As if I didn't like
Tracy Anderson enough when she spouts off about how women should
never lift more than 3 pound weights, she is back at it again expounding upon the extensive knowledge she has about fitness, this time going after runners because running “gives you an ugly and muscular butt and thighs" as well a slew of other ridiculous claims that directly contradict proven science.
First she makes this statement:
“They go to the gym one day, and running another – you’re never going to get results that way”.
Really? So changing up your routine is bad? Running and lifting on different days will not produce results but I will be a fatty if I run and lift? Ok, then what does?
"Work on your butt and abs for 30 minutes a day and you’ll see the difference – but you have to be committed and you have to apply it"
Oooh so I should do the same thing over and over and I will keep improving my appearance. So that whole training thing I read about where fat is lost throughout the body in a pattern dependent upon genetics, sex (hormones), and age is wrong? Even though overall body fat must be reduced to lose fat in any particular area and sit-ups, crunches, leg-hip raises, leg raises, hip adduction, hip abduction, etc. will only exercise the muscles under the fat, it will still work right?
So high reps, low weights (if any) will give me a perfect body. I like it, I don't have to pick up things that weigh more than a 3 hole punch and I am going to look just like Gwyeneth Paltrow! I will just ignore the research that shows that less fat is burned when light weight is used with high repetitions and that increased muscle mass will allow you to burn significantly more calories. Oh and I will also ignore the fact that women typically don't gain size from strength training, because compared to men, women have 10 to 30 times less of the hormones that cause muscle hypertrophy. Silly science, this is much more exciting.
All hail the miracle worker that is Tracy Anderson though because she can actually make extra skin disappear too! She says this about one of her clients who had weight loss surgery (but offers no pictures):
“She had drapes and drapes of skin hanging everywhere and she could hardly walk.
I got her skin back onto her muscles with a very slow program based around nine exercises a day and in eight months she was dancing.”
She got her skin back into her muscles? WTF does that even mean??
And just in case you didn't know, the world looks at Americans as having ideal bodies:
“people in America told me I wouldn’t be able to get people in the UK to work-out – yet everyone wants the American body now.”
Where exactly is she hanging out in America to come to that conclusion?
But then she attacks runners and that really annoyed me.
“Running’s horrible for your joints. It gives you an ugly and muscular butt and thighs like a man"
Quick, get off the treadmill before you look like Arnold!
Not only is she wrong about running giving you manly thighs and a manly ass, she is being quite antiquated in her view of what is appealing in a woman physically. To some people women who have muscle is not such a horrible thing.
In her own words about what a woman should look like:
“You don’t have to be super-skinny to be sexy. You don’t have to be muscular and defined. You can be curvy – but you don’t want cellulite, you don’t want to be dumpy. There’s curvy and there’s sloppy".
God forbid a woman have a little cellulite, even though it is hereditary and effects women of all shapes, sizes and fitness levels and is typically impossible to get rid of in its entirety as long as you aren’t muscular! Oh wait, she makes excess skin disappear so she can probably do the same for cellulite.
Finally tell me Tracy, can I look like Madonna if I do what you say?
“Every woman absolutely can look like Madonna”
Here is the bottom line. This woman gets paid a lot of money to be a moron and because she trains celebrities people think she knows what she is talking about when she clearly does not thus perpetuating myths about exercise and fitness. To tell a woman that she can look like Madonna (absolutely!) is complete bullshit. She has a lot more advantages than other individuals but even if you take a woman who has the same luxuries that are afforded to Madonna and do the same exact workout, people have these pesky genetic differences that significantly shape the way their body looks. I will never look like Gwyeneth Paltrow because she has a stick thin body type and I do not. No amount of dancing or leg lifts will make me look like her, just like she could never get an ass that sticks out as much as mine does, it is not physically possible because of genetics.
Even though she constantly sites the extensive research she has done, she has never been formally educated or has done any real academic research of any kind. I would looove to hear an actual scientist in this field debate the merits of her program with her but you never will because she will be made a fool and besides she only needs celebrities to back her up to be successful. Certainly being on Oprah's show didn't hurt. Overall, Tracy is full of misinformation and contradictions that are quite appalling.
But if think the Tracy Anderson method is the dream that she tries to convince people of, you wouldn’t mind slapping down a few bucks to go to her gym that exclusively uses her methods. With an initiation fee of $787.50 for six months or $1,500 for a year and monthly membership fees of $900 a month, she clearly has her clients best interests in mind.
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