The Firm - Firm Parts: Tough Tape (Classic Workout Series)

The Firm - Firm Parts: Tough Tape (Classic Workout Series)
This is an excellent muscle-endurance workout, full of challenges and variety. Instructor Tracie Long is superb, cueing seamlessly while giving plenty of technique tips and modifications to make the moves easier or more difficult. There's no annoying pep talk, whooping, or counting--just straightforward instruction to make your workout more effective. This 45-minute weight workout switches constantly between lower and upper body (sometimes doing both at once). Long sensibly gives stretches every so often to relieve muscle tightness. You'll need a barbell, an assortment of free weights, and a tall (12- to 14-inch) step or equivalent. The tape box and introduction claim that this workout includes a 26-minute high-intensity sequence, but this 45-minute tape did not have a cardio sequence. No abdominal routine, either. Although the routine ends with the words "more to come," the only "more" was a long commercial. --Joan Price
Customer Review: Awesome!
This is the best workout tape! I have 3 kids, 3 and under and this is the only thing I used to help me lose the weight all three times. I lost all my pregnancy weight in less than 5 months, each time, and I didn't even start working out until sometimes as late as 3 months after their births. Anyway, more importantly, it works! I look better than I did in high school!
Customer Review: Short, tough workout...
This is one of the most sought after Firm videos that are out of print. It is a compilation of the strength segments of the Tortoise and the Hare which are also out of print, but without the ballroom aerobics. Tracie Long leads this workout (as she led both Tortoise and Hare) plus there snippets of her in between segments letting you know what is coming up. There are several sets of leg presses in this workout, one of the sets has 18 reps per leg, while another one has alternating sets on each leg 7 reps each side twice, then 3 reps each side twice, very tough. All the muscle groups are covered well, in addition to the many sets of leg presses you will see squats, lunges, dips and plie squats for lower body. The upper body exercises include upright rows, overhead presses, tricep kickbacks, french presses, pushups, pec flies and bicep curls. A barbell is used for a lot of the exercises, but dumbells are easily substituted if you do not have a barbell. A good short challenging workout for those with limited time. Unfortunately it is hard to find though, but worth the money if you can find a copy. Tracie Long is an excellent instructor, and you can tell that she is working hard along with you. Susan Harris (of Volume 1) appears as a background exerciser which is an interesting tidbit. Worth looking for for die hard Firmies.