MotionLab - Treadmill Workout System

I used it as a trained on elliptical, Ski-Skate machine, Precor AMT, and treadmill. It worked with anything and everything. It kept me going while inspiring, encouraging, challenging me by keeping me competitive with my fellow runners, and entertaining me at the same time.The music was varied, but some of it was African drum beats and some voice along with it. Very effective and enjoyable!Almost everything I have to say in my review is very positive. If I had to give a negative, it might be this, but it wasn't really negative, just not as positive as the rest of the workout and not really my style. On the screen were inspirational words, "Peace" "Introspective" "Energy" and who knows what else?! I never did figure that out. The narrative was full of inspirational platitudes, very new age, which doesn't appeal to me, but wasn't at all offensive. In fact, I laughed out loud a few times because it was a nice break from a tough workout. So much for the 'almost-but-not-quite' negative part. Back to what I really liked.Speaking of which, the workout was tough. It goes on and on and on. We are with a group of runners running down paths through the forest. You can hear the other runners breathing hard, sometimes looking like they almost trip over a rock, a tree trunk in the forest, and just barely make it when they hop over a spot in the path where water is running. It gets so tough that you are concerned that a couple of the runners may drop out. You wish you could hand them a bottle of water to drink. In fact, you wish you had one for yourself too! Then we ran on rims and ridges and edges of mountain paths overlooking beautiful lakes and streams. The water reminds me of the Aegean Sea, a gorgeous blue color that you just don't see every day but wish you could.At one point the water was so beautiful and blue that all I wanted to do was jump in! I never use my Jacuzzi, but I knew that I was going to jump into it as soon as I was finished with my workout, and I did. It never felt better!It was 105 degrees outside and I felt so blessed to have a way to enjoy the great outdoors without going out into the sweltering heat, except for that after-workout Jacuzzi, which fit right into the spirit of this DVD. In fact, the narrator mentioned getting a sports massage and hot bath afterward. I felt like he had read my mind.It's very realistic.I like it very much when he reminded us to breathe in and out. I sometimes forget to do that. It made for a very invigorating workout. I didn't want to be the first one to drop out. Really! It was that realistic.I hung in as long as I could. The description says 130 minutes. My own workout was longer than that and there was still a runner running when I finally had finished, done my stretches, and quit for the day. I wonder if maybe they didn't count the intro in that 130 minutes. I watched that too. EDITED to say that I went back to it the next day and realized that it just loops back to the beginning. It's a good thing that I stopped, because it was going to continue on forever.I enjoyed every minute of it. This is a workout DVD that I will use more than many others that I have, and I have a huge collection of really excellent DVDs that keep me motivated.If you look at a close-up of the cover, you can see an example of some of the scenery. Gorgeous!

Strange, very strange. I like the Virtual Active videos, as they give you a guideline of how hard to push yourself with resistance, RPE, and speed while you are taking the walk. This video is not like that at all. They seem to want to focus more on your mind... They are constantly tossing up weird words and talking about imagining this and imagining that. This is supposed to be walking on a treadmill via scenery on my TV - not a meditation class! If I wanted that, I would have gotten a good yoga DVD. Everyone is different, as there is a lot of positive feedback on here for this DVD (which is what lured me into buying it), but I just couldn't get into it at all. I like good scenery and nice music while walking but don't need OR WANT any audiovisual meditation/altered consciousness mumbo jumbo while doing it - I don't believe in all that junk anyways.Again, I like the Virtual Active videos, Tracey Staehle's Walking Strong and Walking Stronger DVDs, and Treadmoves DVDs for great treadmill workouts, but this one got sold on eBay - as I really disliked it and was bummed that I paid this much for it.

When I first sat and had a look at this DVD, I was very sceptical. I get walkers/runners rage and don't like anyone infront of me. However once I got it playing I couldn't believe how motivational this DVD is. I own quite a few now and this is by far the best. Doubt I will ever use the others now. The scenery is fantastic. The photographer actually lets us see what he sees and doesn't cut out everything like a lot of other dvds do. It's so realistic that at one stage when running down to the beach, I actually held on to the treadmill!! I love being with group runs and other people now and infact even though I haven't been running much lately, until I started this up again, I found I was running longer and faster using this DVD and not noticing it! Brilliant! I read another review that you can't choose which place you run - this isn't true, you can choose to run the lakes, forests, marathons, group runs whatever you want. I just hope the producers bring out more, although it would be a long time before I ever get bored with this one. Must buy! Love it!

Though the scenary is amazing in this DVD, it is not what I expected from the description. I thought I would view a sampling of activities and I would be able to select the one activity that I wanted to participate in such as running a marathon. I had someone else read the description and they interpreted it the same way I did. I feel somewhat like I am seeing posters that many businesses have on their walls - "achieve," "believe," "persevere," breathe." Finally, towards the end, there is an extended session of running, where I try to focus my efforts.

First a pro is that the film quality is excellent. There is no shaky video and the resolution on a HD TV is excellent. The variety of scenery from beach to road race to forest trails is nice. One con is, what's with the cooky pilates subtext on the screen such as "oxygen", "tranquility", etc? Guess some people like that mental feel good mumbo-jumbo. Wish there was an option to turn off. Another slight con is that while you are running following one of the screen runners, they sometimes change the camera direction (opposite of the direction you are running). Not a huge deal, but a little odd when you are really in to it on the treadmill.