Well, I’ve found something that I truly love.  It’s challenging, low-impact, and leaves me sore in places I didn’t even know I’d exercised.  It’s called SPX Fitness and is like a Pilates reformer class, but is done on a modified machine called the megaformer.  Apparently, it’s all the rage in LA, including amongst celebrities like Brook Burke.  The classes are either 40 or 55 minutes, so it’s a pretty small time commitment, especially considering that the designer of the program, Sebastian Lagree, recommends doing it only 2-3 times/week.  Because of the expense of the class, I have only done it once each week, but then I try to do similar modified movements at home.  The entire class is strength training, with a huge focus on glutes and core.  However, the moves are done so quickly that it’s also a bit of a cardio workout.  Each exercise is done for one-minute and by the end of that time, the goal is to have the muscle completely fatigued (which it almost always is for me).  Each move also encourages a full range of motion, so there is a lot of stretching and elongating of the muscles.  I expect this to create a very long, lean, toned look.  I am almost always shaking by the end of the workout and find myself sore for days.  I consider myself to be in very good shape, so I’m really pleased to find such a challenging workout that doesn’t bang my joints.

The biggest drawback to my new favorite workout is that it can only be done in a studio on a very specific machine.  And the classes are expensive (in my city, about $25-30/class).  I have yet to figure out how this program will be sustainable for me, since going even once per week will cost me $100/month.

So based on my limited experience with the program, here are my pros and cons.

PROS:

• The workouts, at least for the first month, are about 35-40 minutes each.  This is totally manageable and much easier to fit into my schedule than the 60+ minutes of exercise many other DVDs require each day.  I believe the second month of DVDs are about 45 minutes each.
• These workouts are challenging.  You breath hard.  You sweat.  I want an exercise program to be difficult initially and give me something to work towards.  This program definitely does.
• I usually don’t enjoy cardio very much, but these boot-camp style workouts weren’t too bad.  I liked how the 8-10 minute warm-up was almost a mini-workout in itself.  Just when I was getting tired, it was time to stretch.  It felt like I got a good break before ramping up again.
• Not all of the workouts, but many of them, are interval training.  This is highly effective for burning fat and improving athletic performance.  Not sure that the 30 second break is really long enough for most people to recover, but that’s what the pause button is for.
• The nutritional plan, while I didn’t follow it, is not bad.  The advice actually is totally reasonable and do-able.
• Music is good.
• I like that the DVDs feel like you’re in the class.  There’s a variety of levels, the gym setting is nice, etc.
• The abdominal move of being in a plank position while tilting your pelvis under works my lower abs better than almost any other move I’ve tried.

• The number one con is that jumping this way for 5-6 days/week is just too much for most people.  I really think at most you should be doing moves like these 3 days/week with at least 48 hours rest between workouts (perhaps with an upper body strength training on off days?).  Even with good supportive shoes, this program is so hard that you’re exhausted while exercising.  And exhausted people make mistakes in their form that lead to injury.  My hip problem was aggravated by high intensity hip muscle activation at extreme angles.  A very specific move comes to mind–when Shaun T has you jump and bring your knees above your waste to hit your hands (see picture below).  Not just once, but over and over, to be followed by high knees and mountain climbers and deep squat jumps.  Ouch!
• This still isn’t quite the balanced program I was hoping for.  The cardio is great, but I would like more weight training.  My particular package came with one upper body strength training DVD (although I think this may not be included with all packages) but it was only one.  There are pushups and tricep dips and the like incorporated into the cardio workouts, but I was left wanting more.
• I don’t understand why the “warm-up” is actually a pretty intense workout.  It’s about 10 minutes long and you’re heart rate spikes and you’re dripping sweat by the end.  How exactly is that a warm up?  Then, oddly, you stretch for about 5-7 minutes.  Long enough to start to cool down.  Then the actual workout is about 15-20 minutes.
• The bar across the bottom of the screen makes very little sense.  I don’t get the times it’s counting down and it doesn’t ever progress across the screen even as the workout nears completion.  Very strange.
• I don’t care for the ab training in this program.  Shaun T claims you’ll never have to do a single sit-up, but there’s a reason why so many people do sit-ups to train their abs–they work.
• Shaun T is a sexual person.  The way he talks and the way he touches other people’s abs in the video while they’re exercising made me uncomfortable (and I’m not a modest person).  I seriously was hoping one of those girls would turn to him and say “get your hands off me!”
• I honestly wasn’t sure if these were long enough cardo workouts to produce results (given that 10+ of the 35-40 minute workout was stretching).  And sure enough, in three weeks, I had no changes to my body.  No weight lost, no inches lost.  Too bad I didn’t get to finish the whole program, but I suspect if nothing happened in 25 days, I wouldn’t have seen much happen in 60 days.

