Get Moving: Walking for Weight Loss

Madeleine Lewis
Year Released: 2004

Categories: Walking Aerobics



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I thought I'd add my two cents about this workout. At this point, according to VF standards, it's an "oldie", but I think that VFers who like walking type workouts could enjoy it. It is one that I have come back to because I lost a lot of fitness over the past year and I'm restarting my fitness efforts.

There are 3 cardio segments, "walking" type movements with a strength move at the end of it. And, there's a stretch. You can play the entire workout or customize it by choosing which segments you want to play.

Madeline is backed up by two exercisers, one does the "easy" modifications and the other does the "harder" modifications. Madeline, despite saying she'll be the intermediate exerciser is all over the place.

I keep this workout because it seems really well planned to me. It seems to just flow from one move to another. And, I enjoy that. I also can find it somewhat boring some days, so I keep it for the days that I'm in the mood for it.

Instructor Comments:
I really like Madeline as an instructor. She gives good form pointers and she's encouraging, but she doesn't chatter.

Laura S.

01/29/2015

Cardio Burn Weight Loss with Madeleine Lewis

This DVD is a re-release of Get Moving Weight Loss. I dislike changing titles from the VHS version and releasing the DVD with a new name. It appears the intent in changing titles is to fool people into purchasing the workout twice. Not cool.

All of the other reviewers liked this DVD, me, not so much. First, I am 61 years old and I’ve had knee surgery. I exercise in the morning, I’m looking for a cardio workout I can follow (hopelessly uncoordinated) that will get my heart rate up, not leave me behind, and not cause my knees to cripple me for the rest of the day. I cannot put this DVD in that category.

The DVD is broken down into 3-10 minute cardio/toning workouts and one 10 minute cool down. According to the back of the DVD, the cardio segments are 8 minutes each and the toning is 2 minutes each. My timing shows differently, but it’s not worth arguing about. You can customize your workout and take the segments in any order you chose.

Madeleine gives a short presentation at the beginning of the DVD to discuss the benefits of exercise for weight loss. She explains that exercise is cumulative at that three short workouts during a day are as beneficial as one longer workout.

The setting is a lovely park pavilion. There are three exercisers, Madeleine, Amy, and Robin. Advanced moves are supposedly shown by Robin, beginner moves by Amy, and intermediate moves by Madeleine. In actuality Madeleine is generally doing either advanced or beginner moves, she rarely demonstrates moves between what the other two are doing.

This walking workout uses basic moves. Madeleine says by the end of each 10 min. segment, your heart rate will be a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. I believe this to be true, Madeleine moves briskly. She also includes short bursts of faster movements to raise the heart rate early on.

Workout 1, the usual marching with hand/arm moves in the cardio section. The toning section has squats, pulsing squats, and then moving squats with a twist. Robin is using a weight bar, Amy is using hand weights, Madeleine is doing the moves without weights, and I wasn’t sure who was actually demonstrating the intermittent position.

Workout 2 starts at a quicker pace than workout 1. Madeleine quickly moves into mambo, toe taps, and adds small hops. She says Robin will jump, Amy will stay low impact and she will keep the balls of her feet on the ground, but she doesn’t – she jumps the same as Robin. During the toning part of workout 2, there are moving lunges, more squats, then more lunges with a raised knee, followed by one legged squats. While Madeleine says fewer moves are necessary if the exercise is done correctly she never actually gives much in the way of form cues and does them too fast for anyone to be cognizant of their form.

Workout 3, Again the workout begins with marching, for the first time Madeleine talks about body alignment. She does V steps followed by Step Knee then moves into Repeater Knee. Madeleine tells us to keep the back strong but doesn’t really give any further form cues to instruct exactly what position is best to prevent injury. Madeleine then moves into toe taps with twists. The toning section includes more lunges with twists.

The back of the DVD packaging calls the next section a flexibility workout, but the workout itself is labeled “Cool Down”. This is 10 minutes of basic stretching. The cool down is the best section for actual cueing and form alignment tips.

I understand many people like these workouts. What is the point in explaining if you do an exercise correctly, you don't have to do many repetitions then doind the same move over and over with slight variation? For anyone wanting to do all three workouts in sequence there are too many squats and lunges. I find these workouts downright painful and will add this one to the trade pile.


Instructor Comments:
The other reviewers praised Madeleine’s cueing but I thought it was marginal. I’m comparing to Leslie Sansone's walking workouts. In the beginning of each of Leslie’s walking workouts she goes over the leg movements during the warm up phase and during the workout tells you what is coming up. In Madeleine’s workouts there is no learning or introduction to the movements before the workouts begin or during the warm up. Consequently, Madeleine transfers from one movement to another with no real cueing at all. Since the workouts move briskly, you don’t know what’s coming up until she’s doing it. I always felt left behind. Since the movements are simple, I suspect this would cease to be a problem if you do the workout enough times.

