Shape Up NYC

Tracy Anderson is who you can give credit to for Madonna’s body. Madonna first met Tracy through Gwyneth Paltrow and for years Tracy only trained Gwyneth and Madonna. Now Tracy has parted ways with Madonna and is business partners with Gwyneth Paltrow. The pair own two studios, a studio in New York and one in Los Angeles. These studios are very exclusive  and the cost is outrageous, “the initiation fee ranges from $790 for a six-month membership to $1,500 for a full year. The monthly fees are $900 a month. She has 50 trainers teaching her Method. So far she has developed 3,000 sequences in both dance aerobics and mat work.” Right now Tracy Anderson “is the most successful celebrity trainer around. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Hudson and Shakira are just some of her many devoted clients.”  Kate Hudson trained with Tracy to get ready for her latest movie Nine. Tracy says “Whatever your genetic background, whatever your shape, I can change you. I can give you a teeny-tiny dancer’s body.” She has three DVDs that are available to the public: Tracy Anderson Mat Workout, Dance Cardio, and Post Pregnancy Workout. She also has a 6 set DVD series coming out soon called the Perfect Design Series.

I decided to give Tracy’s Dance Cardio DVD a try. First of all I should warn you, her DVDs are very pricey they are $29.99 which I think is a bit ridiculous but I heard good things so I had to try it. Her Dance Cardio is broken down into 5 segments. Each segment she does non stop for 10 minutes and then moves on to the next , so the workout lasts about 50 minutes with a 15 minute warm up in the beginning and a cool down at the end.

The DVD is broken up into 6 different Chapters: Dance Cardio Intro, Dance Combinations, Dance Cardio Routine-Front, Dance Cardio Routine-Back, Gwyneth Interview, Tracy Main Interview. This is strictly a dance workout, it is like learning choreography to a dance. The most important chapter is the Dance Combinations. Dance Combinations is where she teaches you each of the five combinations. She is not a horrible teacher, I picked up her dance sequences easier than I picked up Julianne Hough’s dance sequences. This is not a DVD you can just pop in and go, it will take time to learn each dance segment. The best thing I would recommend is to learn one to two segments a week. It moves pretty fast so rewind will become your best friend. Once you have the dance down this will make you sweat. It’s fast paced and non stop, she is constantly bouncing and moving. It’s a great workout as long as you take the time and effort to learn it all. If you have never danced before this will be hard but not hopeless you will just have to take it slow and take it one segment at a time.

In order to achieve optimal results she suggests doing this 5-6 times a week and you have to do her mat workout along with it. Which means you will be working out 2 hours a day. If you are like me you just don’t have that kind of time in your day. That is crazy! But I am very curious to see if her Method works, I may buy her Perfect Design Series when it comes out and do a challenge to see if it really works. Until then I am going to try to master all five of the dance segments and use this cardio routine to compliment my Core Fusion.

So my advice, if you want a quick routine you can pop in and go this is not it. If you love cardio dance workouts and don’t mind putting in the time this is a great one except for the price, that is a huge downfall.

Here is a clip of Tracy and Gwyneth working out on Oprah.

Image from the Examiner.

Filed under: DVD Tagged: | Gwyneth Paltrow Workout, Kate Hudson workout, Madonna Workout, Shakira workout, Tracy Anderson, Tracy Anderson Dance Cardio, Tracy Anderson Method