People seem to have strong feelings about Gwyneth Paltrow. I'm not sure why. I like to see what celebrities are wearing, but otherwise I don't really concern myself with their personalities or daily activities. People seem to dislike Ms. Paltrow because she gives a lot of lifestyle advice. She has a blog, GOOP, or Goop, or goop. I have no idea how it should look. She also has a cookbook, which I made the error of purchasing a long time ago. It was not an error because the recipes are terrible, but because I am a terrible cook and couldn't recognize half the ingredients, but I didn't worry because as she says "it's all good."
Putting subjective opinion regarding her personality aside,she does seem to have her shit together. She is in excellent shape, has a great career, and seems to marry quite handsome and successful men. Okay, those might also be subjective opinions, but she at one point was, and possibly still is, friends with Beyoncé and Jay-Z. That is just about the most empirical measure of success out there.
I'm getting distracted. The purpose of this discussion on GP is that she works out, like a number of celebrities, with Tracy Anderson. They all love Tracy, and I can see why. Worth noting, Tracy loves Tracy. She has workout pants with Tracy written all over them. That is self-confidence. I don't even know where I would purchase pants professing love for myself, but I guess that is what makes Tracy a woman worshiped by the likes Gwyneth Paltrow, and me a minion doing a Tracy DVD at home.
Actually, before Gwyneth went on and on about Tracy, my dear friend Yasmeen told me about Tracy Anderson, and I have purchased a number of her DVDs over the years. Thanks, Yasmeen.
I have tried out a number of Tracy Anderson videos in addition to Precision Toning, especially because you can also rent them on Amazon, but Precision Toning remains my favorite. The DVD is broken down into four parts - arms, legs, butt, and abs - the same muscles targeted in barre. I actually don't know if barre or Tracy's workout came first, but they are very similar.
Each segment is roughly 15 minutes and focuses on one key body part. This allows you to only do one body part if you are short on time, or you could do two workouts and come back later and do the other two workouts.
Tracy will leave you sore, but I think that is what most people are looking for in a workout routine. She provides on of my favorite arm workout of all time (yeah, bold statement). The moves are subtle, and it is all in the details...or so she says. I can't really see anything subtle in what she is doing, but I like the exercises and the results, regardless of whether I am catching all the Tracy nuances. Among the exercises in this segment are arm circles, reaching forward pretending like you are grabbing and pulling on a rope, biceps curls, overhead presses, etc. You use light weights (2 to 3 pounds), or no weights. Honestly, the workout is great with or without the weights. She has you do eight count reps of each exercise. Her thing is that you work the accessory muscles rather than the big muscles when you do her workout so your body develops lean muscles instead of bulky ones. I don't know if that is just some shtick, nor do I care. Even if it is in my head, I think her arm workout does the best job at giving me lean arms.
After arms, Tracy moves on to legs. These exercises require having a chair nearby, mostly for balance. You will do a lot of leg kicks behind you and to your side. When you hit legs, she ramps up the repetitions to 25. The leg workout is effective, but pretty par for the course as far as leg workouts go. She doesn't reinvent the wheel - you do a ton of kicks and squats. It gets the job done.
The butt is the third section of the workout. Again, she ups the repetitions without warning. Sneaky, Tracy. For your butt exercise, you do 40 reps of each exercise on each side. This really burns after 40 reps on one side. Tracy says there are six muscle parts to your butt. My whole butt felt the burn. Again, I could be missing a details, but I am assuming I hit the 6 parts. You can also add ankle weights while performing the butt exercises. All of these exercises involved being on a mat on all fours, either on your forearms or hands, and lifting your legs in various directions - to the side, straight back, or straight up in the air. Again, these moves resemble barre moves (or barre moves resemble Tracy moves - chicken vs. egg debate).
The last section works your abs. She has you do a variety of creative crunches. For example, you do crunches with your legs completely flat. Sometimes, you cross your legs and crunch. She has you lift your legs about six-inches off the ground and move them side-to-side like a windshield wiper, which is also effective. Finally, she will have you do a number of plank variations. Admittedly, after two c-sections, some of these aren't exactly back in my wheelhouse, but they are good moves.
Tracy knows what she is doing. She has earned her pants. Though you might hate Gwyneth, or celebrities in general, they know a thing or two about working out. Tracy Anderson Precision Toning can be purchased on Amazon. I highly recommend giving it a try if you want to do something a little different. Also, I included a picture of Yasmeen and I touring the Capitol because a picture of a DVD is boring, you've all seen what GP looks like, and Yasmeen was the original sharer of Tracy.
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