Gyms and fitness centers around town might fill up in the next few weeks with those aiming to fulfill their New Year’s resolutions to get in shape.
But celebrity fitness trainer Tracy Anderson has different advice.
“I have a hard time with fitness resolutions,” she said. “They don’t stick, and people seem to be OK with that.
“Make a different resolution, then make (fitness) your lifestyle change.”
Anderson is on winter vacation with her family in Steamboat Springs, but that didn’t mean she could skip a workout.
The petite blond woman walked into Elevation Dance Studio just after 7 a.m. Wednesday where she was greeted by the 15 Steamboat women who would join her in a two-hour strength and aerobic dance workout.
Anderson, the designer of the Tracy Anderson Method and trainer of celebrities including Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow, asked studio owner Renee Fleischer if she could use the space for her workouts while in town on vacation, and she invited Fleischer to participate in a master class Wednesday.
“What is so cool is that Tracy really wanted to work herself out, too, so it was like being part of her workout and doing the simple steps that she does in order to target those small muscle groups,” Fleischer said.
The class included several local fitness trainers, dancers and members of Fleischer’s family, and most of them were feeling the burn.
“It was challenging for most, and everyone was feeling it the next day,” Fleischer said. “It’s hard to get some of these girls sore from working out.”
Anderson said she enjoyed the morning so much she invited the group back for another workout and attended one of Fleischer’s Zumba fitness classes at the studio.
Anderson said obesity runs in her genes, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at her. She works out six days a week for about two hours, and Wednesday she gave the class a taste of her routine.
An hour of mat work consisted of some of the 3,000 moves she created in her 12 years of research and development of her method, which works small muscle groups with the intent of toning lean muscles.
The strength class was followed by an hour of dance cardio, in which Anderson breezed through several energetic routines to booming hip-hop and electronic beats.
Steamboat Pilates Yoga & Fitness owner and instructor Wendy Puckett said watching Anderson move with rhythm and fluidity was inspiring to her as a fitness instructor.
“It’s important to do something different,” Puckett said. “In our town, everybody’s really athletic. We ski, we run, we mountain bike, but to actually put a workout into a dance intention and a rhythmic environment, it’s a different way of movement, and we should really put all different kinds of movement into our bodies.”
For those aiming to get in shape in 2011, Puckett said trying something fun and different, such as aerobic dancing, might be a good jump-start to a fitness routine.
“Even for those of us who couldn’t dance, we couldn’t stop smiling it was so fun,” Puckett said about the Wednesday workout with Anderson.
“Try something different that’s challenging. Pick something that’s fun, like in Renee’s Zumba class. You sweat, you dance, you laugh, no one cares. I think it’s a great way to work out.”
Gyms and fitness centers around town might fill up in the next few weeks with those aiming to fulfill their New Year’s resolutions to get in shape.
But celebrity fitness trainer Tracy Anderson has different advice.
“I have a hard time with fitness resolutions,” she said. “They don’t stick, and people seem to be OK with that.
“Make a different resolution, then make (fitness) your lifestyle change.”
Anderson is on winter vacation with her family in Steamboat Springs, but that didn’t mean she could skip a workout.
The petite blond woman walked into Elevation Dance Studio just after 7 a.m. Wednesday where she was greeted by the 15 Steamboat women who would join her in a two-hour strength and aerobic dance workout.
Anderson, the designer of the Tracy Anderson Method and trainer of celebrities including Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow, asked studio owner Renee Fleischer if she could use the space for her workouts while in town on vacation, and she invited Fleischer to participate in a master class Wednesday.
“What is so cool is that Tracy really wanted to work herself out, too, so it was like being part of her workout and doing the simple steps that she does in order to target those small muscle groups,” Fleischer said.
The class included several local fitness trainers, dancers and members of Fleischer’s family, and most of them were feeling the burn.
“It was challenging for most, and everyone was feeling it the next day,” Fleischer said. “It’s hard to get some of these girls sore from working out.”
Anderson said she enjoyed the morning so much she invited the group back for another workout and attended one of Fleischer’s Zumba fitness classes at the studio.
Anderson said obesity runs in her genes, but you wouldn’t know that by looking at her. She works out six days a week for about two hours, and Wednesday she gave the class a taste of her routine.
An hour of mat work consisted of some of the 3,000 moves she created in her 12 years of research and development of her method, which works small muscle groups with the intent of toning lean muscles.
The strength class was followed by an hour of dance cardio, in which Anderson breezed through several energetic routines to booming hip-hop and electronic beats.
Steamboat Pilates Yoga & Fitness owner and instructor Wendy Puckett said watching Anderson move with rhythm and fluidity was inspiring to her as a fitness instructor.
“It’s important to do something different,” Puckett said. “In our town, everybody’s really athletic. We ski, we run, we mountain bike, but to actually put a workout into a dance intention and a rhythmic environment, it’s a different way of movement, and we should really put all different kinds of movement into our bodies.”
For those aiming to get in shape in 2011, Puckett said trying something fun and different, such as aerobic dancing, might be a good jump-start to a fitness routine.
“Even for those of us who couldn’t dance, we couldn’t stop smiling it was so fun,” Puckett said about the Wednesday workout with Anderson.
“Try something different that’s challenging. Pick something that’s fun, like in Renee’s Zumba class. You sweat, you dance, you laugh, no one cares. I think it’s a great way to work out.”
On Sunday, we welcome back the kind of heat in Miami that is found off the court.
It's the return of VH-1's "Basketball Wives," (8 p.m. ET) the show that hoops players love to hate (but secretly watch). The drama is over the top -- just the way it should be.