Most of what I shared at 8 weeks I still agree with.  I would probably drop my overall rating from 4.5 out of 5 stars to 4.  Given the amount of time we dedicated to exercise during this program, I think we should have seen better results.  I attribute this to the lack of cardio in the program.  P90X classic dictates two days of cardio per week (plyo and kenpo).  I would say only plyo was really cardiovascular for me.  One day a week of cardio, no matter how much you’re exercising, is not going to produce significant change.  I know I’m stronger after this program, but if you still have a layer of fat on top of your new muscles, you won’t be able to tell that much has happened.  While we didn’t do the diet, I’ve done plenty of exercise programs without a dietary change and seen impressive results (for example, Tae Bo).  With P90X, I lost a grand total of 1 pound and 1.5 inches (1/2 off my waist, and 1/2 inch off each thigh).  I would have liked to lose 2 inches off my waist, and I don’t think that goal was unrealistic.  My husband didn’t want to weigh or measure, but you can see from our before and after photos that he had better results than I did.  However, he was sedentary before beginning this program.

I do think the strength training component of P90X is great.  To women worried about bulking up, you can clearly see that I added no bulk after 3 months.  I did as Tony prescribed, and always aimed for 12-15 reps.  My husband did 8-10 reps of the exercises and did add some size to his chest and shoulders.

In order to improve this program, I would suggest doing the three strength training videos each week (either chest/back, bis/tris/shoulders, and legs/back… or chest/tris/shoulders, back/bis, and legs/back depending on the week) plus three days of true cardio.  I would recommend 45-60 minutes of cardio, not including the warm-up or cool-down.  Plyo would count, but then you’d have to do something else for the other two days.  Of course, this wouldn’t leave time for Yoga, but I think more cardio is really necessary.

My last complaint with P90X is the lack of change in the final month.  Weeks 9-13 offer no new exercise DVDs, and I have to say it made me lose my motivation and intensity.  By week 12, I was downright sick of legs/back (you do the exact same leg DVD for the entire program, while the upper body DVDs change some).  I also was totally sick of Ab Ripper X.  More variety is crucial.

What next?  Given that I feel I could really use some good ol’ cardio after two 90-day programs deficient in quality cardio (Tracy Anderson Metamorphosis and P90X classic), I’ve bought Insanity.  It’s a 60-day program based almost entirely on cardio.  My husband is not up for doing this one, so I’ll be going solo.  Wish me luck!

P90X before and after photos:

Background:

I am a serious exerciser.  Prior to this program, I worked out 5-6 days a week for 30-60 min.  My husband, prior to this, was basically inactive.  One week ago, he started biking to and from work again (15 miles total, taking him 55-60 min) 4-5 days a week, so I’m sure he will get fabulous results.

I had no weight to loose, but was hoping to tone up and gain strength.  I especially wanted my middle to become firmer, after having three children, and maybe even loose an inch or two there.  My husband was not interested in changing his body, but joined me anyway.

P90X basics:

This program involves 13 weeks of scheduled workouts.  It comes with 12 DVDs, each about 50-90 min.  You’re supposed to do basically one per day, six days per week.  You get one day off per week.  You can adjust the program to fit your needs (there is a classic version, which we are doing, a lean version for weight loss, and a doubles version for people who have time to do two workouts per day).  Three workouts per week are weight training (two for upper body, one for lower) and on those days, you also complete an intense 15 minute “ab ripper” workout.  Two of those workouts are cardio (the challenging plyometrics DVD and the martial arts Kenpo DVD).  The last workout is the longest–a 90 min yoga workout.  Honestly, we never did the full 90 min.  And often I went to a Pilates class instead.  But other than that, we stuck to the program.

There is a diet component to P90X that we are not doing.  That may play into our results, but as mostly vegetarians, the high protein diet really didn’t work for us.  We also already eat tons of produce and minimal processed food.  Basically, I think our diet is ideal.  And it’s realistic for our family so I’m not interested in changing it.  I also do not have an intense fear of fat, and enjoy eating lots of healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, avocados, etc.)

