Leslie is back with another of her longer walks, and this one has new music! The setting is bright and cheery, and there are a variety of exercisers along with Leslie (who, by the way, is wearing heavier eye make-up than usual. It’s not terrible, but I noticed it!)

The DVD begins with a 5-minute warmup in which she introduces the steps: walking, side steps, kicks, knee lifts, and kickbacks (hamstring curls); she also introduces the use of arms in the warm-up. Now I know this is nothing new to long-time Leslie lovers, but it is probably helpful to newbies.

First up was the Classic Low Impact Walk. After five minutes of basic walking (including all of the steps shown in the warmup), Leslie picks up the pace, and a timer is shown in the lower bottom corner for the last 10 minutes. This walk had a lot of great, positive energy. The music was new; it wasn’t super-fantastic, but it was better than “so-so.”

Next was Walk & Tone with the band. I normally don’t like bands because they pinch my hands, but Leslie was wearing gloves, so I tried this. It wasn’t perfect (for me), but it didn’t pinch, either. We used the band quite a bit in the first five minutes of this walk; chest presses, lat pulls, etc. She used the band in some interesting way, including an “arrow” pull and one move where you hold the band with one hand at about chest level and the other about hip level, then alternate lifting your knees to bring them up to the band at hip level. Yeah, you can just do knee lifts, but using the band gave you a “target” which was kinda fun.

The third walk was the Speed Interval Mile. This was an energetic mile where Leslie jogs, shifts her weight from side to side, and does skaters. She also did punches, but she turned her body to the side and brought the back arm forward for a cross punch which felt a little awkward to me; I began doing front jabs instead, which made more sense AND felt way better. All in all, I enjoyed this mile.

Next up was Strength Intervals where we alternated fast walking with lunges, bicep curls, squats, and tricep kickbacks. I used light handweights instead of the band for this workout. I’m pretty sure Leslie said it was alright!

The last walk was the Ab Walk, where we walked, did side steps, knee lifts, kicks, kickbacks (hamstring curls), tapouts, mambos, cha-chas, skaters, running man, and grapevines. This was a fun walk.

The walks were followed by a short cool down and brief stretch (mostly deep breathing while lifting and lowering arms.) The only real complaint I have about this DVD is that there was no “mix and match” option. I would have enjoyed being about to pick and choose the miles I wanted to do, then hit play and do them all. Unfortunately, you have to go back to the beginning menu if you want to do additional miles (except for Play All.)

Instructor Comments:
One of the great things about working out with Leslie is that you can always bump up the intensity on days when you’re feeling particularly energetic. For example, side steps can become jumps or skaters, double side steps can become chasses or shuffles; arms can be extended at double time, etc. Leslie doesn’t mind; she says you can’t do it wrong!

Debbie J