The Firm: Power Sculpt

This 20 min dvd is led by Allie in an open room with white brick walls, foggy windows, and hardwood floors. There are 2 Firm instructors as background exercisers. No beginner modifications are shown. It is all sculpting, no cardio, but some of the moves can provide a cardio effect. It moves right along and the 20 minutes really fly by.

This dvd comes packaged with a 9 lb bright green weighted body bar that can be screwed apart to make 3 smaller 3 lb bars. I bought the dvd used without the bar and just used my old 8 lb Firm sculpting stick. Because the 8 or 9 lbs is really not enough weight to do much I did the following things to up the intensity of this one: I wore my 20 lb weighted vest, 1 lb weighted gloves, and attached my 2 lb pink Firm weighted balls to my stick. At the end I even put on my 2.5 lb ankle weights (yes Im sure I looked hilarious!). With all these additions I could actually feel my muscles being worked.

Allie goes through a series of lunges, squats, bicep curls, shoulder work, tricep work, and some lying inner and outer thigh work before she finished with some ab work and a stretch. Keep in mind this is only 20 minutes and you are supposed to be using a 9 lb bar so dont expect to be feeling a whole lot by the end. But you can easily just use dumbbells instead of the stick, a heavier stick, or do what I did and add all sorts of crazy equipment.

Allie cues well and does a great job leading this workout. I would rate it as beginner or low intemediate because of the weight of the stick.

This DVD comes with the 9lb Sculpting Stick (with green foam). The stick can be separated into 3 sections weighing 3lb each, and when all 3 sections are combined it weighs 9lb. The workouts starts with Allie holding the 2 separate ends like 3lb dumbells for upper body work, then she connects all 3 pieces for squats and other lower body work, then she uses 2 pieces (6lb) for floor work: inner and outer thighs and abs. Thus, the workout hits all the muscle groups. The workout is all sculpting, no cardio intervals. The moves flow nicely, nothing awkward, just basic moves. Cueing is good.

It's only a 20 minute workout, so it's for a day when you're short on time, or a light day. It is also nice as an add on. I only wish it were a longer workout, because this was the only workout made with the 9lb stick. I don't really like the older workouts that use the old 8lb stick, so I'm disappointed that they didn't make more "Pink Firms" with this 9lb stick. For the price, I don't think this one short workout would give me my money's worth, but fortunately I can use the stick with other (non-Firm) workouts, and also enjoy Power Sculpt as an add on.