via goop

via goop

Whilst I detest exercise, it is sadly non-negotiable due to my age and desire to wear fabulous outfits.

Due to my heaving seasonal wardrobe spends, a gym membership is out of the question. So for the last few years, I have become tight friends with Tracy Anderson and James Duigan. We are so close, I spend almost every freaking morning with the two of them – via dvd and youtube that is.

New Yorker Tracy Anderson is in business with Gwyneth Paltrow and is responsible for getting Goop’s bod into stellar shape following her second pregnancy. Her fitness philosophy is that a great body is a long lean one, and this is achieved through activating the smaller muscle groups rather than bulking up the larger ones.  London-based Australian health guru James Duigan is the brains behind the Clean and Lean way of eating (I’ll bore you about that phenomena another time) and whips Elle McPherson into shape on a regular basis. He too preaches long and lean over bulky and muscular.

Personally these two methods work for me because I like to do the minimum amount of exercise possible. Not that I’m completely deluded. I will never look like Gwyenth. But Elle’s bells, If doing 30 minutes of toning and strengthening a day banishes my bingo wings and lifts my butt off my legs, I will do them.

I keep all my workouts on Pinterest and pick and choose the ones I want to do each day. Then I simply pop Trace and James on mute and crank up some tunes whilst fatiguing my muscles for half an hour maximum. It works and means I can tick off that exercise box first thing in the morning. Cardio is a dirty word for me but is achieved, rarely, through a strange walk/jog motion that can only be described as a ‘shuffle’.

Here are some of my favourite routines. If they work for you, do a search on youtube for more, or pick up Tracy’s dvds here and James’ at bodyism.

Feel the burn ladies…