Leslie Sansone
This Hanukkah, my fitness video
buddies gave me Donna and Leslie's
gospel workouts, which explains how a
nice Jewish girl, like myself, ended up
with two Christian programs. I wanted
to check them both out before putting
them on the trade so I could make sure
the dvds played okay and other stuff.
I've already reviewed the Donna tape,
and had fun with Donna's dance party
type cardio. Her pilates section was
okay, though nothing exceptional and
the stretch was very relaxing- a good
program. Furthermore, her emphasis
was more on general spirituality (though
the music was defintiely Christian
gospel). So I had high hopes for the
Leslie workout, though Leslie and her
banter grates on my nerves. This dvd
has two workouts- a one mile and a two
mile. The one mile is Leslie alone and it
is her standard 4 step walk aerobics
fare. The volume of the music makes it
hard to hear Leslie at times, which may
be a bonus to you, depending on how
high your tolerance is for Leslie's
endless comments. From what I could
hear, her comments are about good
health, being thankful for family and
friends, and trying to be healthy in body
mind and spirit- very general
spirituality. The second mile has Leslie
joined by two buddies and she talks
more with them, though she still doesn't
have many inside comments, just a few.
Leslie ups the religious ante here, there
are still some general comments, but
she starts getting into more Christian
themes, and I started to feel excluded at
this point since it didn't speak to my
beliefs. Leslie does introduce a few new
moves in this section and keeps things
moving at a good pace. Leslie also
includes a relaxing stretch at the end of
mile 2, the first I recall seeing on one of
her tapes. She doesn't instruct or offer
pointers though, since she has a
minister's sermon playing at this point.
Overall, someone looking for "church
with sweat" will probably be very
pleased with this dvd. Leslie does say a
few weird things. At one point, she says
something like "c'mon guys, lets go."
and then goes on to say she knows her
exercisers are girls and they know
they're girls or some such thing. It was
just really odd, especially since Leslie
seemed to think it was so funny. In
both workouts, she looks off to the side
alot, which seems odd and a bit
disconnected. At times, her background
exercisers look less than enthused.
While Donna had contemporary gospel (I
didn't recognise it but liked the beat)
with a great beat, Leslie has synthed up
church classics. I have many Christian
friends and I recognised these songs
like Holy Holy Holy and How Great
Though Art. Its nothing you'd write
home about, but if you like the songs
you might be able to look past the less
than inspirational renditions presented
here. Overall, this is a typical Leslie
workout with her standard steps and
lots of chatter. i definitely thought this
one had a more religious feel than
Donna's and I liked the music less.
However, someone looking for a
workout with a truly church feel and
classic hymns will probably prefer this
to Donna's, especially if they also want
much simpler, easy to follow steps.
Instructor comments:
leslie is her usual self in this workout.
Since this workout doesn't use a gadget,
she doesn't spend much of her time
trying to sell the program, as she did in
her various WAP series, and she
doesn't chat with her girls about
grandkids and whether or not the baby
is sleeping. she's also harder to hear,
so people who get tired of banter but
like her style may find this aspect of the
tape appealing.
linda
This is one of my favorite Leslie videos. It uses wonderful Christian music (includes "He Walks With Me" and "How Great Thou Art") and is filmed in a very open, spacious room with wooden floors. Leslie is joined by two of her walk instructors, one of them being Carol - my favorite of her background exercises. Carol always seems joyful and happy to be there.
The video covers two miles in approximately 30 minutes.
Instructor comments:
Leslie is her usual chatty, encouraging self. She gives glory to God and reminds us to be thankful for our blessings.
Suzette
August 26 2005
