Walking Fit and Fabulous with Debra Mazda

Debra Mazda offers a fun and effective workout for plus-sized women (or, as she calls them, Shapely Girls), involving low-impact exercises that are easy to follow for almost any fitness level. The basic exercises, such as marching in place, walking up and back and moving side to side, are gradually built into combinations which change from song to song. Debra's enthusiastic instruction gives you that extra motivation to finish the workout. The music is energetic and, though some moves may get a bit repetitive, new exercisers will get the chance to master each movement while getting a solid workout.

Walking Fit and Fabulous is a low impact workout designed by Debra Mazda, a woman with an amazing story in her own right. Once more than 300 pounds, Debra lost weight through exercise and healthy diet choices and steered her success into a career designed to help other women, whom she calls Shapely Girls, do the same thing with her low-impact, challenging workouts.

Walking Fit and Fabulous offers a solid 45-minute low impact cardio workout with power marching as its base move. There is a beginner option, which takes you through the warm up and the first 10 minutes of the routine, or you can do the full workout, which is 45 minutes long and ends with a cool down and stretch. The workout is led by Debra and her Shapely Girl background exercisers, all of whom are different sizes, shapes and fitness levels.

The Workout

The workout is simple to follow with a variety of low impact movements that include marching in place, side steps, knee lifts, walking up and back and various arm movements to add intensity. The workout isn't dancey, although she does include some hip-shaking moves such as sashays and grapevines. After learning each move and repeating it a few times, she always takes you back to marching in place throughout the workout to catch your breath.

The music is fun and energetic and, for each song, she introduces new exercises that she slowly builds into combinations, such as hamstring curls with sashays and front kicks with inner thigh heel taps. She gives you plenty of time to master each move with marching breaks in between and the workout gets progressively more intense with more power moves and arm movements, though she always offers modifications.

Core Exercises

Debra also includes standing core exercises such as standing side crunches, cross-body crunches, rotations and side bends. After the core workout is a bonus 10-minute walking track, if you're feeling sassy and want a longer workout. There are also 4 premixed workouts to choose from, offering workouts from 12 to 50 minutes in length. The DVD ends with a group discussion with Debra and the background exercisers talking about issues that larger women face and how they can motivate themselves to exercise. This showcases the supportive community Debra has built with her Shapely Girl programs and many viewers will find stories they can relate to.

Debra is an enthusiastic instructor, pushing you throughout the workout by telling you to keep moving, no matter what you you do, and to work at pushing your limits. The music is fun, fast and motivating and it's obvious she and the background exercisers are having fun. Some of the marching in place may get a bit tedious for some exercisers and, if you're looking for more choreography, this may not be the video for you. However, for exercisers looking for a fun, simple, low impact walking workout, this is an excellent choice.