(affiliate link) and hoped for the best.
We decided it would be our Labor Day workout. Most of the miles were in 15 minute intervals with a countdown clock. At first I wasn't sure I would like having the clock there but it actually wasn't a distraction and I could glance over and say "just 7 more minutes." There is a warm up walk before getting to the main workout which is different, at least from the workouts I have. So you've got a few minutes warm up then into the first mile. It's your typical WATP stuff...normal walking, kickbacks, knee lifts and the like. The second mile was my favorite, it incorporated the band (it came with the video). It got my heart rate up much more than the first mile and I could really feel the exercises in my triceps and back. I could do that mile five times over and be a happy girl. Then its back to another mile with a little more hoppy moves to it or "shifts" as she calls them. I like them, they're fun and the mile is slightly shorter time wise. Mile four was my least favorite..."strength training." It has a good amount of lunges in them and depending on the day my knees will say yay or nay. That day they said "I'll give ya the first set, after that, it's squats for you woman!" The mile seems a little sporadic and my heart rate dropped the most during this mile which just ended up irritating me and made me want the workout over with. Mile five. At this point, I was mentally done. We were just past the one hour mark and a check of my heart rate monitor
(affiliate link) showed that I had burned a lot less calories than I do with pretty much any other workout and I needed to constantly remind myself this was an active recovery workout and I needed to finish it. This was the mile where they tried to be interactive by having one of the walkers sitting on the sidelines with a laptop and read messages from their Facebook page. Um yeah, not so much. But I think she may have only done that two or three times so it wasn't completely distracting from the task at hand. There was no strength training in this mile, it was kind of a mix of the other walking only miles. Some walking, kickbacks, shifts, knee lifts and then the occasional jog with the encouragement to walk if you can't run. When it was over, it was at the 80 minute mark and 950 calories burned (I'm gonna admit, I skipped the cool down and just did a quick stretch).Pros:
Good variety.
Includes strength moves.
Varies intensity.
Can mix and match miles so your workout can be 15-80 minutes.
I was sore the next day
Cons:
It's long...too long for us but might be fine for others.
Perkiness loses its charm halfway through but that's what mute is for.
I was sore the next day. :-)
Summary:
Given I can burn 950 calories in 50 minutes, I doubt I will do this workout in its entirety again but I can see us mixing and matching miles for a 3-4 miler we like. 80 minutes is just far too long for us personally to invest at this point on a low intensity workout. However, if you're doing a walking program and looking to up your mileage, this is probably right up your alley. We will keep this in rotation and mix and match to our needs. Would I recommend Leslie Sansone: 5 Really Big Miles
? (affiliate link) Yes I would. While I may not care for the length of the workout to calories burned ratio, it's customizable enough to keep me interested and low impact enough to recommend to those wanting something to start off their fitness journey.Do you have any favorite new to you workouts lately?
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I have a friend who lost a lot of weight and has kept it off doing only Leslie and she LOVES all of her videos that she has. I just can't stomach her and get really bored when I mute so she sits on a shelf. I do admit that the ones I have where she uses the band I can stomach way more than the others.
ReplyDeleteI can't take her either. The volume gets turned waaaaay down when she's on and I definitely don't do her DVD's in the morning. I'd throw my tea cup through the screen! LOL
DeleteThank you for this review. I've always wondered what the "walk away the pounds" dvds were like. From the title I always assumed it was just walking in place in front of the t.v. (which blew my mind--folks buy a dvd to walk in place?!).
ReplyDeleteYeah, 80 minutes is a long time committment. And you are getting a bit more burn than "just" walking. The generic estimates on walking is 100 calories/mile. You almost doubled that with this dvd, so that's a bonus. Though I'd probaby be annoyed by this active recovery choice. When I walk I prefer to be outside and have a destination in mind. So even if the calorie burn is low, at least I got somewhere (physically). (and I can walk 4 miles in an hour, so 80 minutes for 5 miles would be maddening)
I thought the same thing. We saw the first one we bought for like $5 and thought we wouldn't be out much if we didn't like it. I couple her DVD's with hand weights the whole time so I can get a burn I'm satisfied with. We purposely followed her DVD to the tee with no modification (other than the squats for me) so we could see what we burn without the hand weights.
Delete80 minutes seems like a long time to me. Like JLVerde I'd rather be outside walking. I don't mind the time commitment if I'm outside, but 80 minutes in front of the tv would make me crazy. I do like my Jilian Michaels 30 Day Shred - 27 minutes of hell but worth it. I do need to figure something out as I'll most likely be leaving Curves the 15th of the month and I need to figure out something free to replace it. I'll be interested in what your other readers say.
ReplyDeleteYes it is a long time but it doesn't have to be 80 minutes. We'll like do a 45 minutes version with our favorite miles for the next recovery workout. More power to ya on the Jillian workout, she irks me more than Leslie does at this point. We had to take her out of rotation.
DeleteI can't stand her - and it really annoys me that every time I put the dvd in I have wait through all the crap at the beginning b/c it won't let me fast-forward or go straight to the menu. It is a fantastic workout for me at this stage though. Plus since I already own it there is no cost to me which is a huge benefit right now. If she makes it into my regular rotation (still working on my "at home plan")I'll have to put in the dvd and let it start while I change clothes and then mute the tv while I workout. The only problem will be the push-ups part where I can't see the tv and won't hear the cue to stop.
DeleteSounds like a long recovery workout. If I am doing 80 min I need a p90x or a proper cardio workout. and perkiness is not my thing..hehehe...I just downloaded a workout audio track from itunes for elliptical trainer. Will try it out tonight. have to figure out if i like it..