Pros:

• This is a solid workout program.  Tony, the instructor, knows what he’s talking about.  His advice is sound.
• There is good variety in this program.  Every three weeks, there is a “recovery week.”  There are three phases, lasting approximately one month each.  Each phase has different workouts (although the third phase is a combination of workouts from the first two phases).
• The recovery week is brilliant, from the motivational aspect alone.  Just when I’m about to get bored, or loose my motivation to do another push-up intense workout, there is essentially a week off, filled with my favorite workout: Core Synergistics.
• The DVDs are decently made, with options to turn off the music or Tony’s voice.  The people in the DVDs are real people who have been through the program, not fitness models.  Seeing what they are capable of is highly motivating.  Tony is 45 and looks much, much younger.
• My husband hates lifting weights and hates “muscle heads.”  But he doesn’t mind this program.
• The convenience of working out in your own home is amazing.  I actually canceled one of my gym memberships after starting this.  I really am surprised that I can work out my entire body, and get impressive results, without leaving my home.
• There are especially great workouts in P90X–Plyometrics and Core Synergistics.  I love them!
• These DVDs are intense.  Even two months in, I still have a lot of room to progress.  I’m glad that I can’t master all the moves that easily.  Some workouts are not challenging me as much as I like, but there is flexibility in most of the DVDs to increase the intensity.
• The instruction provided really helps you prevent injury.  There is always a warm-up, lots of stretching, good instruction on proper form, tips for preventing injury (like landing softly toes first when jumping), etc.  While I have been very sore from this program, I have never been injured.
• I like the time bar across the bottom of the screen, letting you know how much of the workout you have completed and the time remaining, as well as the timer for individual exercises.
• The ab ripper workout is filled with very challenging exercises.  I have great ab strength and still found this to be intense, even two months in!

My initial impressions of the program are quite good.  Tony knows his stuff and his program offers a lot of variety.  There is a good blend of strength training and cardio and the exercises are quite challenging.  You can customize the program to fit your goals (there is a classic, lean, and doubles program depending on your desires and time commitment) and you can adapt every exercise to either build strength/size (fewer reps) or to tone and stay lean (12-15 reps).  We are doing the classic program, with a couple twists (we don’t have 90 min for the yoga, so we’ve cut that back considerably, and we like core synergistics so we do more of it).  So far, my favorite workouts are the plyometrics and core synergistics.  This program is heavy on the pushups and pull-ups, which may be a turnoff for some women.  I have modified (I use bands instead of doing pull-ups) and I just grit by teeth and push myself, quite literally, through the push-ups.  The biggest downside so far was the purchase of all the equipment needed–bands, dumbbells, etc.

Neither my husband nor I really have any weight to lose, but we’d like to tone up and be more fit.  I personally have seen no changes yet, which surprises me a little given the intensity of the program and how much I’m exercising.  However, I truly believe that all programs deserve a full 6-8 weeks of commitment before evaluation of effectiveness.  I will give an updated review and progress report halfway through the program (week 7) and when we’ve completed it (week 13).  I should note that we have chosen not to follow the diet, because we already eat a very healthy diet rich in organic fruits, veggies, legumes, and whole grains.  The high protein (50%) dietary recommendation for the first phase of the program just doesn’t work for us.  But while I’m making no major dietary adjustments, I am trying to practice really good portion control.

Wish us luck!

Before I dive into this review, I do feel obligated to provide my qualifications–unlike Tracy.  I have a B.S. in Sports Medicine, used to teach Tae Bo, became a Certified Strength and Conditioning Coach (NSCA) in 2003, and have been an avid exerciser for two decades.  I’m a mother to three young children and I take my exercise very seriously.

Tracy was a dancer who used to struggle with her weight.  She has developed a specific set of exercises with the intention of “strengthening the smaller muscle groups so that they can pull in the larger muscles, resulting in a lean, long, feminine figure that is not bulky.”  I must admit that this philosophy does have its appeal.  But her premise that she alone has discovered these wonderful “accessory muscles” that traditional trainers and exercise physiologists ignore in lieu of the major muscle groups is misleading.  Not once does she name a single one of these accessory muscles.  Nor does she convince me that her exercises actually work only the accessory muscles, nor that targeting them–if that is in fact what she is doing–will cause them to pull in the larger muscles around them.  Has she actually placed electrodes on these accessory muscles, performed the exercises, and recorded their activity in producing the movement?  The foundation of her Method is based upon faulty reasoning.  Could it be possible that she is actually just working the good old fashioned major muscle groups in new ways at new angles, spurring change and toning because the body is not accustomed to these exercises?  I find it much more likely that her low weight, high rep approach is training the muscle fibers responsible for endurance, which do not increase in size (that’s why you never see a bulky long distance runner), rather than training some small, unique muscles that only she knows how to work.  She even says herself that “the reps and sequencing are designed to get to the large muscle groups, exhaust them, and then have the small muscle groups wake up and become engaged.”  I would argue that the effectiveness of her moves lies in the former–exhausting the large muscle groups–more than the latter–suddenly engaging smaller muscles that normally aren’t used.

