the firm

I can tell you the story, but I will probably be deemed nut job again by a moderator of a Firm Group. Barbarahp (or someone with a similar moniker) posted photos of me without my permission with the sole purpose of ridiculing me.

The Story as I Know:

Mark Henrikson is Anna's ex husband. He and Cynthia Benson (Anna's sister) sold out to Goodtimes. The Firm's workouts deteriorated to beginner level, at best. Their equipment became shoddy and their workouts a joke.

Anna does or did the Fit Prime Series which is completly separate from the Goodtimes. She does or did the Fit Prime Series, which is at least better than this junk sold on infomercials, but that is not saying much.

The original Firm studios are history. Both are closed.

As for Gaiam, I do not know that story.

After buying their cheap and shoddy equipment (fanny lifter and the incline step bench) and watching the master instructors deteriorate in quality of workouts, I stopped buying or using the Firm.

I might do one Classic every 6 months or so.

Cathe's equipment is superior like everything she does.

I really think of the Firm as a big joke now.

They have ruined their reputation forever, in my opinion.

Cheers!

Amy
 
I think the adjustable weights are the epitome of irony. When I first started doing The Firm all of those years ago I had a pair of adjustable weights. In the form pointers at the end of the workout they said not to use adjustable weights because they take too long to change the weights and are not heavy enough to create the necessary workload. It is too funny that now they are selling them. It just goes to show how far from their roots The Firm has deviated.
 
Oh no, I just ordered the entire thing (11 DVDs!) last week, and now this thread has got me worried. The last set of videos Firm released was admittedly very easy, but I guess I thought since they weren't marketing them as a "Body Sculpting System" with an informercial and all that they intended them to be easier, travel-friendly workouts and this would be a return to form. Sounds like that isn't the case. Does anyone have anything positive to say about any of the workouts? I sure hope I didn't just completely waste my money. Anyone know if they have a return policy so I could just send it all back if I don't like it (which it sounds like I won't?)
 
Thanks Amy for that info, because I was wondering what happen to the Firm.

The Fit Prime Series is similar to the first few firm workouts because of the two main (behind the scenes) instructors, one of my favorites was Kimberly Spreen. Kimberly now has her own videos (CIA 2605) which is a great kickboxing video.
 
SEND THEM BACK!

Spend your money on Cathe's DVDs.

You get so much more with Cathe, both from a physical and a fiscal standpoint.

Cathe offers so many premixes that the purchase of one DVD offers boundless choices.

Body Max 2 and Low Impact Circuit have some of the greatest premixes in addition to being great workouts as performed.

The Firm is dead -- I loved the Firm when Anna was doing the "Classics". But things began to go downhill after Vol. 6 of the Firm.

For example, the Tortoise and the Hare were supposed to be so difficult.

I could not get my heartrate up.

I DO think that the original Tough Tape (not Tough Tape 2) is a great workout if it is still available.

It is a compilation of all the weight work from the Tortoise and the Hare.

The Firm used to be so wonderful - I even loved the wood step boxes, although they were not adjustable like the High Step offered here.

The Firm of the 80s and early 90s were awesome.

But times have changed and the Firm could not compete with Cathe.
 
I saw the informercial and immediately thought What Happened. I cannot fathom how you can heavy up on weights with the speed of the workouts. The pace seemed very fast to have time to heavy up or to perform the movements with heavy weights safely.

That being said if you have a choice I definitely would prefer to spend my money on a Cathe workout than a New Firm.
 
It's true....almost all of the Firm DVDs I collected, including this brand new system move VERY fast. I could never understand why the advice was always to "heavy up" for better results, and I would think "Well, I would heavy up if they would just slow down!" Also, they just jump so fast from exercise to exercise, that I always felt rushed. I like how with Cathe, I am noticing she takes her time in between exercises, and even throws in some quick stretching for you too!

Maybe you will get lucky and receive defective weights and DVDs...that way you have a case to make them pay to ship things back...then you can get a 100% refund, including S&H. Or, you could always use the workouts on rest days, or when you have a cold, etc.
 
Another irony was the sculpting stick that came out with BSS 2....Every DVD in BSS 2 used the stick for balance on lunges and leg presses, and all they did in the workouts was harp on how "the sculpting stick is a great tool for balance." The, BSS 3, 4, and now 5 come out, and there is no sculpting stick used, and all they harp on in these workouts is how you get the bonus of working on your balance when doing lunges and leg presses! I raised this contraction on the Firm webclub boards once, and was completely ignored.
 
