FEEL THE BURN!

I tried out my Tracy Anderson exercises for the first time today and I love them!  Well, I also hate them because they are hard going!  But I can see how they would really work if you stick at them. 

First I did the arms routine I found on youtube, and  it is T.A. herself doing the work-out.  This one is great because it's only 5 minutes and the moves are simple so it's easy to follow.  The wee video is just the same minute-and-a-half routine repeated four times but by the end of it I was really feeling the burn!

I also did the legs and bum routine from the Marie Claire website that I linked in a previous post.  It was simple too, and I can feel myself using bum muscles that feel like they haven't been used ever!

T.A. is all about using the small muscles that usually get ignored (hello, side bum muscles), because you use the big muscles in day to day life (walking, lifting, standing & sitting...) but by using the smaller ones you get more toned without being bulky (T.A. is the person who reversed the Madonna Man Arms into something a bit more normal...til Madge fell out with her and now she's back on the body-builder track).  Apparently, the smaller muscles also lift and support the big ones, thus giving you an awesome arse and killer arms and shoulders.

Gwyneth Paltrow is the most famous product of the Tracy Anderson method, but because she's always been tall and skinny, I never really noticed much of a change in her.  However, I recently saw a pic of J-Lo, who went to T.A. before the Golden Globes, and I couldn't take my eyes off her thigh muscles!  Weird, I know, but here's a pic all the same. 

I hate workout DVDs, I hate doing exercises out of fitness books and I hate complicated routines that require tonnes of coordination.  But I enjoyed these vids, so if you feel the same as me, I'd recommend giving them a go.  When I go to the gym I sometimes feel like although I'm working and doing weights etc, I'm not sure exactly what muscles I'm targeting, so I think that's what I liked about these wee routines.

Erm, I feel I should point out that I'm in no way getting commission for bigging up the Tracy Anderson method, although after this post I feel like I should be!