PaulaC

06/06/2012

this is a really good cardio workout for beginners! the moves are simple, madeleine cues everything very well and also gives tips on proper form. also the workout is done in a pretty outdoor setting.

madeleine choreographed kathy smiths (and others) workouts for years and even has one of kathy smith's background exercisers with her in this one (robin).
there is another woman in the background too and between the 3 of them they demonstrate beginner, intermediate and more advanced versions of all of the
moves.

personally i found this workout to be pretty easy but it was a good one for me to do today as i havent worked out much this week and needed something gentle to get back in the swing.
i think that this workout is much easier than michelle dozois' 'walk your way slim' so if you are looking for something that is more at the intermediate level then get 'slim' instead.
yet 'get moving' is more
strenuous than leslie sansone's walking workouts and has a much lower yawn factor than leslie's workouts as well.

madeleine's walking workout is broken into four 10 minute sections and the dvd will allow you to do the four sections together or you can program the
disc to do the sections in a different order, even programming it to do one or two sessions twice in one workout.

at the end of each aerobic session, madeleine does a bit of strength training for the lower body... squats and lunges... to which you can add dumbells if you like. at the end of the 30 min workout, she does a 10 min stretch session.

Instructor Comments:
madeleine is a very pleasant instructor... it is a shame that she was
behind the scenes so much for so many years.

Carolyn Visser

04/07/2005

This has been well reviewed, so I will simply add my impressions.

I really liked this workout. It had me sweating more than a Leslie or one of the Walk it Off with Georges. I tended to follow the advanced version, but when it got to be too high impact for me, I went down to the intermediate version.

I added arm movements with weights to the toning section to try and cover more of my body.

I liked the cool-down at the end, though I am kind of partial to yoga, so not sure I'll do it again.

The workout went very fast and I loved the setting. I would definitely recommend this to a high beginner to a solid intermediate.

Instructor Comments:
Great cueing, very likeable without being too perky or chatty.

Krista (benemma)

04/04/2005

Madeline's Get Moving for Weight loss has been a nice low impact cardio addition to my collection. The DVD is 40 minutes long - three 10 minute cardio sections, plus one 10 minute stretch section. The DVD is well chaptered and is programmable.

I like that this is an outdoor setting which I find as a nice change from both Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds and Prevention's walk your way slim. The music is insturmental, not bothersome in anyway. Each cardio section has approximately 8 minutes of cardio and 2 minutes of lower body exercises. The choreography is simple - side steps, knee ups, forward and back marches with knee ups, etc. The lower body work can be intensified by adding dumbbells, or a body bar (as shown in the workout). Madeline leads the workout, with background exercisers Amy and Robin. Amy demonstrates the beginner level, and Robin shows the intermediate, or walk/run version of the workout. The workout concludes with a nice 10 minute stretch. It's a nice break from the high impact, and high intensity. This has become my no excuses - "go to" workout.

Instructor Comments:
Madeline is a breath of fresh air for me. I was not a fan of Prevention's walking workout. I like Leslie, but sometimes she can be too animated for my tastes. Madeline motivates you to do your very best without being overly chatty. Her form pointers and cueing are excellent.

Valerie

12/30/2004

This has three 10-minute walking workouts. But the "choreography" is more low-impact aerobic type movements than Leslie Sansone type walking movements. Each segment has actually about 8-1/2 minutes of "walking" then a minute+ of lower body strengthening. The "walking" portion includes several 8-count intensifiers.
#1 - basics: marches, side taps, ham curls, knee lifts. The strength move is squats, then add knee lift, then add rotation.
#2 - the pace picks up a little bit. I found this segment to be somewhat boring. The initial mambo sequence has too many reps before switching sides. My mind wandered. The strength move is lunges.
#3 - I liked this segment. The pace is a little quicker and there's more variety of movement, such as twist torso and "throw a baseball" while doing side taps. The strength move is lunge, twist, knee lift, twist to other side. Reminds me of TLP.
#4 - This is a nice 11-minute stretch.

The setting is outdoors, an Asian garden setting. Two background exercisers. The one who is supposed to be doing the easy version usually doesn't. Madeleine does, or just tells you what the easy version is. The music is rather subdued; I'd have liked it a bit louder, especially during the stretch - I really like the music selection for that portion.

I thought I'd be bored by this workout, but wasn't (except for segment #2.) I'm in a low-intensity rotation right now, and this kept my heart rate up to where I wanted (between 100 and 125). I'll use this one again.

Instructor Comments:
Madeleine is pleasant and cheerful. I find her graceful and I like her tone of voice. Her cueing is fine. The choreography is fairly basic.

