Leslie Sansone: Burn Body Fat

First, a little background -- I started out my fitness journey with Leslie Sansone. Fast forward five years and I am now a certified personal trainer, STILL doing Leslie's DVDs! Although I've since branched out to "hard" stuff like kickboxing, spinning, heavy weight training, and other things, I still love Leslie's workouts. With her, I have NO EXCUSES. Sometimes I can just dread putting myself through a brutal workout, but if I put in a walk DVD I can "trick" myself into working out harder than I intended. Or I can take it easy. It's up to me! Leslie's workouts make it easy to get in activity EVERY DAY. Leslie's workouts are SAFE to do every day.And that's what I love about these DVDs. They're great for any time, at any level. You get what you put into it. For example, if I feel like it, I add higher impact moves into the walks. Like on "tap-out" I get down very low into a squat and jump the taps from side to side, and when she says to turn I change the squats to jumping lunges. This REALLY, REALLY gets your heart rate up. I also add a hop into my double side steps, add in extra jogs, and use weights even when Leslie doesn't carry them. BUT -- sometimes I don't do any of that. Sometimes I want to walk just to burn extra calories easily or wake myself up.Using Leslie's DVDs makes it easy to sneak in an extra burn of an average of 100 calories per mile, throughout the day! There have been days where, after my regular workout, I've actually done 5 extra miles in pieces throughout the day. That REALLY adds up. Try it! On days when you're home most of the day or all day, put in a DVD with 3-5 miles on it, start from the beginning, do a mile and pause to cool down. In the next hour or so, do a second mile. Then a third, and a fourth, and so on. It's addicting! The miles feel so good and it's such a great way to wake yourself up if you're feeling sluggish... and I'm not gonna lie -- I've been known to do the workouts BAREFOOT because I'm lazy sometimes ;-) I've also been known to mute Leslie and walk while I watch one of my favorite shows on TV. Leslie's on the laptop and my show is on the TV :)NOW... let's get to the actual review of not just Leslie's workouts, but this particular DVD.First of all, I love it because it has THREE WORKOUTS on it! Usually Leslie releases a DVD with just one 2-mile or 3-mile or 4-mile workout on it. Example? Walk Away Your Hips and Thighs. The Big Burn. 5k With a Twist. These DVDs have just a single workout on them. Burn Body Fat has a total of 6 miles on them, and they are GREAT miles. You could do all 6 miles if you wanted to, without having to change the DVD. I love the addition of the weights and especially in the 2-mile walk, she uses them for almost the entire workout. It really adds punch to the calorie burn for sure. And after the 3-mile walk, I am always really sweaty!! I don't really feel a burn in my muscles unless they're already sore, but using heavier weights while moving like that can be dangerous, so... but I'm happy to use the weights whether I really sculpt my arms or not because carrying 4-6 extra pounds is hard! And you burn more calories overall.I'm not sure whether I like it better when Leslie is alone or with people. I guess it depends on what I'm doing. If I DO have her on mute, then I like her by herself. But if I'm exercising to the DVD alone, or if I am working out with a friend, I like the groups better--so we can watch and talk about the group, lol. Not in a bad way, it is just more entertaining :) I find that when Leslie is alone, the DVD doesn't get "old" so quick. Although they tend to feel the same after a while, I don't mind using this DVD several times a week, whereas with one that has a group, I do them less often.This DVD also has the option that I haven't seen on any of her other workouts-- MUSIC ONLY! Great option to have. I haven't used it, because I do like Leslie's reminders and perky, positive attitude. It sometimes gets me out of a rut if I'm not feeling motivated to work out for the right reasons (health, not appearances!).This DVD is just no frills, solid workouts, and I think the pace--and the price-- are perfect. Again, you get what you put into it, so it can be as easy or as hard as you want. You could literally jog the entire workout if you wanted to.If you made it this far into my review, don't think about buying this DVD. Just DO IT!

Terrific video for beginning to intermediate exercisers. My husband and I both like this one -- I'm a beginning/intermediate exerciser, he's a beginner and rather choreographically challenged. We are both around age 40, and each have about 30-40 pounds to lose. We like exercising together, but finding videos that suit both of us is a little challenging. This video is so flexible, it's perfect for us!The option of doing 1-mile, 2-mile, or 3-mile walks lets us tailor the video to our available time and desired intensity -- 2 or 3 miles when we want to work harder, 1 mile for a light day or a rushed morning. Within the video, Leslie consistently demonstrates both easier and more advanced moves, and gives you lots of options to do a more challenging step or stick with a more basic one. Her cuing is excellent, and she is very affirming. My husband, who has very little sense of rhythm, especially appreciates how Leslie encourages you to do the movement without worrying about whether you are in sync with her -- no counting, no worrying if your left/right is backwards from how she is demonstrating.The weights work is invigorating, but not especially challenging. This is essentially a cardio video that gives your arms a better-than-usual workout, but isn't a substitute for a more toning-focused workout (such as Debra Mazda - ShapelyGirl: Let's Get Moving 2! Cardio Toning w/weights). The plus side of this is that I am perfectly happy to do this video for any cardio workout, even if I have done more intensive weights the day before (or plan to do them the next day).My only real disappointment is that -- although her gradual cool-down is excellent -- the stretching at the end is perfunctory. We add a longer, more thorough stretch on our own or do one of the 10-minute segments from Total Stretch for Beginners with Tamilee. But shortchanging the ending stretch seems to be a common problem with cardio videos; this is no worse than most -- definitely shouldn't dissuade anyone from buying this, but just be aware you'll probably want to add your own stretching, especially if this is one of your first videos on your fitness journey.I do have to note this was my first Leslie video, so I can't address the comments other reviewers have made about whether or not it is repetitive compared to her other videos. (Those frequent complaints about Leslie's videos discouraged me from trying her earlier -- I'm sorry I waited!) But taken on its own merits, we found it to be fun, challenging, upbeat, and affirming.