Background: I currently do intermediate-level workouts (by Collage standards) for cardio. I’m recovering from a bad hip injury, so I’m trying to do mostly low impact cardio with basic-to-moderate choreography.

I wasn't sure what I'd think of a 4-mile walk with Leslie. For longer cardio workouts, I generally prefer more complex choreography or Firm-style workouts (with a new routine or activity every few minutes). I pick up choreography easily, but sometimes I don't want to think! On those days, I usually choose Firm cardios or shorter Leslie workouts (2 miles). Leslie's workouts have really helped me during recovery from a bad hip injury, but I catch myself watching the clock during these workouts because the choreography is very basic and repetitive.

Surprisingly, this 4-mile workout didn't seem so long. :) The choreography is still basic, but there is more variety than in the 1-3 mile Express workouts. There are double side steps, double ham curls, moving forward and back, and other simple variations on her usual steps. There are even grapevines at the end of mile 4! There are no pivots or turns. She doesn't use the "stretchie" in this workout.

The walking pace picks up sometime during mile 1. Miles 2 and 3 are very brisk. The pace gradually slows down during mile 4. I'd say that this is an intermediate-level workout (by Collage standards). I think that Leslie saved the best music in the Express series for the 4-mile walk. The music is much better than the music in the other Leslie workout series that I have. I recognized most of the music from Cathe and/or CIA workouts.

I haven’t tried to do this workout on a rebounder, but I think that most of it would be easy to adapt to the rebounder. Many of the steps are done in one spot, so you would only have to modify when Leslie starts moving around the room. I’ve done some of Leslie’s shorter workouts on the rebounder (1 and 2 mile walks from the original WAP set and WAP Express), and I found them very easy to adapt.

Leslie does talk constantly, which will annoy some people. Most of the chatter is about being healthy for life, or is friendly encouragement. There isn't too much talk that is specifically about weight loss, which is good news to people who find weight loss talk annoying. Leslie doesn’t talk down to her audience either, which is nice. :)

Now for a few things I didn't like about this workout:

Leslie does a tap-switch several times during the workout, for no apparent reason. No wonder half of the class is on the wrong foot at any given time! This isn't a huge problem during a Leslie workout, but it is annoying. Sometimes there is a short gap between songs, which is also annoying and makes it harder to catch the beat of the new track and start on the correct foot. A few times, you will be doing one move for a long time (like knee-ups) because Leslie will be talking about something and won't want to stop to cue a new move!

This workout (and every other workout in the WAP Express series) begins with a very annoying "walk, power walk" song. Luckily, the more I hear it, the easier it is to ignore. I thought it would drive me nuts the first time I heard it! The stretching segment is inadequate because there are no stretches for the quadriceps and hip flexors. Be sure to add these stretches after the workout!

DVD features:

Unfortunately, the DVD version of this workout isn’t chaptered! I wish they had put a chapter at each mile marker. If you just want to do part of the workout, you will have to FF or “search by time” (if your DVD player has this function). Here are some convenient time points:
end of warm-up: 5:40
1-mile marker: 16:02
2-mile marker: 28:26
3-mile marker: 42:32
beginning of cooldown: 49:40
4-mile marker: 54:46

Bottom Line: If you are looking for a long, low-impact aerobic workout with very basic choreography and an encouraging, chatty instructor, this would be a good choice.

Instructor Comments:
See the review for instructor comments.

Colleen