Video Fitness

Fat Burner Walk 2

Leslie Sansone

The facts: 5 minutes each warmup and cooldown stretch, 20 minutes alternating strength and aerobic intervals. Subtitled "2 Mile In-Home Walking." Beginner level. Leslie, all by herself in t-shirt and leggings, leads alternating segments of very simple, repeated aerobic steps with strength exercises like squats, lunges, bicep curls. She wears weighted gloves throughout the workout, however, she suggests substituting 1 or 2 pound dumbells (I used soup cans). During the aerobic section her hands are kept on her hips.

This is the first video I used when I started working out about 6 weeks ago. It's definitely for sedentary beginners. The beautiful thing about this video, though, is that it's so easy, and Leslie is so likeable, that I could never come up with a reason to blow off exercise. After a few weeks I couldn't pump my arms high enough to make this a decent workout, but by then I was hooked. And in just those few weeks, I saw improvement to my energy level, balance, and coordination (not to mention my thighs) that gave me the confidence to tackle other videos.

I highly recommend this video to folks who have had trouble establishing the exercise habit.

Instructor comments: Very encouraging, down-to-earth and friendly.

June Hathaway-Vigor
june@openaccess.org
4/8/00

COMMENTS ABOUT INSTRUCTOR: Again Leslie is her normal chatty self in the video, but it's just you and her one-on-one so it's kind of nice. Always non-intimidating in her approach to fitness and again if you can't do a move, she tells you to drop the 1 lb hand weights or weighted gloves and just do the moves or hands at your sides.

COMMENTS ABOUT VIDEO: This is an approximately 35 minute long video which alternates between walking and strength training moves. While the music is typical for a walking video and I enjoyed it, the workout itself never got my heart rate up at all and I'm 19 weeks pregnant so that doesn't take a lot. I prefer Walk-N-Tone much more for a shorter 2 mile video that utilizes resistance training.

Stephanie Bridges
tbridges@coserv.net
8/28/00

The title on the cover is Fat Burner Walk 2 but the title at the beginning of the workout is Walk & Firm 2 Mile Cross Trainer. This workout is copyright 1998 and is directed by Cal Pozo who also directed the Two Mile Walk. The production quality is also like the Two Mile Walk except the set is very different. It looks sort of like a talk show set with a “living room” on the platform behind that area that Leslie does the workout in. It sounds funky, but I actually find the set quite pleasant. Leslie is alone in this workout, no background exercisers.

The workout has toning exercises as well as walking. Leslie uses one pound glove weights but says you can use one or two pound dumbbells. It seems that Leslie is trying to emphasize the toning a bit more and the walking segments only have one set of kicks and one set of knee lifts. The workout is generally broken up with toning segments alternating with one minute walking segments but there is about a half-mile of brisk walking in the middle. Most of the toning is squats or lunges, neither of which does Leslie really stress form although she has a couple of pointers. The lunges are not even on both sides. She usually does biceps with the squats. While walking she does overhead presses and pushes the weight forward (sort of a lateral chest press). Two interesting exercises she does toward the end are a balance exercise standing on one leg and doing a knee lift and taking the leg back and then she does shrugs (which is an exercise I see in many weight training books but not in videos). I really liked these because she emphasized the balance aspect of the balance exercise and she instructs the shrugs well.

I have this workout on the Deluxe Fat Burning Workout DVD but it is also available on its own. The DVD is chaptered as follows:
Introduction Ch. 1 0:00
Warm Up 2 1:00
Tone & Burn 3 6:16
Cool Down 4 22:03 (n.b. the cool down actually starts at 27:55 this was not chaptered correctly)
The workout finishes at 32:00.

Instructor comments: Leslie is her usual bubbly self but without background exercisers she is not as "chatty" as she is on some videos. While her instruction is not bad she does not instruct on form very well and since toning is an emphasis of this workout is is important to note.

Candi

6/5/05

This is one of Leslie's older workouts (1996) and has recently been released on dvd. I have it on an individual disk but I believe it is available as well as part of a compilation.

This 30-minute routine is an interval workout involving basic strength training integrated with short bursts of light walking. Leslie, who works alone with no class this time, wears weighted gloves throughout. She suggests 1-2 pound weights as a substitution.

The first section is a warm-up and is very light. It involves walking, side steps and a step to the front move. Then we have a few interval sections alternating a very short burst of walking with strength moves such as squats and lunges, integrating arm work. We then get a "one mile) mostly aerobics section of walking moves done at a slightly faster pace, then another round of interval sections before the cool-down.

The strength work wasn't bad. I don't think you'll build muscle with the arm work because the weights are so light, but it it felt nice to stretch the muscles a little with the little weights and fast-paced arm motions. It was more balanced than some of Leslie's other arm stuff in her other walking tapes, which tend to be more shoulder-focused. This one had a little back and triceps work, and quite a few rounds of biceps curls. The leg work was low-key and felt fine.

The walking was only so-so. The intervals were not long enough, and she slows them down just before the strength bits so we don't get all that much. Certainly it would be hard to modify this up, as I can do with her more steady-state walking tapes. I wasn't wearing a heart rate monitor but I don't think it would have climbed very high at all.

I enjoyed the workout. Leslie was pleasant, and the workout did not look dated. But I am a little unsure how to categorize this. I don't think, title notwithstanding, that this was a cardio tape really. But I am not sure it was a strength tape either. If I had to call it something, I would say lower body and consider the walking and the arms to be extra. When would I do this workout again? If I had a walking workout scheduled and was short lower body work for the week, maybe. Or on any strength day where I finish my regular workout and feel like I want something more. Complete beginners might find this challenging, but anyone with more experience will probably only use this as an add-on if they are in the mood for a little bit of Leslie and want to try something a bit different. If you do want to actually walk, Leslie has better options.

Instructor comments: I really enjoy Leslie and have quite a few of her workouts. She is friendly and enthusiastic and her workouts are easy to follow.

Joanna

10/26/05



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