Butt & Thigh Buster!

“Lower Body Split” is one of The FIRM’s “Parts” tapes, it’s made up of clips from other, complete FIRM workouts to give a strong lower body emphasis. Usually I’m not a fan of “Parts” tapes, but this is an exception. The workout is so tough that I don’t mind the fact that I re-bought exercises that I already have on other tapes.

This slow rep, heavy weight workout is led by Dale Brabham, Taber Bruner, Jennifer Carmen, Pam Cauthen, Carissa Foster, Tamela Hastie, Lisa Kay, Tracie Long and Heidi Tanner. The tape is 69 minutes long and features 3 long sets of standing lower-body work. Each of the 3 “super sets” begins with a short cardio segment and ends with floorwork. The workout concludes with ab work using the tall box and core stability exercises and a seated and supine stretching segment.

As with most of The FIRM’s workouts, this tape requires a lot of equipment: Various weighted dumbbells, a tall step, a weighted ball (optional), a barbell (optional), a dowel (optional), and a 2x4 board (optional).

Here’s how the tape breaks out:
Warm-Up: 3 minutes
Stretch: 3.5 minutes
Lower Body Standing Work: 25.5 minutes
Cardio Intensifiers: 6 minutes
Floor Work: 16.5 minutes
Ab Work: 10.5 minutes
Cool Down/Stretch: 4 minutes

Warm-up: Short floor aerobics segment, general stretching exercises using a dowel.

Set I (left leg):

Cardio segment- wide march, triple, plyos.

Standing segment- 1 set of leg press on left leg, tall box climb, another set of leg press on left leg, 2 sets of hover squats over the tall box, lunge and dip combos on left leg.

Floor segment- Left leg table work, lying side abduction and adduction.


Set II (right leg):

Cardio segment-Step squats right and left with overhead dumbbell presses.

Standing segment-1 set of leg press on right leg, tall box climb, another set of leg press on right leg, squats with barbell, touch toes and then squat through, another set of squats with barbell, lunge and dip combos on right leg.

Floor segment-Right leg table work, lying side abduction and adduction.


Set III (both legs)

Cardio segment- Marching, plyos, front and side tap kick with punches.

Standing Segment- Right leg lunges, plie w/variations, left leg lunges, another set of plie w/variations, right leg lunge/dip combo, squats, left leg lunge/dip combo, squats and abductions with dowel, right leg lunges and dips, walking squats, left leg lunges and dips.

Floor segment-Bridge work using tall box.

Core stability and abs segment-Bridgework using weighted ball between the knees, oblique twists w/weighted ball on shoulder, another set of bridgework, oblique twists on other side. Ab work using tall box- bring knees in, extend, open and reach through, thread right and left on the floor with knees over box. Rock and lift, extend legs and twist side, elevator crunches, oblique twists and another set of oblique twists.


This is a long and effective workout that leaves no lower body muscle unburned and works the muscles to exhaustion, bringing great toning benefits. I recommend this tape with medium weights for intermediate exercisers and heavy weights for advanced exercisers. Because you can pyramid the weights up or down depending on your fitness level, this tape will have along life in most collections. Beginners should steer clear of this workout because even with light weights, the sequencing of exercises is very challenging and the workout is long. If you have a tendency to “bulk-up” and you don’t like that look, use light weights on this one because standing leg work will tone you, but it will also add bulk.

The abs segment is adequate and a nice ending to a well designed challenging workout.