Tracy Anderson Method

A former professional dancer turned fitness trainer to the stars (Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakira), Tracy Anderson’s success in shaping and sculpting women whose job it is to look good has gone so far as to entice Gwyneth into entering a business partnership with her, opening Anderson-branded studios in New York and Los Angeles, and promoting her techniques and products.

The jewel in the Anderson empire’s crown, as it were, is her best-selling book The 30-Day Method, an intense, restrictive and demanding diet and fitness program that Anderson says will enable you to achieve a perfect dancer’s body in only one month. The book provides a 30 day diet plan and 30 days worth of workouts on a companion DVD.

The exercise component of the Method is a combination of a fat-burning cardio routine and Anderson’s personally designed muscle-toning exercises. The cardio routine, to be done every day, is a dance aerobics affair lasting anywhere from 20-60 minutes. The toning workouts are a hallmark of Anderson’s particular brand of training – she is of the belief that most exercises incorrectly focus on the large muscle groups (biceps or hamstrings, for example) that will result in a bulky physique. In order to create her preferred long, lean and slim dancer’s look, her method concentrates on the smaller accessory muscle groups. There are three phases of these toning workouts, followed for ten days each, performed every day. Over the course of the 30 days the will increase in both intensity and variety, ranging anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes each. (Anderson does stipulate that she normally wouldn’t recommend exercise every day, but that in order to get fast results, you must hit it hard, without a break, in the beginning.)

The diet component of the Anderson Method is, as expected, a seriously low calorie, highly restrictive affair. For the first 25 days of the plan you follow the “Lifestyle Menus” - low carb, lean proteins, lots of fruit and vegetables – no grains or starches. No booze. A separate menu is provided for vegetarians.

Other products in Tracy Anderson’s fitness mini-empire include her at-home DVD workout series includes the Post Pregnancy Workout, the Mat Workout, Beginner Dance Cardio, Dance Cardio, Dance Cardio II, the Perfect Design Series Set (can be bought separately as Perfect Design Series Sequence I and Perfect Design Series Sequence II), Metamorphosis and Metamorphosis Continuity.

Will you lose weight with The 30-Day Method? If followed according to Anderson’s instructions – a hearty yes. Serious calorie reduction in conjunction with a load of exercise every day will do the trick, and then some, every time. But recognize that this is an intense program. It will be difficult to maintain under the best of circumstances, and given that most real (non-celebrity) peoples’ lives are a hectic juggling act – it may not be remotely realistic. We’ll also note that Tracy Anderson has received a fair amount of mixed publicity in her ascent to fame – and we do take issue with her many public references to the vital importance (in her mind) that a woman must be “tiny.” That kind of body-image language is juvenile and prejudicial, serving only to reinforce the absurdly unrealistic standards of the entertainment and beauty industries. Nonetheless – Anderson’s DVD workouts are a solid addition to a home exerciser’s collection.