I do appreciate that Tracy “tested” her Method.  However, her research involved a total of 150 women, only 20 of which actually did her specific dance cardio moves along with the muscular structure work.  Anyone can perform “research.”  If it is not statistically significant nor peer reviewed, it is worthless.

Tracy argues that lifting weights “is not healthy.”  She says weight lifting builds “muscles that are more prone to injury” and “tears down your joints.”  She also argues that running “makes you work the same muscles over and over again, so you’re just strengthening muscles that are already strong enough.”  I completely disagree.  Her muscular structure exercises also work the same muscles over and over (glutes anyone?) and she is in complete denial if she doesn’t think her dance cardio, like running, also works the quads, hamstrings, and calves–over and over and over again.  In fact, that is the primary reason I did not do it daily.  Its repetitive bouncing gave me shin splints and bored me to death.

What kills me the most about Tracy’s Method is that she actually says you need to stop all other exercise and do only her program.  On page 30 of her book, she says “If you want to look tight and toned, you need to stop every other kind of exercise and only do my workout.”  I think this is absurd.  She argues that your muscles, especially your accessory muscles, adapt very quickly so you need to keep them on their toes.  By only performing her DVDs, you eliminate the variety and change that are not only crucial to challenging your muscles–all of them–but to also challenging your mind and keeping you from boredom.  Tracy believes that running, the eliptical trainer, biking, and all forms of cardio exercise–except for her dance cardio–bulk up the muscles you want to keep small.  ”The typical cardiovascular exercises, like running, elliptical, biking and so on, work the same muscles over and over again, bulking up certain muscles groups, ignoring others, and causing stress on your joints.”  Has she ever seen a professional endurance athlete?  Runner?  Biker?  Marothoner?  These are not bulky people.  Telling her clients that they can never do any other cardio puts them at a disadvantage.  And because none of her moves ever work your chest or back, only doing her program causes you to miss out on training important muscles.  By completely skipping large areas like the fronts of your legs, inner thighs, chest, and back, you miss out on the calorie-burning, metabolism increasing effect of training all your muscles.  And by discouraging people from attending cardio classes, where motivation from teachers and other students pushes you to try harder and perform (the exact thing she somehow believes you’ll do alone in your living room), you really miss out from pushing yourself past your comfort zone and into greater levels of fitness.  I have never sweated at home like I do in a class.

So if her program is so faulty, why do people get results?  I believe that she has designed some fantastic moves that are very unique and challenging (more so for the legs than arms).  She really works the butt and outer thighs in ways I have never seen done before.  I also think her strategy of completely fatiguing one leg at a time before moving onto the next, often resulting in hundreds of exercises on one side first, is brilliant.  Why she doesn’t apply this principal to other areas of the body, like arms, I don’t understand.  But after a month of doing her ridiculous number of leg lifts, I really could see improved endurance in my hips and glutes.  Balancing on my knees and hands became easier and I even needed to add ankle weights.  I think her lower body exercises can be very effective, although I find her ab and arm moves to be much less impressive.  Five minutes of waving your arms in the air is not nearly intense enough to ignite real change.  And her form for the abdominal moves leaves something to be desired.  I also believe this is the reason why her stomach is not as flat as it could be if she pulled her abs in more during exercising to really target the transverse abdominus (something done in Pilates, a practice she believes results in bulky abs).

My last bone to pick is with what Tracy believes is the “perfect” body.  Tiny arms, tiny legs, a lifted butt.  She is afraid of definition and bulk.  But I find those appealing.  Of course, I don’t want to be totally ripped, but I would like a six-pack.  And defined deltoids.  I don’t want “tiny.”  I want fit.  I don’t want to exercise an hour a day solely to look a certain way.  If I’m putting in that kind of time, I want to be fit.  I want to know that I can hike a 14er or play soccer with my kids or do real push-ups on my toes.  I want to feel capable and strong.  Her program left me feeling wussy and dainty.  In real life, I have to carry a 21 pound baby.  If doing that doesn’t make me bulky, why should I only stick to 3-lb weights?

