Leslie Sansone Walk at Home Walk & Firm 30 minute with Stretchie Band

Today was supposed to be a Netflix disk workout, but my disk didn't show up. I got an email saying that it wasn't available at the local distribution center so they were going to send it from a different location, but that would add 3-5 days to the delivery time. I'll write more on how I feel about that at the end of my Netflix trial, but for now, I decided to do the Walk & Firm 30 minute walk that came with my Walk Strong DVD Set. I got it from Collage Video which is going out of business. 

The Walk & Firm workout uses the stretchie band which you can see below. 

Leslie Sansone is by herself in this DVD. I'm was happy about that since I've discovered that she's less quirky when she's alone. However, when she's alone, she doesn't march in place during the march in place sections. She slowly drifts forward and backward. This is different than the walk up two and back two. It's very subtle. When I notice it, I feel like I should be doing it too, but I can never stay on her pattern. It drives me insane, but once she gets me sweating and out of breath enough, I give up caring.

Okay, so the workout starts like most of her workouts. You are marching in place. She then takes you through the four basic moves which are walking in place, side steps, front kicks and knee lifts. Once you've done all of those, you add your arms in and exaggerate some of the movements a bit more. You pick your feet up higher and sit down into the side steps. 

This workout was all about interval training. You start out doing cardio stuff. She works kick backs into the mix in the first cardio section. She also has you walk forward two counts and back two counts. I think there was one short jogging section in this one as well. Once the first cardio section is done, you move into the first stretchie band section. This consisted of lunges and squats. I hate lunges and squats. These were stationary lunges, which aren't as bad as the ones where you step forward or backward. I was thankful for that. She has you do them slowly at first and then you pick up the pace. I wasn't able to do all of the lunges. There were just soooooooooo many!

After the torture session, you go back to cardio. I wasn't really into the workout after that. Lunges are just so difficult for me and they pretty much strip me of all motivation to workout. It didn't help that I didn't know how long the workout was going to last, so I couldn't even count down to the finish line. The next cardio section included more of the same from the first. There was jogging in this one as well. There was also side steps moving forward and backward, walking forward and backward and I'm pretty sure kick backs. This might have been the section with grapevines too. Oh double side steps and double knee lifts were in this section too. 

Once the second cardio section is over, you go back to the stretchie band. This time, you focus on you arms, back and chest. There are some bicep curls, tricep kick backs, a chest press type move and some rows. I enjoyed this section, but in other DVDs with the stretchie band, she has you continue walking in place while doing the bicep, tricep and chest press moves. It was hard to keep my feet still while doing these!

After the second set of stretchie bands, you're done with the stretchie band. You've got one last cardio section and then you move to the stretch. I don't think there was any jogging in the last cardio section. It had the normal four steps and possibly some kick backs. There was also walking forwards and backwards and double sidesteps. The cool down is pretty much non-existent. You're doing these big kicks and then she tells you that you're almost done and she starts kicking lower. After the kicking is done, you plant your feet and start to stretch. I wasn't impressed with the stretch either. Maybe I just don't do the stretch correctly, but I only feel it in my hamstrings and calves. My quads never get a stretch with her method. My quads needed a stretch due to the blasted squats and lunges. 

My BodyMedia screen shot is below. According to this, I burned more calories during my walk along the river yesterday. That thought makes me question the accuracy of the BodyMedia device.