FirmDancer

12/01/2004

The setting is on a patio with a lovely garden in the background. The day was overcast but not gloomy. The music is pleasant, but low keyed.
Madeleine is joined by Amy on your left, showing the low/no impact moves, but using dumbells in the toning segments! On your right, is Robin, who demonstrates higher impact and uses a body bar in the toning segments. Madeleine uses no weights, but in the cardio she's somewhere in the middle.
The first thing that struck me as we came to the end of the warm-up is that I don't recall any stretching...we went straight from the warm-up right into the workout...which I liked. As I'm recovering from a knee injury, I was following Amy(and wearing my 1# wrist weights) I was concerned with keeping my heart rate up; no problem there and I worked up a nice sweat!
Madeleine cues clearly so I had no problem following. You are barely into the foot pattern when you can see Robin (had a clearer view of her) doing the advanced arm movements, which was nice. If you're familiar with Kathy Smith's cardio workouts, you will recognize a lot of the routines here! Madeleine choreographed a lot of her best stuff.
Each of the three segments ends with some light, lower body toning. Madeleine stresses quality not quantity and balance.
The cooldown and stretch are thorough, done in bare feet on mats.
I can see myself reaching for this one often. With the three (rather ambiguous) levels, you could go easy when not feeling very energetic, going all out when you're ready to rock and roll.

Instructor Comments:
Madeleine is livelier than any Gaiam instructor I've seen so far. Some places she reminded me a little of Denise Austin! But she's much more comfortable to workout with. Make no mistake though, she's no nonsense and she wants you to work! She keeps chatter to a minimum, but cues beautifully. I had no problems following her and her two background exercisers.

Lydia Jasper

07/27/2004



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

07/16/2004

This workout has been compared to Leslie Sansone's walking workouts and the Prevention "Walk Your Way Slim" workout. I would say that it falls somewhere between the two. The movements are pretty basic and repetitive, although maybe just a tad harder than Leslie's choreography. I don't agree that the workout shows 3 levels of intensity. I would say 2 levels is more accurate. Madeleine and the two background exercisers - Amy and Robin - always do the same arm movements, but on some movements Robin is doing high impact by hopping off the ground and Amy stays low impact. There really is nothing in between the two for Madeleine to do at an "intermediate" level. I think Madeleine is even aware of this as at one point they are doing a step and she says she's keeping the balls of her feet on the ground, but she's not - she's actually jumping off the ground. I think it's also a bit strange that Amy is supposed to be doing the "beginner" version, Robin the "advanced" and Madeleine is supposed to be doing the "intermediate", except that during the toning segments, they switch and Madeleine is doing the "beginner" version and Amy is doing the "intermediate".

I like the workout - I would consider it a low intermediate workout. The outdoor setting is pretty and Madeleine does a good job leading. The music is nothing special.

Tammy

07/07/2004

I love that they filmed this outside. It was such a pretty background. I liked that alot.

The workout is really good. Its very much like the WATP vids, but with the WYWS aspect of having 3 exercisers doing 3 different levels. (Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced)
There is a difference in this workout, though, that sets it apart from WATP and WYWS. There are 3 short toning/strength segments for the lower body. They go so quickly that you couldn't use heavy weight, and I don't think its meant for that anyway since its mostly a cardio workout.

For those of you who don't know what to do with your FIRM Sculpting Stick, this is the perfect video to use it, IMHO. During the toning/strength segments they show Madeleine using no weight, the Beginner level exerciser using dumbbells, and the Advanced exerciser using a body bar.

I didn't find the volume of the music to be a problem. I didn't think it was too high or too low. I thought it was just fine.

This is a new favorite for me. Its definitely something anyone could add to their collection. I highly recommend it.

I do want to add that there was just one negative. It isn't about the workout itself at all, though. I had the same thought with Kathy Smith's LWTLW2 vid. Robin is in this video as well. She appears way too thin. She looks like she could break in 2 if a strong wind hit her. I found that just a bit distracting.

Instructor Comments:
Madeleine is really likeable and cues very well. If Leslie Sansone gets on your nerves, Madeleine will be a welcome change. (I personally love Leslie, but I know some people think she's too chatty and annoying. I don't think anyone can accuse Madeleine of this.)

Melissa

07/05/2004

I love this DVD. I am just getting back to working out after an injury and this was so easy to follow but really got my heart rate up. This is not for the Cathe crowd but it is fun and no dancing.

The DVD has 4 ten minute segments, three aerobic segments and a cool down. They can be done individually or together, kind of like Quick Fix. Each aerobic portion has 2 minutes of lower body toning but done at an aerobic pace. The cool down is great on its on, very relaxing. I do one segment in the morning and one after work so that I can get something in even when I'm really busy.

Instructor Comments:
Very down to earth. Motivating but not
annoying. Really cares about form
and posture.

Emilie

06/26/2004

I have been really enjoying Leslie Sansone workouts. I am fed up with traditional aerobics and just want a brisk walk intensity workout. This dvd was just the same ole aerobic workout for me. I guess I just feel the 'walking' part of the title is misleading. One lady was doing the same jumping for intensity stuff that I left behind with my other cardio workouts.

The workout in itself is fine for what it is, but I don't feel it fits into the same category as a 'walking' workout.

Instructor Comments:
Madeline is fine. She's not annoying in any way and cues well.

Tammy

11/30/-0001