Cardio Burn Weight Loss with Madeleine Lewis

This DVD is a re-release of Get Moving Weight Loss. I dislike changing titles from the VHS version and releasing the DVD with a new name. It appears the intent in changing titles is to fool people into purchasing the workout twice. Not cool.

All of the other reviewers liked this DVD, me, not so much. First, I am 61 years old and I’ve had knee surgery. I exercise in the morning, I’m looking for a cardio workout I can follow (hopelessly uncoordinated) that will get my heart rate up, not leave me behind, and not cause my knees to cripple me for the rest of the day. I cannot put this DVD in that category.

The DVD is broken down into 3-10 minute cardio/toning workouts and one 10 minute cool down. According to the back of the DVD, the cardio segments are 8 minutes each and the toning is 2 minutes each. My timing shows differently, but it’s not worth arguing about. You can customize your workout and take the segments in any order you chose.

Madeleine gives a short presentation at the beginning of the DVD to discuss the benefits of exercise for weight loss. She explains that exercise is cumulative at that three short workouts during a day are as beneficial as one longer workout.

The setting is a lovely park pavilion. There are three exercisers, Madeleine, Amy, and Robin. Advanced moves are supposedly shown by Robin, beginner moves by Amy, and intermediate moves by Madeleine. In actuality Madeleine is generally doing either advanced or beginner moves, she rarely demonstrates moves between what the other two are doing.

This walking workout uses basic moves. Madeleine says by the end of each 10 min. segment, your heart rate will be a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. I believe this to be true, Madeleine moves briskly. She also includes short bursts of faster movements to raise the heart rate early on.

Workout 1, the usual marching with hand/arm moves in the cardio section. The toning section has squats, pulsing squats, and then moving squats with a twist. Robin is using a weight bar, Amy is using hand weights, Madeleine is doing the moves without weights, and I wasn’t sure who was actually demonstrating the intermittent position.

Workout 2 starts at a quicker pace than workout 1. Madeleine quickly moves into mambo, toe taps, and adds small hops. She says Robin will jump, Amy will stay low impact and she will keep the balls of her feet on the ground, but she doesn’t – she jumps the same as Robin. During the toning part of workout 2, there are moving lunges, more squats, then more lunges with a raised knee, followed by one legged squats. While Madeleine says fewer moves are necessary if the exercise is done correctly she never actually gives much in the way of form cues and does them too fast for anyone to be cognizant of their form.

Workout 3, Again the workout begins with marching, for the first time Madeleine talks about body alignment. She does V steps followed by Step Knee then moves into Repeater Knee. Madeleine tells us to keep the back strong but doesn’t really give any further form cues to instruct exactly what position is best to prevent injury. Madeleine then moves into toe taps with twists. The toning section includes more lunges with twists.

The back of the DVD packaging calls the next section a flexibility workout, but the workout itself is labeled “Cool Down”. This is 10 minutes of basic stretching. The cool down is the best section for actual cueing and form alignment tips.

I understand many people like these workouts. What is the point in explaining if you do an exercise correctly, you don't have to do many repetitions then doind the same move over and over with slight variation? For anyone wanting to do all three workouts in sequence there are too many squats and lunges. I find these workouts downright painful and will add this one to the trade pile.

Instructor Comments:
The other reviewers praised Madeleine’s cueing but I thought it was marginal. I’m comparing to Leslie Sansone's walking workouts. In the beginning of each of Leslie’s walking workouts she goes over the leg movements during the warm up phase and during the workout tells you what is coming up. In Madeleine’s workouts there is no learning or introduction to the movements before the workouts begin or during the warm up. Consequently, Madeleine transfers from one movement to another with no real cueing at all. Since the workouts move briskly, you don’t know what’s coming up until she’s doing it. I always felt left behind. Since the movements are simple, I suspect this would cease to be a problem if you do the workout enough times.

PaulaC