ReplyDeleteKeep pushing
Manasa
Yeah its long if you want it to be (we don't but had to do the whole thing for a proper review). Hope you like your itunes purchase!
DeleteI didnt like it..She was too dreamy for me..and the music was weird..her voice didnt carry through and I had to really listen to get it..and it was an interval training which I do anyways...anyhoo...
DeleteShe's certainly a perky gal, isn't she? I do her workouts once in a while for a change but find myself yelling out, "CAN YOU STOP TALKING? PLEASE????" It's not a bad workout and I don't mind doing every once in a while; me yelling at the TV is part of the workout.
ReplyDeleteYes she is! :) I can't take her too early and she's usually down LOW. HA!
DeleteSince I have bad knees most fitness videos tick me off. They never have modifications for bad knees!!!
ReplyDeleteLeslie always says if you can't do moves just go back to walking in place. I think hers are pretty easy to modify if need be. She doesn't show modifications in this one (likely because of the length she figures you can do 5 miles or not have knee issues) but some of her other videos do have modifications. Maybe rent one at the library for free and see if you like them?
DeleteCan you skip ahead to the miles you like? I used WATP in the very beginning as it was one of the only things I could do and I think it's a great low impact workout, especially with people with mobility issues. How's your recovery time been? How are you feeling at the end of the week after exer-cycling like this? I keep asking Hubs, "Do I have to feel like THIS every week?!" *lol*
ReplyDeleteYes you can! (And in the future we will!) It is definitely a great beginners workout as far as the whole series is concerned. Last night we did Mike D's Extreme Burn and I'm so sore today so that means a lighter workout tonight. I think my muscles are thanking me because they didn't like feeling completely drained every day of the week!
DeleteI fairly loathe DVD workouts, as you know, but if pressed, I'll do the one Sansone video I own. She can be annoying, but it's a pretty good 30-minute workout filler.
ReplyDeleteThe slow-down on mile 4 actually sounds like a good idea. It fits the whole speed up-slow down theory that seems to burn fat better. it's not always about the calories burned, but about how your body responds to the exercise.
Your new exercising plan sounds a lot like mine which, of course, makes it a genius idea! :)
But of course! :)
DeleteThis may actually be a good choice for me. Like someone who already commented, I'd far rather be outside, but in nasty weather I'd do this one. I'm looking to increase speed and endurance both, so I can climb a 14er next summer. Of course, that means I'll have to get outside and go up and down hills, but this could still contribute.
ReplyDeleteI think you'd like it. It's especially good for rainy/snowy days!
DeleteI did Leslie's walks for quite a while one winter. She is real perky, and I would find myself giving snide remarks to some of the stuff she would say (over and over ad nauseum). But last night as son and I were walking our little Lola bulldog (trying to get her tired, so she would come home and sleep, which she did NOT!) down the road (we only went about 1.7 miles), I mentioned to him how you said walking the 5 miles with Leslie in about 80 minutes burned almost 1,000 calories. To me--that sounds GREAT. All I can do it WALK with my horrible knees (anything with much bending is just completely out of the question), and it takes forever to burn any calories with walking. A while back I shared my story with Leslie's on-line newsletter. I never heard back from them, so I don't think it was ever published (maybe I should check...but surely they would have notified me?), but they did send me a big box of Leslie DVD's, some tension bands and hand weights, so I'm set for that new REALLY BIG 5-mile walk DVD. I don't think that particular DVD was in there however, so I will have to invest in it. It is considerably cooler here today howeer, so I'm going to try and keep walking outside until there's snow on the ground. Lola needs the exercise, and we decided that tonight we're going to go 2.4 miles to see if her little legs will make it that far. We've been going a little further every night and she's doing pretty well...of course I have a pocket full of treats to keep her going!
ReplyDeleteOh we do too. We do a lot of eye rolling too. Oh 1000 calories is great but when I can do that amount in 50 minutes I just can't justify adding another 30 minutes. But I know some people can't do some of the higher impact stuff we throw in too so in that instance, WATP is a great alternative!
Delete80 minutes?! Yeah, no. Or maybe as a once in a while thing. I am too ADD to focus on something for that long! BTW, because of you, I switched from lazy stationary bike workouts to doing DVDs! My knees are hating me for it though & I had meant to ask you about how you tell the difference between "ow my knees are sore" and actual injuries...
ReplyDeleteYeah it can take the knees some adjustment time especially if you're used to doing one thing and switch to a new approach. When I would switch workouts and get that, I would make sure to ice the knees after workouts and lean toward anti-inflammatory foods before taking ibuprofen for the particularly bad nights. (Pineapple/papaya smoothie works wonders!) Also make sure you focus on form keeping your knees from going over your toes which puts more stress on the knee. If you're doing something like squats make sure you push the booty way back and if you're doing lunges (my nemesis) put the leg going backward way back both for balance and to help keep the knee in line with the ankle. Obviously I'm not a doctor so check with one to make sure you're not injuring yourself.
DeleteWhat kind of DVD's ya doing?
I really like the Walk Away the Pounds Videos because they work well with my fitness levels right now. I do the 2 and 3 mile ones regularly and will be bringing the 4 mile one on vacation. Yes, vacation starting tomorrow! Yippee!! I taken 3 days off of work in the past year and I'm more than overdue. I have a mile walk planned in the morning and the evening (complete with hills and sandy gravel) and then the videos during the day). I'm excited to see how many miles I track with my pedometer for the week. I have my s.t. equipment too which always gets the ticker pumping. Thanks for the review on this one as I didn't know it had come out. It's on my wish list now. =o) "See" you in a week!
ReplyDelete