A little bit of background about me first:  I am a mother to three children and am trying to shed the last of my baby weight before my youngest turns one in a month.  My undergraduate degree was in exercise science and in the early 2000′s, I became certified as a Strength and Conditioning Coach through the NSCA.  I have been working out religiously since I was 14 years old.  I taught Tae Bo in college and am currently a member of two gyms, yet somehow I can’t manage to get to either of them regularly which is why I’m trying Tracy’s DVD program at home.

I think that the Metamorphosis program can work for most people, but with a few tweeks.  Here are my suggestions…

CARDIO:  If you follow Tracy’s program, you will be doing the same dance cardio DVD for 30 min on most days for 3 months straight.  I don’t believe the intensity of dancing around my living room is enough, nor can I handle doing that same routine 90 times.  Instead, I suggest that you aim to get 30-45 min of cardio in almost every day of the week (Tracy recommends resting every 6 days and this is a sound suggestion).  I personally go running, do a machine at the gym, take a step class, or yes, even dance in my living room.  For extra calorie burning, try interval training.  Do a couple minutes of very high intensity, followed by a couple minutes of lower to moderate intensity.  Cycle like this for at least 20 minutes.  This is much more effective than steady state exercise.  One of my favorite forms of cardio, which I think is very compatible with the Tracy Anderson Method, is cardio kickboxing (aka Tae Bo), or anything where you’re kicking at various angles, including to the side and behind to work the glutes.  Raising your legs above your waist is a great way to get your heart rate up, and even Tracy does a similar move in her DVD.  If you do Tracy’s dance cardio DVD, make sure that you are sweating and breathing hard.  If you don’t need a shower immediately after doing your cardio, you are not working out hard enough!

STRENGTH TRAINING:  The biggest problem with Tracy’s muscle work DVDs is that they only train some of your muscle groups (deltoids, abs, glutes, and hamstrings).  Muscles burn more calories at rest than fat, so in order to increase your metabolism, you need to strength train for your entire body.  Skipping large muscle groups like the chest, back, inner thighs, and quads just means that you’re missing out on sculpting extra calorie burning muscle.  You’re also not training for a balanced body.  In order to make her strength-training DVDs even more effective, you’ll also need to hit the gym at least twice a week to train your chest, back, and possibly more legs too.  You can continue to use Tracy’s method of low resistance with high reps.

INTENSITY:  In order to continue to see progress, you need to make sure this program continues to challenge your muscles.  If by the 4th week, you can do all the exercises without any trouble, you need to make a change.  Either add 1-3 lb ankle weights, do extra moves after the DVD is over, do two 30 min workouts back to back (for example, week 5 then week 6), do the entire arm section with weights or do the move with both arms at the same time instead of one side at a time (not sure why Tracy does this), hold the 3-lb weight behind your head during abs, or add a couple gym sessions to your routine.  I personally like to focus on a muscle group each day, adding intensity and additional moves, with the hope of becoming slightly sore the next day.  One day, I’ll focus on extra arms and abs, the next day legs (I do her 30-min DVD, but then add moves on for the muscle group I’m really trying to fatigue).  I have found some additional moves of Tracy’s online, or sometimes I’ll throw in another DVD of hers (her postpartum DVD has an excellent section for abs).  Again, I do believe most people will need to hit the gym in addition to these at home moves to see the best results.

DIET:  Her diet is incredibly specific.  I don’t think this is realistic for most people, much less for mothers like myself.  In order to see true changes to your body, there will likely need to be a dietary component to your program.  Quite frankly, it’s much easier to eat 500 calories less each day than it is to burn them off through exercise.  You will need to take in fewer calories if you’re trying to loose weight.  Tracy suggests eliminated processed foods and this is an excellent suggestion.  I personally already did that, so I had to make other adjustments.  Instead of snacking on dried fruit and nuts, I now snack on an apple.  If it doesn’t satisfy me, I throw in a couple of nuts or a touch of peanut butter.  I work on portion control, eating slightly less food than I normally would at all meals.  But most importantly, I stopped eating in the evenings.  I enjoy a satisfying dinner and then try not to eat anything more for the night.  If I stay up for several hours more before bed, sometimes I get really hungry.  In those situations, I allow myself a piece of fruit.  Finding realistic dietary changes that you can make for good will be much more effective in the long run than a specific program with exact recipes and measurements.  Who has time for that?!

