Search - The Firm - Cardio Sculpt Fusion on DVD

Good for an Active "rest" day

Firefighter's Girl | Oklahoma | 04/10/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is actually Total Body Lite, which is what it should be called instead of Cardio Sculpt Fusion. It isn't a hard workout, but is still good if you are looking for a light way of working out for a day. It doesn't target the arms and the abs as much as I would like, but it is overall a great tape for a beginner or for a light workout."

Standing Pilates+Yoga+Light Cardio=Fun, Easy Workout!

Addicted2Amazon! | Philadelphia | 06/03/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The Firm's "Cardio Sculpt Fusion" is a unique, low-impact workout designed to be an effective exercise program to give your body a break in between harder workouts.

I own this DVD under the original title of "Total Body Lite," which is a much more accurate description. I'm kinda puzzled as to why The Firm changed the title and re-released it. Anyway...

As an at-home exercise junkie, I am always looking for something fresh and different to try, and being a fan of The Firm, I wanted to give this one a go. After doing this twice, I can say that I am pretty pleased with my purchase.

"Cardio Sculpt Fusion," at 47 minutes in length, is a unique hybrid of standing pilates/ballet-like moves, light sculpting, low-impact dance-y cardio and some yoga moves. The whole idea is to stretch out your body and make your muscles long and lean, like those of a dancer.

You begin with a light cardio warmup that uses plies, twists and other dance-like movements to get your heartrate up a notch. It lasts about 7 minutes.

The workout itself consists of about 3 toning/stretching segments (using a pair of light weights and 1 single medium weight) that blend traditional Firm-style lunges, squats, bicep curls and arm raises at a slower pace with stretches. Interspersed between the toning/stretching are 2 low-impact (no jumping), light cardio segments. The first cardio segment, again, is all about lengthening your muscles and aims to stretch you out with (brisk) reaching and simultaneous reaching of your arms and extending your legs with pointed toes. The 2nd cardio section has side-to-side steps and mambos.

Though this is not the MOST challenging or effective workout out there, it is great to add variety on a light day. And make no mistake: the combination of the toning and cardio WILL make you sweat. And you will DEFINITELY feel this in your buns and legs particularly (especially after that chair pose and corkscrew near the end...Whew!).

(And note, if you want to take it up a notch, you could always combine with another workout. To make this harder, I actually preceed this workout with a 10-15 minute express workout so that I've already broken a sweat by the time I begin the warmup. By the end of the hour, I'm pretty darn sweaty!)

The cool-down has - no surprise - more stretching, and also a simple but (for me) challenging obligue exercise called, I believe, "the star." This cool-down was a little dissapointing in the fact that it was lacking in the abs department (anyone who is familiar with The Firm knows that there are usually good ab exercises during the cool-down).

The music was a little on the generic, bad side (okay it's horrible!), but then it's not very loud, so it shouldn't grate on your nerves TOO much.

Emily Welsh is an upbeat and very cute (she can't be much over 5 feet!) and motivating instructor.

All together, this DVD loses a star for bad music and another one for not being challenging enough to do more than once a week (come on, the cardio could have been a LITTLE harder/longer...)!

Recommended for a lighter day or in combination with another express workout.

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