My background, relevant to this review: By VF standards, I’m an intermediate-level exerciser. I’m not limited to low impact cardio, but I don’t like to do a lot of high impact. I tend to use larger movements to get my heart rate up. I can do complex choreography, but I choose basic choreography when I don’t want to think. For stretching, I enjoy both athletic stretching and yoga.

I’ve only done this workout once, but I wanted to go ahead and write a review because this is a new release.

I really enjoyed this workout. :) Madeline cues well and has good personality, and the garden setting is beautiful. My only complaint about the workout itself is that the music isn’t loud enough. There are three 10 minute cardio segments. The cardio can be done entirely low impact. Robin shows higher impact options (and sometimes Madeline does too). The other background exerciser always does low impact. Each cardio segment has a couple of minutes of lower body toning at the end. For the most part, my heart rate stayed up during the lower body toning. Using weights for the toning segments is optional.

The first cardio segment begins with a brief warmup (marching in place with arm movements for a minute or two) and ends with squats, including low ends and one-legged squats. The second and third cardio segments don’t have warmups. The second cardio segment ends with dips (advanced version: dip, and lift the knee as you come back up). The third cardio segment also ends with dips, but they are done at a slower pace because this time Madeline adds upper body rotation to the exercise. My heart rate started coming down during this part of the workout, so it was kind of like a cooldown. Madeline also slows down a bit at the very end of the third cardio segment.

The last segment of the workout is a very nice 10 minute total body athletic stretch. Madeline does a few standing stretches, then does the rest of the stretches on the floor. This would make a nice add-on to any workout that lacks a good stretch.

So, how does this workout compare to other “walking” DVDs currently on the market, such as Leslie Sansone’s DVDs and Prevention’s Walk Your Way Slim? In terms of choreography, Madeline’s workout is most similar to some of Leslie’s older workouts such as her 4-mile Weight Loss Walk. Back in those days, Leslie’s choreography wasn’t as basic as it is now. She included additional basic steps such as mambos, repeaters, and out-out-in-in. Madeline’s choreography is more basic than that in WYWS, and Madeline doesn’t build combos. Like Leslie, she does one move for a little while, then moves on to something else. In terms of intensity, I think that if you follow Robin (who does the advanced versions of everything) this workout is probably equivalent to doing WYWS at Level 2. At level 2, the movements are larger and there is some impact added, but not a lot.

As for DVD features, the menu allows you to choose four workout segments to play in any order. You have to choose four segments, but you can choose a particular segment more than once. You can also play the workout “as is”. I’ll choose this option if I plan to do the entire workout because the first segment has a brief warmup and the third segment has a slower-paced toning segment that can serve as a cooldown. The segments (three cardio, one stretch) do not have unique title-chapter numbers, so you can’t use your DVD player’s program function to program them. I’m disappointed because I was hoping to cross-program the cardio segments with other DVDs!

I think this workout would be an excellent choice for beginners and intermediates that don’t mind basic choreography. In addition, any of the 10 minute cardio segments would make a nice warmup for weight training or yoga. The 10 minute stretch segment would be a great add-on to any workout.

Instructor Comments:
Madeline is friendly and cues well.

Colleen