Page 2 chats with Shaunie O'Neal and Tami Roman -- the ex-wives of Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Anderson, respectively -- to get their take on this season's show, and have them give up a few juicy details. (One hint: You'll see one former NBA player in family therapy on the reality series.)
Shaunie O'Neal
What made you guys want to come back for another season?
It was such an immediate success that the network was like, "You guys have to do this. You have to come back," and all the girls were game. They enjoyed themselves the first season.
What shocked you the most about the reaction to that first season?
When people decided to label us all basketball wives or all wives of athletes as groupies and gold-diggers --that was very hurtful. Don't get me wrong, there are some, but there are some of us that nobody was intentionally going out there trying to find some athlete to get with or whatever. But there are those of us that do represent the non-gold-digger, non-groupie, don't-hang-out-in-this-crowd group of ladies. People talked about us on blogs like we were groupies. That bothered me.
You've become quite the business woman; you're Shaunie Incorporated now.
It's always been in me. When I met Shaquille, I worked at Fox in marketing, so I have always been creative. I've always had a bunch of ideas. But living in that lifestyle, you move from city to city, you find yourself in an arena all the time. I had kids and a husband that traveled a lot, and was gone most of the time, and you look around and you're starting it all over again. You know? But now that I'm divorced and I have time to focus on me, I'm able to focus so much more on all the ideas that I've had.
So you were spotted at a Lakers game recently. Does that mean you're still a big Lakers fan?
You know what? I'm from L.A., so I will always be a Lakers fan, let me just say that. Even when I couldn't say I was still a Lakers fan, I was always a Lakers fan! But, no, I was actually at the game because I had a meeting with Jeanie Buss, and all of Jeanie Buss' meetings end up going to a Lakers game, which is fine with me! No complaints there! So, yeah, Jeanie, she's a sweetheart and we've remained friends and all that through all these years, so I had a meeting with her and what better place than a Lakers game? That is a meeting. Lakers games are business meetings.
On Sunday, we welcome back the kind of heat in Miami that is found off the court.
It's the return of VH-1's "Basketball Wives," (8 p.m. ET) the show that hoops players love to hate (but secretly watch). The drama is over the top -- just the way it should be.
Page 2 chats with Shaunie O'Neal and Tami Roman -- the ex-wives of Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Anderson, respectively -- to get their take on this season's show, and have them give up a few juicy details. (One hint: You'll see one former NBA player in family therapy on the reality series.)
Shaunie O'Neal
What made you guys want to come back for another season?
It was such an immediate success that the network was like, "You guys have to do this. You have to come back," and all the girls were game. They enjoyed themselves the first season.
What shocked you the most about the reaction to that first season?
When people decided to label us all basketball wives or all wives of athletes as groupies and gold-diggers --that was very hurtful. Don't get me wrong, there are some, but there are some of us that nobody was intentionally going out there trying to find some athlete to get with or whatever. But there are those of us that do represent the non-gold-digger, non-groupie, don't-hang-out-in-this-crowd group of ladies. People talked about us on blogs like we were groupies. That bothered me.
You've become quite the business woman; you're Shaunie Incorporated now.
It's always been in me. When I met Shaquille, I worked at Fox in marketing, so I have always been creative. I've always had a bunch of ideas. But living in that lifestyle, you move from city to city, you find yourself in an arena all the time. I had kids and a husband that traveled a lot, and was gone most of the time, and you look around and you're starting it all over again. You know? But now that I'm divorced and I have time to focus on me, I'm able to focus so much more on all the ideas that I've had.
So you were spotted at a Lakers game recently. Does that mean you're still a big Lakers fan?
You know what? I'm from L.A., so I will always be a Lakers fan, let me just say that. Even when I couldn't say I was still a Lakers fan, I was always a Lakers fan! But, no, I was actually at the game because I had a meeting with Jeanie Buss, and all of Jeanie Buss' meetings end up going to a Lakers game, which is fine with me! No complaints there! So, yeah, Jeanie, she's a sweetheart and we've remained friends and all that through all these years, so I had a meeting with her and what better place than a Lakers game? That is a meeting. Lakers games are business meetings.
The story of Kenny Anderson wasting the $63 million he earned during 14 NBA seasons and going broke is not unique among pro athletes. But at least it will have a happy uptick Saturday.
That's when Anderson will graduate from St. Thomas University in Miami, 19 years after he left Georgia Tech to enter the NBA early, as the No. 2 overallpick of the 1991 draft.
His top salary was $9.1 million with Seattle in 2002-03, but Anderson also had seven children with five women. When his money was gone he wasn't certain he had what it took to get a college degree.
"I didn't know if I could handle it," Anderson told New York Times columnist George Vecsey. "I didn't use my brain for 20 years."
Anderson's degree is in organizational leadership, and Vecsey writes that for the moment he's giving private basketball lessons to young players. One hopes his lessons include more than how to shoot a jumper.
The story of Kenny Anderson wasting the $63 million he earned during 14 NBA seasons and going broke is not unique among pro athletes. But at least it will have a happy uptick Saturday.
That's when Anderson will graduate from St. Thomas University in Miami, 19 years after he left Georgia Tech to enter the NBA early, as the No. 2 overallpick of the 1991 draft.
His top salary was $9.1 million with Seattle in 2002-03, but Anderson also had seven children with five women. When his money was gone he wasn't certain he had what it took to get a college degree.
"I didn't know if I could handle it," Anderson told New York Times columnist George Vecsey. "I didn't use my brain for 20 years."
Anderson's degree is in organizational leadership, and Vecsey writes that for the moment he's giving private basketball lessons to young players. One hopes his lessons include more than how to shoot a jumper.