I wasn't gonna post here...cuz I'm the oddball (what else is new). I like the new Firms....however, my collection is huge, I buy a lot, and I don't mind modifying up (I mostly do with all non-Cathe ......except a few rare exceptions). I like the mix of Kickboxing with other styles. I hate the weight set. I almost had a nervous breakdown trying to figure out how to get them to fit back in the case. If postage wasn't so expensive, I'd probably sell them. I may just put a pair of 7 pounders together and keep them that way though.

Also, I love the new instructor Annie who is a fitness compitetor. Her physique is SOO motivating. She's a little rough around the edges in front of the camera, but I don't care....cuz her body motivates me and kudos to the Firm for getting super toned instructors. There is one other that looks darn good also. I do modify up with them though and I tend to like LOTS of variety.
 
Ok, so I just called Firm customer service and asked if I could cancel my order, since I haven't been charged yet. They said that the entire thing (the original set as well as the five add-ons that I ordered separately the next day) were already set to be shipped out, but that they would note in the system that I cancelled before shipping. They said all I need to do is mark "return to sender" on the box and send it back, and as soon as they receive it back in their warehouse that I'll get my refund. However, with Firm's poor customer service I'm fairly certain that I'd send it back, wait three weeks and call them, and they'd say they never received anything and then I'd be out of luck.

Part of me thinks I should just try out the videos, since there do seem to be a lot of people over on the Firm boards that like them (although I know anyone with negative views over there gets squelched it seems). I could also use another set of handweights for when my husband wants to work out at the same time as me. If I open the package and try the weights and videos and don't like them, is there any chance Firm will give me a refund at that point, even if I pay for shipping? At any rate I'm not comfortable sending back something that is this expensive without a tracking number so that I can at least know they received it back.

What do you guys think?
 
I LOVE Cathe, but I gain muscle VERY easily and have to mix it up with the Firm and others.
The new Firms are no where near as hard as the classics, but again I use them to change things up.
Also, I personally have never had a problem with their customer service. If you do decide to cancel and want an email address for someonw who can truly help you, let me know.
Thanks for hearing me out! :)
 
Glad to hear that there might yet be hope for these videos. Have you already purchased and tried out this new system with the cardio weights? If so, what did you think?
 
I have only tried one. It was HiDef Scuplt w/Annie and used heavier weights then those included in the kit.
Again not a Cathe tape, nor a Firm Classic, but it is OK for a light workout day.
 
Come on guys...the Firms are great for those "post surgery" days!!;-)

To be honest, I stopped buying their junk a long time ago! My theory is, "If I can't get a quarter out of this when I try to sell it at a garage sale, then I'm not buying it in the first place"!:p

We just are not their target audience, that's all! The workouts are not designed for us, they are meant for beginners. We were all **there** at one time or another and the Firm served us well in catapaulting us to Cathe. We are Cathe's target audience, she works so hard in putting workouts together to meet our needs.

Still, I'll never send The Firm my money...regardless of the workout intensity, poor CS is unexcusable!
 
"I wouldn't touch a Firm workout with a ten foot pole."

Or, do you mean "their versatile sculpting stick?";-)
 
Do you love that they recently released a 20 minute (!) "sculpting" video that used ANOTHER version of the Sculpting Stick? I guess the three segments on it are all equal length instead of the twigs on the first version. Who on earth would buy this piece of equipment for use in ONE video, and a 20 minute video at that? They're selling it for $40 still. Ridiculous. That is one video of theirs that I definitely didn't purchase. ;-)
 
I HATED the sculpting stick workouts I had, not so much because of the stick itself, but because they kept talking about the 'stick,' and especially the 'twigs' : "Pick up your twigs"! Say whaa?

I think good workouts from the Firm are now few and far between. My favorte Firms are those from Strength/Cardio through the pre-Goodtimes Firms, some of the Transfirmer workouts (but they never made any after the first few), and the newer "Bootcamp Maximum Calorie Burn."

Most of the newer ones just seem like add-ons to some piece of equipment that they are selling, and are to short and too low-key for my tastes. It's not like the equipment is serving the workouts anymore, but like the workouts are almost like an afterthought for the equipment.
 
>"I wouldn't touch a Firm workout with a ten foot pole."
>
>Or, do you mean "their versatile sculpting stick?";-)


>You'd get more of a workout beating them with the sculpting
>stick.


bwahahahahahaha! Yep! :7
 
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