Power Walk - 4 Miles!

Leslie teams up with Weight Watcher's Florine Mark to make this 4 mile powerwalk workout which clocks in at about 55 minutes. It is typical Leslie which contains basic and easy to do low impact moves such as marches, steping side-to-side, front kicks, and knee lifts. And like most of her workouts, you can always up the intensity by using light hand weights. The workout is broken down into 4, 4 mile sections so you can chose to do 1, 2, 3 or all 4.

For the most part, Leslie's workouts have the same theme(walking) with some slight variations from one workout to the next. So I'll tell you what I like and didn't like about this one.

Likes:

- Has Leslie's usual workout gang. Carol, Sandy, and some of her instructors. They make the workout enjoyable and seeing them re-occur in Leslie's videos is like exercising with your buddies.

- The music is pretty good. I especially like the Lone Ranger-like theme music that is played during the thrid mile where the music speeds up so you can walk at a much brisker pace for more fat burning. More fat burning is always a plus in my book. Even with lower impact/intensity workouts!

- Leslie is encouraging and gently pushes you to increase the intensity from time to time in a non-intimidating manner. This is particulary great for beginners wanting to go to the next level. It is also good for advanced exercisers who want to get in a good but less intense workout.

Dislikes:

- Florine Mark! I know she is with the Weight Watchers Organization and I guess that is the reason for her apperance but she is really annoying. She talks way too much during the workout. I wouldn't have minded her talking if she had something valuable to add about the exercises. Just goes to show you that the talking should definitely be left to the fitness professionals. I was too happy she was booted out after the first mile!

- I found the set kind of depressing. It is an all white set with some huge blown up black and white pictures of Leslie and Florine. Another reason why I was glad to see Leslie's exercise buds in this workout. It gave me something else to look at besides those pictures!

- Not enough of a stretch at the end.

To sum it up, this is a pretty good workout. It's no party in a box but it gets the job done. I would find myself doing it more often if they came out with it in a chaptered dvd format. Most of Leslie's older videos are now coming out on dvd and this one was copyrighted in 2000 so hopefully a Walk off Weight at Home on dvd is in the works.

I like most of Leslie's workouts, especially the longer ones and this one isn't her best. It's filmed indoors with Florine Mark of Weight Watchers. Florine isn't too bad but some of the background exercisers look like they've been bribed to be there--very unmotivating.

I like that this doesn't require equipment, but there are better Leslie tapes out there. B-

COMMENTS ABOUT INSTRUCTOR: Leslie is pretty bubbly, although I don't think as much as in previous videos. Florine Mark from Weight Watchers makes an appearance as do some regulars like Mary Kay.

COMMENTS ABOUT VIDEO: This is a new 4 mile power walk that I think was done in conjunction with help from Weight Watchers because Florine is also up in pictures on the set, which is the most boring set IMO. The intensity is OK, but it doesn't IMO come close to the 2 Mile Walk or Weight Loss Walk. There are four miles, the first one is like a long warm up, miles two and three really pick up the pace the most, and mile four utilizes hand glove weights so the pace is slower but when you use the weights the intensity is there. My other complaints are the music was too low to hear over Leslie and Florine, and that the other class participants didn't talk even when Leslie would ask a question like "how are you doing?" they were silent and it just seemed kind of Stepford-like. The workout itself is good if you want a very moderate intensity but long no impact cardio workout with very basic choreography.