Walking (One Mile)

This is my last Leslie Sansone walk on Exercise TV.  Not EVER, or anything, but it's the last for this blog.  I have had a tough week and this one, on Saturday, is the first I've done all week, so that's lame.

The one mile is excellent, though.  She does almost all the steps that are in her repertoire, and you get just enough of each.  Although the pace is fast, it's not super exhausting or anything because it's short.  If you wanted to do 30 minutes of cardio, you'd have to do it again, though.  Leslie mentions this - she says it's SO convenient, you can just do it in the morning and then do it in the evening, to which I say BS.  I mean, it's short but you do get pretty sweaty, so unless you want to shower twice a day, it's not super convenient.

Leslie is so funny and polite.  She's alone for this workout, which I prefer.  At one point she says, "you just finished a mile!  If you were walking outside, you'd be a mile away by now.  But this workout uses more muscles than just a stroll outside.  NOT that there's anything wrong with strolling OUTSIDE!  I LOVE the OUTSIDE!".  Ha!  It's like some pro-outside walking group is going to sue her or something.

It's a good workout, but like I say, I rarely get a chance to workout twice in a day.  This workout is listed at 22 minutes, the 2 mile isn't much more than that, so I would just do it.  Of course, something is better than nothing, and her calling is so excellent that if you had never done an organized workout before, this might be a good way to start.

Advanced Walk - Rock and Tone

Leslie and her minions are wearing the New Balance Rock and Tone show for this workout, and I wasn't, so I can't say if it's that much more fabulous with the shoes, but it was still pretty good.  SHORT, but good.  24 minutes, a warm up, a fast walk, a toning segment which consists of squats and lunges, and then a section where you jog and bounce on your feet like a boxer, which was a nice way to get your heart rate up.  Then another toning section, then another fast walking or jogging section and then a cool down.  Short, but good.  If it was twice as long, it would be soooo much better.  It was fun to do some harder cardio.

This was funny, they use an angle on this one that looks like when Paula Abdul did her "Promise of a New Day" video and she was all stretched out and looked thin?  Someone I read called it the "Promise of a Thin Me".  They all looked SKINNY which might be supposed to be motivating, but it really also looks kind of creepy.

Slim Down Thighs

Edited to add that I found it online, here's what this workout looks like.

This says that it's a 5 minute workout but it's really just 2 minutes and 45 seconds.  It's Jeannette...Jackson?  Johnson?  I don't remember.  She is a "Hollywood" trainer!  Or so she claims, anyway.  It's three FAST sections, obvs, if the workout is only 3 minutes long.  She does chair/crescent sits, she recommends 15 each and then work your way up to 25.  Then she does a plie (is that spelled right?  I am short on time, I mean the ballet move) move where you pull your foot back in toward your other foot.  She finishes on her (and your) back, with your legs up in the air and you bring them out, then scissor in, then switch front and back.  Again you do this 15 times, working up to 25.

I don't know.  It's a good introduction into leg work, but when she does the plee-ay, she only does one side.  The hell?  I had to do the left side after the workout.

2 Mile Workout

This was fun to do, it's been a while because I had been so in the habit of doing the three mile.  One thing I noticed in this is that Leslie Sansone is an excellent caller - you are rarely, if ever, caught unawares.  She is alone during this workout, which I prefer, as I've said.  It's a good workout, I did it with 2 lbs. of weights, just wrist-type weights.  It's 34 minutes long, maybe 30 minutes of walking, so 15 minute miles is what you're doing.  That's a pretty good pace for most of it, particularly considering that you are doing not just walking, but step outs, knees up, side steps, etc.  I didn't do anything yesterday, so I am one day off but I am hoping tomorrow I'll be able to do two.  We'll see - I always have high hopes for the weekends and they are almost always dashed.  :)  

Walking Down Blood Sugar

I guess I am going to go through all the walking workouts first.  I think I've done this before, they are SUPER repetitive, I'm realizing now.  On this one, she has six other people with her, which I really don't like.  If I wanted to go to the gym with Do Everything Too Much Guy or Don't Do Hardly Anything Girl or Whoops So Loud You Hate Her Lady, I would go to the gym!  But whatever, its fine, it's Walking Down Your Blood Sugar, so the people are older and heavier.  I learned tonight that Leslie has kind of a cackle going when she gets really funny.  BUT she is so positive and ... kind or something, I really enjoy her workouts.  If I could get Leslie Sansone to do the Jillian Michaels workout, that would be perfect.  But we'll get to Jillian.  Anyway, this is just like the others, 24 minutes, too short, etc.  At the end tonight, she said "didn't that go fast?" and I thought of course it did!  It was TWENTY FOUR minutes, ha!

Walk and Tone

When I was pregnant with Maria and had gestational diabetes, I did this work out a lot, or at least I thought it was the same workout.  It's not.  It's a short (24 minute) workout, segmented into walking or toning.  There's basically a warm up (with the standard four Sansone walking moves - walking, kicks, side to side moves, and knees up) and then walking, then toning, walking again, and toning.  It's the same four backup people.  She recommends that you use weights for the toning parts, I only used 2 lb. weights because my 5 lb. weights were upstairs and the girls were sleeping up there.  So it wasn't hard, but it could have been harder.

The music is just fine for this, it's got a good, easy to hear beat, which is all that matters, really.  Leslie adds a move in this that I haven't done before, it's a "walk and run".  It's the same as a step, step, cha-cha-cha move from aerobics, I think.

It's a good workout, not hard, but it's too short.  It would be a better workout if the time were doubled, I think.

Cardio Slimdown - Leslie Sansone

It says the Cardio Slimdown is 24 minutes but it's more like 20, which was disappointing.  I have been doing Leslie Sansone's mile workouts since I was pregnant with Maria and she's 2.5, so ... more than three years.  I started with the one mile when I was pregnant and have gone up to the 3 mile in the last year or so.  I have plantar fascitis so I haven't been working out for a while now, except for these damned 100 pushups I'm doing, so I was sad to see the 3 mile is gone from Exercise TV.  I did this because it was the longest.  

It's a fine workout, she does it with four other people, two women my age-ish (42) and one guy and one younger girl.  I am not fond of workouts with other people.  In Sansone's 1, 2 and 3 mile workouts, she is alone, which is what I prefer.  I love Chalene Johnson and Turbo Jam and Turbo Sculpt but I do NOT like some of the people she has working out with her.  I should say, I just don't find them very motivating.  I don't think it's motivating to see fakety fake smiles and white man overbite dancing during workouts.  Shake it or don't, but don't be all hip hop if you're not, is my advice.  I also don't like when people OVERDO it.  It's not impressive if you are waving your arms higher than everyone else, especially if it's during a cool down. I'm talking to YOU, red headed lady from Cardio Slimdown.  

Leslie says it's about a mile of exercise, which didn't feel like enough for the day.  I did this and my pushups (49) and I probably should have done this twice to get enough cardio.  It's hard to start over again, though, right?  Once you've warmed up and worked out and cooled down.  I wish they had a longer option.  

First Post

I had a thought tonight while I was gearing up to do a new workout on Exercise tv.  I am blaming my sister, who is blogging her experience listening to every channel on her cable music tv.  I am going to work out every day and do a different exercise tv sample.  I always want to work out more, and I'm always bored to tears.  I am also in the middle (almost exactly - 49) of a 100 pushup challenge, so it should be a fun addition.  I'm totally stuck at a 25 pound weight loss (weight watchers) so maybe this will help?  Maybe?  We'll see.