Ever look wistfully at celebrities like Shakira, Gwyneth Paltrow and Courteney Cox and wonder how they do it?
There’s a personal trainer behind every super-toned celebrity body, and workout-guru-to-the-stars Tracy Anderson is set to dish out some of the moves that get her clients in shape!
Tracy’s new DVD is based on routines that incorporate dance, cardio and strength training into a workout that's tough, but gets amazing results.
A former dancer, Tracy has helped Madonna to achieve her eternally youthful-looking body in the past, so this is a woman who knows her fitness!
Tell us about your latest DVD. How can it transform our lives?
This is the first time that my muscular structure has been used over here in the UK - it's what I'm known for! All my research is based around how to change your muscular structure and problem areas through the moves and the sequences I’ve created. It’s not just another fun approach to get people moving – this is really strategic and a life-changing system – it’s kind of like organic plastic surgery work, if you will.
And it's not anywhere near as frustrating to learn the moves as, say, dance aerobics. The challenge doesn't lie in doing the moves; it's really in the form and the reps and committing to it each day and making sure you actually do move six days a week, which is tough for a lot of people.
Why do celebrities choose your exercise programmes?
People come to me for miracle results. For real change that they've never been able to get anywhere else - it's because I’m known as a muscular designer. With the muscular structure work I do, it's like I design their bodies. Also, I like to eat and the clients that I train like to eat, so parts of my programme involve dance-based cardio, so you can burn off all the calories!
Why are muscles so important for a lean physique?
It's all about how your muscles are knitted together and how they're continuously stimulated. It's about awakening the less dominant muscles and calming down the large muscle groups, so they 'knit' together. I have different moves that I pull from my bank of 3000 moves that are put together to accomplish a certain goal - a toned, long lean body.
You don’t have to be super tiny, but every area that is a problem for you is going to all get pulled together - my programme is a complete support system to get in shape.
The problem is that people trend hop, so there's no constant line of support. They might start a video and see results at the beginning, but then they become static and don't see anymore progress - so they move on to the next thing, but aren't getting rid of their problem areas. This is why I spent eleven years developing something that's a real line of support to fight ageing and get their idea of perfection - and sustain it.
Do you need a certain level of fitness to do your DVD?
No, but you need to start right away! The dance aerobics [Tracy's previous DVD] take a while to learn, but with this one, everyone should feel like they can do the DVD relatively quickly in its entirety, and then it's about doing it consistently. You just need to make it do-able for you. If all you can do is 15 minutes a day, then you start there and work up from that.
What type of diet would you recommend to do with a good exercise regime?
I think people need to restrict their excess carbohydrate intake, which means their starchy white pasta and bread, and eat lean protein, fruit and high volumes of vegetables. Like kale, spinach, artichokes, asparagus, strawberries – there are so many wonderful foods - as long as you make it convenient and you make good choices while you’re getting good at exercising.
Have fun with it, too - you can have a day where you don’t think about what you eat. Have a pizza or have a real sundae! If you are going to drink alcohol, red wine is a real superfood. Having a glass or two in a night is a good choice if you feel like you need a cocktail.[ASSETHERE=image]
Do you have a fitness tip for anyone that may have overdone it over the Christmas period?
You have to get connected to a programme and a teacher and a support group – whether it’s my DVD or whether you’re going to let someone teach you. You have to stick to it and hold yourself accountable, because the most difficult time to get going is when you’re feeling the worst about yourself. You mentally want it, but this is the time when people will go for quick fixes and that is not the solution. Go for a sustainable solution and one that’s actually going to give you your hopes and dreams because anyone can have it – they just have to be smart about it!
You have obviously worked with lots of different body types. For example Shakira is very curvy with a real hourglass figure, while Gwyneth is taller and very slim. How do you tailor you workouts to them? *** ***
Everything I do is custom. I spent nine years before I ever trained a celebrity developing a method where I did research on 150 different women on how to prescribe workouts to all of them to take them to their perfect body. For me my celebrity clients aren’t any different than that. Everything I do is custom, and when I reach out to the public to teach everyone in their homes I take the best of everything and lay the foundation through the videos.
Do your celebrity clients come to you with specific problem areas?
I don't ever talk about my clients' personal details, but I can tell you that they all definitely do! They are just like us. It's so great that my clients have spoken out about my work; it should be motivating to so many women that they can say 'Wow, they all do it, and I can do it too!'
Gwyneth is such a great inspiration as well, as sometimes she won't have a trainer with her, she'll take the DVD and her laptop and do it in her hotel room - not all stars have a trainer with them all the time!
Are celebs generally more motivated to exercise than normal people?
No - what I think is so funny is that every woman, whether you’re a celebrity or not, doesn’t even care about doing it for the public. It’s for the same emotional reasons that we want to: for our own self-esteem, for our boyfriends or partners, or for our own health. Most of the celebrities that I work with say it isn’t about them caring about the masses of people that look at them, it’s for themselves and they have to stay motivated just like we do.
Out of your celebrity clients that you have worked with, Is there anyone that is particularly motivated?* *
Courtney Cox is one that is - she is mentally tough! She doesn't say 'I can’t do something'. She is such a good student. She did everything that was asked and she made a big change in her fitness regime for me and put all of her trust in my hands – she does it and she does it hard, and doesn’t complain.
She’s a mum too, I love those mums that are hard workers and balance everything well. She is one like Gwyneth, she balances all of it really beautifully.
You work with Shakira and she looked absolutely amazing in her latest video. Did you help her with that?
Yeah, I work with Shakira all the time! I design her workouts; we do all the muscular structure work and some cardio. She does dance aerobics too – all my clients have to! But Shakira, she’s tough. She’s like me, she loves to eat. Both of us are not naturally skinny girls, so she and I can definitely relate.
So do you think there’s hope for all of us, even if we might not be in top shape - how quickly do you think we would see the first results?
If you’re really able to perform the work then you’re going to see results quickly, but if you need time to scale up the intensity then it’s going to take longer to see the amazing miraculous results. Be patient - if you’re not coordinated and not connected, then its going to take time. But you will feel results right away. I seldom have someone that is so uncoordinated and they can’t perform the work and everyone really can do it.
Are there any tips that we should keep in mind for our lifestyles?
I really think you need to craft your lifestyle according to what you want to achieve and then you need to act like that. So many people have these ideas of who they want to be and what they want to do, yet they don’t do it and they have too many excuses for why they can’t have it, when really you just have to believe in yourself and stop with the excuses and stop looking for quick fixes and just really do the work!