This was my first experience with instructor Debbie Rocker. Here Debbie leads the workout in a beautiful outdoor mountain setting with 4 background exercisers (one of whom shows modifications). She does quite a bit of marching throughout the workout, but she adds some more intense moves which help to raise the heart rate further.

The warm-up lasts about 4 minutes and consists entirely on marching. Debbie focuses on gradually encouraging you to pick up the pace, constantly talking to you like a coach or personal trainer. Following the warm-up, the cardio work is broken down into segments. The first is about 6 minutes and adds shuffles (light side-to-side jogs) and side steps to the basic march. The second segment (8 minutes) weaves in some more toning-focused moves such as squats and lunges. The 9-minute section that follows is mostly a basic walk while the scene shifts; although the scenery was beautiful, I found it harder to keep up my heart rate during this segment. However, it does end with some easy jogs. The next cardio segment was probably the toughest, as the intensity goes up with more toning work such as lunges as well as more intense cardio moves such as skiers. The following 9-minute segment alternates walking with short jog segments. An approximately 6-minute cool-down finishes the workout, bringing the total time in right around 51 minutes.

This DVD comes with a bonus CD that is supposed to be for outdoor walking. I didn't find the CD very motivating, however--it is simply Debbie talking, occasionally encouraging you to pick up the pace as the tempo changes, but that's it. Debbie is fairly chatty in the main workout as well, which some might find annoying; also, she does not mirror-cue. Furthermore, she does A LOT of marching, so if you're looking for more varied moves, this might not be the workout for you. The main reason I liked this workout is because I found it to be more intense than some of the other walking workouts I have tried, so I will be keeping it.

Instructor Comments:
As mentioned, Debbie is definitely quite chatty, but I didn't really mind this. What i didn't like is that her cueing isn't very good: not only does she fail to mirror-cue, but also she often tells you a change is coming up way in advance but then fails to cue the new move ON the change.

Beth C (aka toaster)