Customer Reviews

The Firm: Power Half Hour

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

First - loved this workout from Emily. If you're a long time Firmie, this one uses many of the old, familiar moves so you won't be lost. It does move fast and does modify some old moves and adds some new ones. But if you've done other "pink weights" workouts, you'll recognize the fast pace and the multiple part moves (squats w/biceps and abduct leg).

All in all, I loved it. I'd be moving along and realize I had a giant smile on my face :) And those moisture drops on the floor were not rain - they were me sweating up a storm!

If you're new to The FIRM, don't start with this one. I always recommend the older ones (Cardio Sculpt!) or choosing Allie or Allison as your first instructors. They are much easier to follow because the moves are simple, the changes come slower, and they explain the moves in great detail.

A quick run-down of the workout-

0:00 warm-up

3:45 Sculpt #1 (side lunges, side squats, curtsy dips, squats w/biceps, lunges - all with addons of biceps, leg abducts, etc). *I didn't do the twisting row because I'm cautious of my back, but just did squats w/row). I used 5# and 8#s for both Sculpt segments.

10:00 Cardio 1 - lots of fun and PURE Emily (if you've like Burn & Shape, you'll like this one). My favorite new move was her "knee repeater" which was really the quad star (or tri star) with a knee pump in between each step).

15:00 Sculpt #2 - dips w/oh press, side lunge w/tricep/bicep, lat row with leg lift, deadlift (I did this as a regular deadlift as I'm not sure how safe it is on one side & I"m extra cautious with my back), and push ups (fun ones!)

21: Cardio 2 ends with a fun power move (running in place moves) then goes straight into abs with no cooldown.

26: Abs - the first ab move is standing with reaches to knees, toes across the body. Serves as a sufficient cool down IMO. Then to the floor for one set of planks on the toes/hands.

28: Stretch - good stretch, surprising long, but the music was still very fast paced which kind of threw me at first.

This workout was a little bit frustrating for me the first time I did it. It wasn't that the moves were too dancy or difficult, I just didn't feel like Emily gave much warning when she was going on to the next move. Another problem was that the music wasn't much quieter than her talking. Also, her rhythm was different - she marched on the upbeat instead of downbeat, and that bothered me a bit.

Like I said, it wasn't my favorite, but if you're a firmie (especially if you need more videos with this length), I'd still get it if I were you.

Like other reviews, i find emilys cueing difficult to follow in this workout. however, once you get the moves down is it a GREAT WORKOUT. it may take a few times to get the hang of it, but it will definitely wear you out. and at only a half hour it is a great workout for days you are running low on time, but want to get in a thorough workout.

I picked this up because I have used other (better) Firm videos and liked that this one was just a half hour long. It was awful!! I have several dance type workout dvds in my collection and I can keep up just fine with those, so it's not as if I'm one of those people with two left feet. As other reviewers have noted, Emily moves WAY too fast, does not stick with one move for very long, gives almost non-existent cuing and doesn't match the beat very well. I suppose if I was extremely persistent and really worked on this for a couple of weeks I could probably get it down. But why should I waste my time? I got this to SAVE time as I know that the Firm videos can be very effective. Besides, by the time I finally mastered this I would most likely be bored of the routine and want to move on to something else. My general feeling about ALL the newer Firm workouts is that they move at a pretty fast pace and give minimal cues. However, up until this one I've been able to keep up and catch on.

No, this workout DVD isn't hard but you may want to sit down and watch it a few times before trying it. Guarantee if you're not one to pick up on the movements right away, your first workout will be frustrating and full of pauses thus not much of workout. I find it highly insulting that some reviewers would cut down others who find this workout to be too fast. Yeah, it IS too fast and I believe a really good workout DVD will have an instructor who can lead you through from start to finish, sweaty and feeling accomplished. The first few workouts on this DVD may make someone feel like giving up right away and extremely frustrated. So all in all, good workout, not so great instructor. Just my thoughts and opinions.

After reading other reviews, I was skeptical of buying this DVD. I'm fairly new to the Firm series. However, I thought I would give it a try and see what it was like. After receiving it and going thru the routine a few times, I would have to agree that it is hard to follow in parts. Much harder to follow than the other Firm DVD's I have (Susan Harris Basics and Volume 3). Having said that, I now just do the parts of the DVD that use hand weights and are not aerobic (with the quickly changing moves and complicated steps). I run thru them each 2 times. I feel I get a good work out, I'm sweating and burning calories. I would recommend this DVD only if you are not easily frustrated with switching up your moves every couple of seconds with little or no warning. I'll stick to my other Firm DVD's and use this one only to change things up a bit :). Over all rating a 3 out of 5.

I own a lot of the firm videos and they are usually good. I have never written a review before but after trying this out today-- I have to say my opinion. the music sucks and doesn't even match the rythm of the program-- in fact the background music makes even more difficult to follow this difficult program. It's not hard physically but hard to follow. Why can't instructors understand that you don't have to have a difficult choreography to have a great workout. Just when u think u got the pattern --it swithces to something else and the cuing is awful. i was so frustrated that I just want to throw this disc away. I can tell that at some part even the background girls in the video was off-- that tells u something. DON'T BUY THIS DISC-- IT WAS A WASTE OF MY MONEY.

I HATE this DVD. I've been doing Jillian Michales 30 Day Shred for months every day and really wanted to add in some variety, so I bought this. This instructor is INSANE if she thinks the average person can follow what she's doing with her body. It's not even an issue of being in shape or not. It's that she is moving so fast, using every appendage the human body has, and only does the same movement like four times! So IF you can ever figure out what she's doing she'll have done eleven more exercises by then. If I were to take the time to pause and rewind enough to figure out what she's doing in each exercise it would take at least an hour, which defeats the purpose of a half hour workout. It's actually quite entertaining to watch. It's as if she was told she was making an hour long DVD, then at the last minute she found out she had to squeeze it all into a half hour. I HIGHLY recommend the 30 Day Shred if you're looking for a half hour workout, that gives unbelievable results, and is easy to follow, but gives you no rest and keeps you moving the entire time.

This would be a great workout if the instructor gave you any cues at all to the moves. You CANNOT just pop this dvd in and start working out.. Its a little ridiculous in that aspect.

As someone who owns about 15 other Firm DVDS, I decided to give this one a try since I am looking for shorter workouts for my busy days. I usually love Emily as an instructor, but for whatever reason, she just does not cue well during this workout. I am very well practiced and familiar with The Firm an found myself a bit lost during the majority of this workout. Also, the name of the workout that Emily introduces and talks about at the beginning of the video is not titled "Power Half Hour". It's "Lunchtime" something or other. I am going to give this one a few more tries to see if I pick up the moves before writing it off completely.