Shawn Horwood's In-Depth Review of Valerie Waters Valslide Sliding Discs:

I have been in contact with Valerie & I told her that I was going to buy a pair of Val slides and test them out and see how I like them. She just asked for my address and sent me a Val slide & a Valkit for Travel so I could test them out and share my opinion on them (you can also check out my reviews of the Valkit for Travel & Valband). After using them for a while (and having other people usek them) here is what I think:

Quality: 

So far I have used the Valslide for over a month, and there are a few tiny scratches on the bottom of the green plastic, but you can't tell unless you're looking closesly at the Valslides and it does not affect their performance at all. 

They are solidly built, and I have had no issues with them so far.

Portability: 

They are quite portable. They would definitely fit in most women's purses, and I find they fit great in my laptop bag, which I take with me whenever I travel. They don't weigh anything really, so they are light and easy to carry around. 

Definitely the most portable piece of fitness equipment I own.

Effectiveness: 

They do everything they say they do. My feet stay on them well, and they slide easily along the carpet. I also tried out the booties on my tile kitchen floor and it slides great. 

I have a carpet that has these square spiral designs so parts of the carpet stick up a little bit and every once in a while when I'm doing a reverse lunge so I don't have much weight on the Valslide it'll catch a little bit, but they still slide great.

From what I've seen & where I've used them, they slide well on all carpets except possibly shag carpets (I haven't tested on shag yet...no one seems to have it anymore anyways) they slide very well.

Ease of Use: 

They are quite easy to use & simple to understand. You just step on them or put your hands on them and do your exercises. Nothing to set up, nothing to figure out, no need to find a large space...I would have to say as well as being the most portable piece of fitness equipment, they are definitely the most easy to use piece of equipment I have ever received. 

After talking to a few people they mentioned they are afraid of falling over while doing the exercises, as they have poor balance. I personally have good balance, so I could not evaluate this, so I took a pair to my parent's house.

I got my mom to try the Valslides (I'd tell you how old she is but then she'd probably stop cooking for me when I visit her) to see how she did - she was worried about falling over too.

She performed the lunges fine, and most of the other exercises she didn't have a problem with. She did fall while doing the mountain climber exercise, but she was close to the ground so she didn't get hurt (and she was doing the exercise wrong)

If you have really bad balance, you can hold onto a chair or something while doing the lunges until you get enough balance to do it without holding on to anything.

So if you have really bad balance, just hold onto something and pretty quickly you should be able to balance fine.

Results:

I can definitely feel an improvement in my workouts just by replacing regular exercises with the Valslide equivalent. 

I have actually improved my already good balance and my muscles are more balanced because the Valslides cause you to work the entire range of muscles, rather than just the few muscles that the regular exercises target.

I've also noticed a difference in my flexibility & mobility, because the Valslides activate a wider range of muscles during my workouts and I am terrible at remembering to stretch.

Lastly, I've noticed my knees are strengthened and feel much better. I have bad knee genetics, my entire family has knee problems (my dad built his last house as a one story house becuase my mom's knees creak when she goes up and down stairs) and I have noticed that my knees don't hurt at all since I've started doing the Valslide exercises.

I think this is because the exercises are smoother and less "jarring", which reduces a lot of the pressure on my knees. There's also the benefit of strengthening all the muscles rather than just a few, which has made my knee stronger.

My wrists are also stronger, which has benefitted me greatly because I used to have trouble doing push ups because my wrists would hurt. The push up fly exercises have helped to strengthen my wrists so they no longer hurt when I exercise.

I have seen no negative impact from using the Val Slides & I have been replacing every exercise I can with a Valslide. I am currently going through a 12 week sprinting training program to improve my speed & quickness, and I have been replacing the lunges & leg curls with Val Slide lunges and leg curls, and it has been giving me great results.

Complaints: 

The only complaint I have is the size. I have size 14 feet, so my feet kind of drape over the edge, which is slightly annoying, but I can still perform all of the exercises. (I'm assuming most people won't have to worry about this though)

I think they also could have made the foam a little bigger on the sliding discs or cut off the "trim". There is an extra centimeter of green plastic around the foam that doesn't appear to do anything except have the website on it - and if I already got the Valslide, do I really need to know the website?

Summary:

Valslides are everything Valerie says they are. They work well, they do their job, and they are easy to take with you anywhere. I left a pair at my parent's house and my brother has been using them to help his knees (he just finished 3 months of physio because he pretty much destroyed his knee playing soccer) & my mom has been using them to help her lose weight and get in better shape.

If you do any type of bodyweight exericses, I highly recommend Valslides. However, if you want to use big machinery and do big weight lifting, they won't really do anything for you.

The best part is there is a wide range of exercises ranging from beginner to advanced so whatever level you are at, there is something for you.

If you want to get a pair of Valslides, simply go to BuyValslide.com & click on the Buy Now button. If you want to also get a Valband or a Valkit for Travel, I recommend those as well and to get them you just add them to your cart after you hit the Buy Now button.

If you have any questions please send me an email to shawnhorwoodfitness at gmail.com

Shawn Horwood

If you want to see some of the exercises you can do with the Valslide, check out the page I put up with a bunch of exercise demonstrations and descriptions here: Valslide Exercises