The Firm weight loss and fitness program: The truth.
The program focuses on step aerobics, with the addition
of light weights. It is sold as a Body Sculpting System
of three videos, a Fanny Lifter step, several instructional
guides to proper exercise technique, and the secrets of its founding
instructors. The whole plan costs $89.95. There are also several optional
upgrades, including dumbbell weights ($29.95), a four-pack of specific
body part exercise videos ($29.95), multivitamins ($25.90 for 60 days),
and an information and support club called The Firm Believers
Club ($24.95-3 months, $39.90-6 months).
The Firm is one of the better commercial weight loss
programs on the market, despite its expense. It focuses on what works
in the long term: intense cardiovascular exercise with muscle building.
Food is a side issue, which makes it almost the exact opposite of most
commercial weight loss program. Most focus on food, at the expense of
exercise. But virtually everyone who has ever lost significant weight
and kept it off for good, focused primarily on the exercise portion.
The problem with The Firm is that it is pure exercise.
Most people, after an initial burst of motivation, fail to maintain
mundane forms of exercise like aerobics and especially video aerobic
workouts. The lack of social interaction with people around to push
you and keep you from embarrassing yourself, makes it too easy to lose
your motivation.
Instead of falling prey to a marketing juggernaut, follow
their recommendations: focus on intense cardiovascular exercise. But
this is much better accomplished by following a basic food plan and
structure which you could design yourself or use one of the convenient,
inexpensive online programs. The real key is to use this basic structure
while adding exercise sports to your life. Examples include tennis,
hiking, biking, climbing, dancing, etcetera... It is in these physical
activities that you don’t think of as exercise that the mental battle
of weight loss can be won for good. And they are first-and-foremost
fun!
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