Walk Away the Pounds For Abs

Leslie Sansone
Year Released: 2001

Categories: Walking Aerobics


Leslie's videos are probably the best for beginners, especially if they have been sedentary, are extremely overweight or have other concerns they need to consider in their workouts. If they have the doctor's okay, Leslie's programs have very simple steps, a gentle to moderate pace and Leslie is encouraging and reminds exercisers to do what they need to to get a good and safe workout. WAP abs is her most vigorous program. It has a much faster pace, and is probably the least suitable for that segment of her target audience. I got the impression that Leslie looked around and saw that ab programs were the hot ticket and decided she needed to do one too. So she put together a program that targets the abs without a single ab exercise! Leslie does remind the exerciser to hold their stomach in and use good posture, like almost all video leaders (who do not call their programs ABS workouts) and she has a resistance belt that is supposed to help strengthen the back (which is unlikely) and remind you to hold your abs in (a bit more likely, but still unlikely). To be honest, this program is fine for what it is- a fairly vigorous cardio program with easy choreography. The problem is it is not what Leslie promises- which is a total body strengthening and shaping program that pays special attention to the abs. The cardio is based on Leslie's usual four steps- marches, kicks, sidesteps and knee lifts, with afew other variations, like wide marches or marching forward and back. As always, you march, then do another move, then march and so on. The pace in this set is fairly brisk. Her long time exercisers looking to move up to something more challenging will find these fit the bill.

The belt that comes with this pack has two resistance tubes attached to the back, and Leslie has a few intervals where you do a military press, a chest press, a fly type move and extending your arms down and then lifting them overhead and extending to the sides. there are no bicep or tricep exercises, and any back or chest work is secondary to the shoulder exercises. There are no lower body exercises. And despitethe title, there's nothing for the abs either.

These are fine basic cardio workouts (there are 3- 1 mile, 2 mile and 3 mile) but they are not total body workouts that will strengthen and shape yor body, as the packaging and Leslie promise. And outside of reaching overhead and doing a few calf stretches, there are no stretches either. Some people may get a little shoulder toning from the belt exercises but that will depend on a few things. The belt has very low resistance. A regular lifter (even using low weights) will probably not get much of a challenge, and depending on your arm length, you may get even less. The tubes are fairly long, and I noticed that I only got resistance on a few exercises since the tubes were sufficiently long that I wasn't stretching them to get resistance (and I have long arms). Overall, I would say these are fine cardio workouts for beginner to intermediate who want an encouraging instuctor and basic choreography. Its not the program that's promised, but for what it is, it's fine.

Instructor Comments:
I have mixed feelings about Leslie. She is encouraging, and reminds exercisers to go at their own pace, stop when they need to, just use the basic march, don't use arms, make smaller arm motions, etc. She also talks alot about good health, not about having a sexy body or being beautiful and other such comments that come up in many videos.

However, she talks nonstop. Some of it is about health. There's a lot of silly banter with her other exercisers. And she talks alot about the program. Its like she can't stop selling her program, which presumably you've already bought since you're using it! And some of her comments don't make sense when she mentions them. She talks about how you're building muscle when you're using no resistance. If you like straightforward instructors, Leslie will not be your cup of tea. I find her chatter annoying and somewhat obtrusive and condescending.

linda

11/30/-0001