Can I ask what is so effective about these workouts that give such great results? Are they high rep / low weight? What is the "style" of the workout that makes it work so well?

Originally Posted by muddjeansgal

At the time they were released there wasn't much else out there like these as far as weight training workouts. Absolutely you can find a comparable workout that is high rep, low to medium weights. But there is a certain ambiance to these that makes the magic or maybe I just have a fond memory of my own workout journey with them.
The music is really in sync with the moves too.

In a nutshell, what Muddjeansgal said. It was a revelation to see little tiny Susan Harris lift heavy dumbbells, and curvy Janet Jones bang out pushups from her toes. What I remember seeing on the market for home exercisers at the time was high-impact floor cardio or floorwork. Aerobic weight training wasn't in my vocabulary until the Classics.

The Classics are tough but they don't feel like killer workouts because they are so well choreographed to the music (or the music was tailored to the moves, dunno which came first). You know how VFers rightly complain about instructors being off beat or saying "ignore the beat"? Never happens in Classics. There's nothing drill-like about them either; it's almost like dancing with weights. Plus they progress sensibly: decent warmup, standing work, floor work, stretch. You're not always changing equipment. They get more equipment-heavy as they progress (Volume 3 has a tall step, Volume 4 adds a short step, Volume 6 introduces the barbell) but no bands, med balls, stability balls or the like.

If you can't do dated workouts, they're not for you for sure. The neon leotards and leg warmers and Susan's jazz shoes are very 80s-early 90s. But the workouts themselves stand the test of time.

[superfit41]

They really are the best!

Sherry

[TinaT]

Part of what makes them so effective is the sequencing of workout moves. How and why Anna put them in the order she did was no mistake. Everything was and is intentional. Getting that "pre-exhaust" in the muscles was key.

Even in her later creations.. WHFN Series, she still made them very specific. I just did Fitprime Lean w/Kelli Roberts. Love it!

Check out these interiews from the filming of this series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3MjO...FDF5A2&index=5

[Lucky Star]

Originally Posted by gilbjeter

I keep reading about all the fabulous results many of you are having from working out to the classic firms.

I haven't seen those threads but it's funny, I was just about to add Firm Vols 1 and 2 back into my rotation, along with Jessica Smith's Walk On DVDs. Those classic Firms have been my (very effective) friends since the 80s, and they still work.

I plan to break them up into 2 workouts each, part 1 (standing) on one day, alternated with part 2 (floorwork) on the next. I like the other classics, but Volumes 1 and 2 are all I really need, plus no tall or short boxes in sight!

[dbclark44]

Originally Posted by Lucky Star

I haven't seen those threads but it's funny, I was just about to add Firm Vols 1 and 2 back into my rotation, along with Jessica Smith's Walk On DVDs. Those classic Firms have been my (very effective) friends since the 80s, and they still work.

I plan to break them up into 2 workouts each, part 1 (standing) on one day, alternated with part 2 (floorwork) on the next. I like the other classics, but Volumes 1 and 2 are all I really need, plus no tall or short boxes in sight!

I like this idea of breaking Vol 1 & 2 into 2 workouts Gina. And they make it so easy to do because all the floorwork follows the standing work. There's no up and down like some instructors do (Jillian is bad for this in her workouts). I did this with Vol 1 last week but like the idea of doing them on a regular basis to get in short 25-30 minute workouts.