Walk Away the Pounds Questions?
 

Alright ladies, so I know almost every single one of you are on the Leslie train... and I'm strongly considering jumping aboard myself so need your advice.. ;)

I did order Tae-Bo Cardio and its a little too tough for me right now, and its sitting on my shelf. My concern is if WATP will be too?! I mean I do really well at the gym and i'm okay.. so I'm thinking it should be.

Can you guys give me a little description of what the workout includes? Your experience with it? How long are the workouts? What one should I start with? Etc...

Anything you could offer would be greatly appreciated... If I'm gonna order it, I want to soon as Columbia House has it on sale right now! :)

Thanks..

If you go to the gym regularly, you should have no problem with WATP. The workout consists of: Sidesteps, knee lifts, front kicks and kick backs and of course walking,.. it is easy to follow and she usually has one of the background walkers showing you how to modify the moves if you need to. The dvd I have has the 1 and 2 mile workouts on the same dvd and i think it cost me under 18 at amazon. I would start with that and then if you find them too easy, you can always buy the 3 mile off of ebay for cheap. The one mile workout lasts 22 minutes and that includes cool down and stretching. I dont know how long the 2 mile is because i can only do about half of it:-)

I'm on the Leslie train BIGtime! I have -- and do -- the following:

* WATP 1-3 miles: The 1 and 2 mile workouts are on one DVD, and the 3 mile is on a second; I bought them as a set for like $15.00 plus maybe 4 bucks shipping. I think if you go to the gym regularly, you'll get to the 3-mile level pretty quickly, so I'd strongly recommend getting all three in the set. The 1-mile is 18 minutes, the 2 mile is like a half hour, and the 3 mile is around 42-45 minutes. (Within each there's notification of half miles and miles walked, so you could plan to stop sooner if you liked.)
* Express Super Challenge 4 Miles: I LOVE this one too, but it takes a little longer, so I don't always have time to do it. (I know, excuses, excuses! :dizzy: )
* Power Walk 3 Miles / Power Firm: This is older, but these two workouts are really terrific. Pretty low budget production, but REALLY good workouts. During the walk, you walk with weights (with more of an emphasis on weights than in the WATP wo's,) and the Power Firm is a non-walking workout targeting legs and glutes.
* Walkblaster 3 DVD set: There are 3 DVD's in this newest set from Leslie, and they utilize a ramp for increased glute and ham action. They're fun! One is more cardio, one is more squats and lunges, and the third is the best of both. She has you doing walking and the usual stuff, but adds mambo steps and the aforementioned squats and lunges.....can't argue with that!

I wouldn't worry at all about it being too hard, Celina -- I swear. They're simple to follow, you feel great afterwards, and if you're used to doing any form of cardio you'll progress quickly. If you're NOT, then it's slower going, but you'll still progress beautifully the more you do it! It's great for the arms and shoulders, balance, flexibility, endurance, the core gets involved, and you can pick how long you want to do any of them, because she has mile alerts along the way. So sometimes I'll use the 3-mile workout to do 2 miles, for example, and then do my own cooldown and stretching afterwards. I'm totally hooked! This weekend I'm going to get a step bench and a Gin Miller or Cathe Friedrich step workout or two, so I can add some more variety and escalate the intensity since I'm on a roll. But I have no doubt that I'll continue to use the Leslie workouts as I go forward........they're fun and easy -- you just pick the amount of time you want to walk, and go! I think the're awesome!

Like I said, Celina, I would recommend getting the 1-3 mile WATP series (NOT the one for Abs) and start with the 1-mile and see how you do! I would Froogle it to get the best online price -- that way you can get what you want, and you'll probably end up doing better than in most stores, although if you want to you could sure check out Target or Walmart or whatever. (I think Target DVD's are expensive, and I boycott Walmart, so I'm not the one to talk to about that.....I just pick up the stuff cheap online. Try half.com -- great deals there.) Anyway, like Heather said, she mixes up the walking (or marching) with some simple but effective moves that get your heart rate up and work your abs, quads, glutes, hams, shoulders, and back...not to mention the calves and the rest of the good stuff. Your shoulders and arms might hurt at first because you do a lot with them, but you'll improve quickly. She uses a pair of 1 lb. balls for weights (they come with the WATP set, when you buy it as a set,) but I prefer to use a 6 lb pair of Ironhands -- I love them because I don't have to hold onto anything, and I prefer to increase the weight. It's not what I would count as a "weights workout," by any stretch of the imagination, but it's good for burning more calories and working more muscle, and you definitely get a good benefit from it.

Hope this helps! Good luck, and let us know what you decide!

check overstock.com also! they don't have a LARGE selection but i got my first WATP dvd (1 and 2 mile for the abs) there for like 12 bucks and their shipping is really cheap too. i got the 1 and 2 mile express from wal mart (yeah i hate wal mart too but its the only place in town since they ran everyone else off) for i think 14 bucks or something like that.

Oooooh since I am broke I think I'll ask Santa (aka mom) for these for Xmas.

Our local library lets you check out movies and they have several of hers.They only have 2 tapes that aren't the walk away for the abs.
I tried the 2 miles first and it wasn't too bad. The one mile seemed a bit simple and I couldn't believe it was over when it was but it would be great for a quick workout when you didn't have anything else to do.
I tried out the 4 mile super challenge the other night. I made it to about 2.5 miles on it. Will definitely have to work up to it. I'm going to try the 3-mile one tonight.
What's great about the ab ones is that you don't have to have her walking belt to do the exercises.

I have the 2 mile express walk (or something like that), the 2 mile fat burner (which I don't like because it involves a lot of work with weights and I do WATP on days that I already lift weights--if you want that, PM me and I'll be happy to mail it to you), and the 3 mile walk. I use the tapes on the days I don't do cardio at the gym. When it's nice I usually walk outside, but with the rainy weather we get, it's helpful to have an inside activity. I thought I might find them boring, but I don't, and the time goes quickly. I work up a sweat, particularly on the 3 mile walk, but the moves are so easy that anybody who can walk can do them.