WalkFit Indoors

WalkFit is a good low-impact workout, especially for beginners. If you enjoy walking, but can't keep it up because of winter or rainy climates, then this may be a video for you. Denise breaks the workout into either a 1, 1 1/2 or 2 mile workout. The music is upbeat, and there are a variety of moves. The walking pace is equal to a 15 minute mile, keeping your heart beat elevated. I enjoy doing this workout on a day which I choose to do a lower-impact workout, or don't have the time to workout for an hour.

Denise follows the aerobic sections with a trimming section. She starts out with lunges, which I hate, but she tries to make them a little more interesting by changing direction. The sit up section is fairly basic, and the leg-work sections is pretty short.

The most disapointing part of this tape is there is basically no warm up and the cool down begins by standing in place and doing side bends. She finishes the workout with a very short stretch.

I give it a C.

Julianne Johnston

The cheoreography is very basic and good for the beginner. All moves are walk based and low impact. It is a perfect workout for me on the days that I can't get outside and walk.

Instructor Comments:
Denise Austin is bubbly and perky as usual. She is very motivating and peppy. I appreciate her upbeat personality. But, I think that she gets a head of herself sometimes. In this video in particular, she doesn't cue soon enough and miscues a couple of times. The more you do this video and get used to it, the better off you'll be, but it is very confusing at first. For example, she'll say now switch foots, and you will do two or three more on the same foot. Or she will say switch foots after she has already switched.

Shawna Whitlow

I tried to like this video, but sorry to say, I don't. I primarily got as a beginner tape with my husband in mind, since he's even more uncoordinated than usual. The problem is Denise misses a lot of cues & uses a lot of strange steps. I did think the rear look (where we get to see what the steps look like from behind) was a good idea.

What my husband didn't like was that Denise assumes that only women are watching, so she says a lot of things that only women would like to hear, so that turned him off completely.

What turned me off completely was the gimmicky stuff she threw in, like the basketball & bowling stuff. What is that? Half the time I was trying to keep up with what she was doing, the rest of the time I was annoyed at what I had to do.

The toning stuff at the end of the tape is decent, but too short.

One other thing: one of the two women with her doesn't even try to smile, except briefly. Although I don't expect an instructor or those with her to have smiles plastered on their faces (too fake), I do like to see people smiling and laughing, because it's telling me they're enjoying it.

In short, it's too gimmicky, too many missed cues, too much of that Denise perkiness. This is a good tape only if you're a beginner who needs a holding hand or gimmicks to work out. Personally, I think a beginner would be better with a Kathy Smith tape.

I wish I'd known about this site before I threw out this tape. (It was taking up too much room.) I give this a D.

Instructor Comments:
Her usual perky self. Too perky in fact. She doesn't come off as warm, in fact she comes off a bit ditzy. (Sorry Denise Austin fans.)

NanB

I hated it! While it got my heart rate up, I felt like a fool doing a number of the moves (especially bouncing and shooting an invisible basketball). I'm a beginner, and I much prefer the simplicity and intensity of Leslie Sansone's indoor walking tapes.

Instructor Comments:
I usually like Denise Austin, but in this video, she was really irritating...a little too perky and corny.

Dani