The Firm - Total Body Toner

I am a huge fan of The Firm's workout programs. Even so, this workout surpassed my expectations.Using 3 sets of weights (light, medium and heavy; you decide what is what) and good old-fashioned gravity, you can get gym-level results in just 40 minutes a day.You begin with a fast-paced warmup that is approaching on cardio (quick stepping from side to side, jacks, squats, lunges, push-ups while touching one shoulder - man are those tough!- and use of your light weights). The warmup alone will definitely get you sweating!The program itself is very fast-paced, and allows you just enough time between exercises to switch your weights and set up in the new position. Because of this, your heartrate will stay elevated, and, you guessed it, you will sweat and burn calories!The moves are different and challenging (such as raising from a backwards lunge into a shoulder raise and glute lift...on the ball of your standing foot!), and like most of The Firm's workouts, you will often be engaged in four-limb movement, in which you will be working your upper body and lower body simultaneously. Even if you aren't so coordinated, don't worry! Allie Del Rio Pointer is an excellent and encouraging instructor who will guide you through the more complex movements one move at a time, in a layering approach. With the exception of doing a few moves on one side and then again on the other, there is virtually no boring repetition of moves here.Because it is sculpting (but fast-paced sculpting), it is pretty much low-impact with a lot of lunges, plies and squats of all sorts. However, there are 2 sections with plyo jumping, but of coarse, there is a beginner modification exerciser who shows you how to keep it low impact.Though many "total body" exercise programs skimp on certain parts of the body (even some Firm titles are guilty of this), this is truly what it claims to be. You will feel this in every inch of your physique: arms, shoulders, back, biceps, inner thighs, outer thighs, upper abs, lower abs, buns, calves, waist...it misses nothing!The cooldown is active, with one of the best abs sections around and great total-body stretching.This DVD is, in my opinion, one of the BEST total body sculpting workouts out there. The workout is great, the music is quite good and the instructor, Allie, is one of my personal favorites. The only thing that would make it better would be a more exotic location! :-) When doing this workout, I preceed it with 20 minutes of light cardio and come away with basically the perfect 60-minute workout: ultra-effective, super-fat-burning and fun!And if you want to see a preview of this and other Firm DVDs, check out The Firm's official site.Highly recommended!

I'm not really one to write reviews for things, but I feel as though these workouts deserve recognition. My first experience with The Firm was a few years ago when I decided to buy and try the Transfirmer series of workouts. I wasn't necessarily a beginner at that time, but man..those workouts kicked my butt! I then ordered the previous body sculpting series videos to rotate to avoid boredom. I had great success with them but for whatever reason, I ended up joining a local gym and the The Firm videos/step began collecting dust. Fast forward to present, a husband and almost 2 year old daughter later, I decided I needed something that worked for me at home bc trying to coordinate a toddler to your desired gym schedule isn't necessarily the easiest task (not to mention wasting so much gas). It dawned on me to re-order some of The Firm workouts, new and older DVDs; no more driving 30 minutes to the gym for me! Let me tell you, as someone who is by no means a beginner when it comes to fitness, these workouts are no joke. I got a better workout with these DVDs than I did at any class or time on the treadmill/elliptical. I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone who wants to get in shape and get there FAST. I can tell a change in my body already-they promise results in 10 workouts, but you'll see it before then. Trust me. What's also great is that you can make them as easy or as challenging as you desire-increase or decrease your weight. Either way, you'll get a great workout!

I just purchased the firm transfirmation and was interested in adding a few more of the newer firms to my rotation. I basically bought this due to the positive feedback on amazon. The workout was a great total body workout that got my heartrate up and kept it up during the entire workout. I love when I can get a good sweat in while doing weight training. The moves are mostly compound moves so you are getting a total body workout in the compact 40 minute time frame and working more then one muscle group at a time. I found the instructor easy to follow and the workout was well structured to hit the entire body in this compact workout. I was able to get a good burn and sweat while doing this workout and would recommend it to anyone looking to get a good strength workout with only 40 minutes available. This will definitely be in my rotation for quite some time.

I really like this workout due two facts: the time FLIES, and I love Allie. Toning is definitely not my favorite ~ I prefer more cardio to keep me sweating & pushing through with some variety. However, this is a great video to get your strength in without getting bored. It moves along quickly without skimping on the reps. I also like the fact that the moves aren't SO fast that you can up the weights without worrying about injury... definitely a workout to build on. This is a great purchase, and one that I will do quite often within my large rotation of videos.

This workout is very, very short, and lacks any rhythm or development. Indeed, much of the supposed length of the video is spent telling the names of the women in the video. Good workout videos gradually introduce movements and then proceed to incorporate those movements in a creative and yet logical way into a full, robust workout. This video confusingly introduces a bunch in a small space and then never builds on them; we kept looking for a second chapter entitled "workout," but alas, it's not there. Very disappointing. p.s. If you do decide to buy this for whatever reason, know that dumbbells are required, not "optional" as stated on the cover.