PROS:

• The Metamorphosis program consists of a 30 minute cardio dance DVD and nine 30-35 min strength training, aka “muscular structure work,” DVDs.  You’re supposed to do each strength training DVD for 10 days and then move onto the next.  The variety in music and exercises is very nice.
• I have been exercising religiously for almost two decades.  I feel like I’ve seen most exercises out there.  But Tracy offers many new moves, for abs, arms, and your glutes.  It’s really nice to do exercises I’ve never done before.
• Her philosophy of completely fatiguing one leg before moving onto the next is great.  You literally do ten minutes of leg lifts on one leg before moving to the other.  She often does 30-40 reps of each exercise.  I’m much more able to work through the burn and discomfort of exhausting a muscle group than I ever was before.
• I like that she tries to exercise all the smaller supporting muscles to help tone and tighten.  This is a premise of Pilates as well.
• I like the music.  I like that there is a new collection of songs on each DVD (mostly new, there are definitely some repeats by DVDs 4 and 5).
• I like the emphasis on dance and many of the dance-like moves.  

CONS:

• Has Tracy ever taken any Exercise Physiology courses?  Does she really understand how muscles work?  My B.S. is in exercise science and I was a certified Strength and Conditioning coach eight years ago, and I frequently hear her spout off things that are simply untrue.
• She insists that you never use more than 3 lb weights.  Why?  Fear of bulking up?  Fear of injury since her moves are so fast?  After the third DVD, my arms just didn’t feel anything during the five minutes of arm exercises.  I either need to up the weights or do the arm movements for more than five minutes.
• While it’s nice that every ten days there’s a new strength training routine, I expected them to become progressively more difficult.  This doesn’t appear to be the case (at least not up to 5th DVD).  In order to continue to see results, muscles need to be challenged with not just new moves but harder moves.  I find myself adding ankle weights, doing two DVDs back to back, or adding on moves after the DVD is over.  This is not especially time efficient and I’d rather just do really hard moves for 30 minutes than have to do more of them.
• So far, all of the leg work is done on all fours.  I would like more variety.  The leg work also only focuses on the gluteus medius and minimus, with some TFL and hamstrings.  This no doubt will lead to a small perky butt, like Tracy has, but leaves me wanting more.  What about the quads and inner thighs and calves?  There is also nothing for the chest and back muscles.  This program is not a complete body workout, but Tracy discourages doing anything but her DVDs.
• I can’t do that one dance cardio DVD for 90 days.  I couldn’t even do it daily for a week.  It’s very bouncy and hard on the joints and shins.  It also just gets boring after a while.  I find myself doing my own cardio (running, going to a step class, turning on good music and dancing with my own moves).
• When Tracy does her abdominal exercises, her form is poor.  She lays flat on the ground and arches her back, pulling it off the floor.  This disengages the abs and could injure the back.  When she lays her head back before lifting it for the next exercise, you see her rib cage pop up.  This exaggerated movement is much less effective than engaging the core muscles and brining your rib and hip bones together.  You know you’re doing this correctly when your lower back is pressed into the floor.  Look to Pilates DVDs for proper, more effective form.
• I dislike the lack of instruction.  Basically her instruction is to watch her moves very carefully and mimic them.  But unless you have a mirror next to your TV, it’s hard to know if you’re mimicking her properly.  There’s little to no explanation of why you should do certain moves the way she recommends, what muscles they’re working, where you should feel it, etc.
• I prefer to really work a muscle group hard, then rest it for a day.  Tracy’s philosophy is to work all your muscles for five days in a row, resting on the sixth.  I do not know if this is effective from an exercise physiology perspective.  It certainly is not a format I have learned about from any credible source.  However, most dancers and athletes work their whole body on consecutive days with great results.  So maybe there is something to this, but I’m not convinced.
• The diet is a joke.  I do not like such specific diet requirements and it seems way too low on the calories.

I would not recommend this program to novice exercisers.  But for those of you that have good form and have been working out for years and want a little change, this might be worth a try.  It certainly is convenient to be able to exercise at home with my children playing nearby or while they’re napping.  I’ll be interested to see if I get more results as I try to up my cardio, watch my diet, and add intensity to her strength training.

Update:  You can read my full review of the Tracy Anderson Method after completing the 13-week Metamorphosis DVDs here.