The Biggest Loser Power Walk

Today, I did The Biggest Loser Power Walk.It had four 1 mile segments that are about 16 minutes each. it also has a short stretch at the end. You can chose to do all of the segments or just the ones that you want to do. I did all four miles and the stretch. The DVD was filmed at The Biggest Loser Ranch. I think that the people in the walk are former contestants. Bob Harper led the first and third miles. The other two people on the cover led the other two miles. The guy on the right led the second mile and the female on the left led the fourth mile. They were in much better shape than the rest of the walkers, so I think these two were in a previous year's show and the rest of the walkers were from the current season's show (which I think would have been whatever season was filmed in 2010). You have the choice to do this with just the music or with the instructors dialogue. 

Bob Harper led the first mile. It was a bit slow paced. There was marching in place, side steps and knee lifts, among other things. Bob announced the 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 markers. They also showed up on the screen to mark them. Towards the end of the mile, he had us sort of squat down a bit and lean forward and then "run." I don't really consider it running. It was more like lifting your feet off the floor as fast as you can, but only lifting them a very small amount. I think I've seen this type of move in sports warm ups. 

The second mile was led by a former contestant. This mile included weights. The walking was pretty slow paced, but the weights added to the intensity. I used my weighted balls since I still don't have dumbbells. I was able to keep up, but this segment was a bit of a train wreck for me. The walkers didn't seem to know what they were supposed to do, and to be honest, I didn't really know either. I was usually a couple paces behind them while I figured out where I was going. This segment also ended with the "running" thing that wasn't really running. I'm pretty sure that it really worked my glutes though. I did like the punching in this segment, but I think someone should have explained the different punches to the walkers before the workout. He called out an uppercut and people are doing hooks. It's not a huge deal, but it was a bit distracting.

Bob was back for the third segment. There were no weights for this segment. There was a lot of jogging and a lot of jumping jacks. I am not a fan of jogging, but these jogging segments were shorter than Leslie Sansone's jogging segments, so I made it through them just fine. I tried the jumping jacks and managed to get through about 10 seconds of them before I decided I was done with them. I went with the modified version. The segment ended with the "running" thing again. 

The fourth segment was led by a former contestant. This one used a medicine ball. I didn't think they called them medicine balls anymore, but that's what she called it. I used one of my weighted balls which is a lot smaller than a medicine ball, but I wanted something ball shaped and I didn't feel like using my watermelon, although, they did suggest using melons if you didn't have the ball. This one was another train wreck where the contestant was a bit confused about what they were going to do next. The leader laughed it off and was cool about it, but it was distracting to me.  

This workout was a bit odd for me because I'm so used to Leslie Sansone's walking workouts. Her terminology is different, her vibe is different and her walkers are different. This workout had moments of intensity. In fact, I think I got the most calories burned per minute from any workout I've ever done. However, those were just bursts. When not doing those bursts, I think my overall average was lower than most other walking workouts. It felt really slow paced except for the third mile with all of the jogging and jumping jacks. This was tagged as a Low Impact workout, but I wouldn't consider the third segment low impact. The fourth segment had some higher impact stuff too. They always had a modified version for you to follow though. I think I will try this one again in a couple months just to see how many calories I can burn if I don't do all of the modifications. I was about 40 calories short of my Leslie Sansone 5 mile. If I can get through this workout without modifying the jumping jacks, I might be able to pull off 1,000 calories in one workout. I have two goals right now.....1,000 calories in one workout and 5,000 calories in one day. 

Below are my BodyMedia Link screen shots. The wide tall blue blob on the left is the workout. The rest of the blue blips are me walking around at work. I only got 15 minutes of vigorous activity in this workout. I should have had more, but I really can't do jumping jacks.