Mat Workout

Tracy Anderson
Year Released: 2008

Categories: Ballet/Barre


I tried TA's Mat Workout, thanks to a kind VFer who loaned it to me. I am glad I had the chance to try it so that I could fairly judge TA and her workout style.

My impressions are: I thought I would be more impressed with the workout. The workout consisted of standing leg lifts in different directions, rib isolations and some hip movements, arms held up and moved in different directions which mainly worked the shoulders, some leg lifts on the floor, and some ab crunches with legs straight on the floor.

The standing leg lifts were not unique and there weren't too many variations; I think Physique 57 is much more varied, fun, and challenging. The same goes for the ab work, which I felt was extremely limited in terms of working the entire rectus abdominis and obliques. The lower portion was worked only momentarily with some leg lifts with hands under the lower back.

The leg lifts on the floor were a bit awkward in positioning, and the camera did not fully show the positioning since it only showed Tracy from the front. There were not too many reps of these.

The arm work was the most memorable because it involved keeping the arms up for several minutes, and caused fatigue in the shoulders. When the arms are held up, the force of gravity creates the resistance on the shoulder muscles. Even if you bend your arms, for example, in a biceps curl, while holding the arms up at 90 degrees, you are primarily working the shoulders. So, there was almost no resistance to any of the other upper body muscles with the slight exception of the lats and rhomboids.


The warm-up stretches were far too deep for cold muscles. She repeated the same stretches after the workout, which I thought was better.

Tracy does not cue much, and some of the moves were hard to see with her black clothes and limited camera angle from the front. I imagine that after doing the workout several times, it would become easier to know what is coming next.

I liked the music, although Tracy did not always move on the beat.

The parts where Tracy explains her method are the parts that made me cringe. There is one part where she says that she tried her method on a bunch of different women and all of their arms became "teeny-tiny and cute." That was one of the few times that Tracy smiled. She also introduced the workout using the teeny-tiny phrase, and stated how she could make the changes to any body, regardless of genetics. When I hear people who hold themselves out as an expert, make statements that are contrary to science and to common sense, it makes me believe that they do not have the education or desire to be educated about the field in which they claim to be an expert, and they lose credibility.

I can say with absolute certainty that there is no way that I would rely on Tracy Anderson's workouts to achieve or maintain a body that has muscle strength and balance. I believe that this workout will achieve some firming and increased muscle endurance in the glutes and shoulders.

In my opinion, there are much better workouts out there that offer exercises that work the muscles of the upper and lower body in a more balanced and effective way.

If I had to give this workout a grade, I would grade it C-.

Instructor Comments:
I feel neutral about Tracy Anderson in terms of the way she presents herself as an exercise instructor in the video. She looks like she is in good physical shape, and has a lean physique. She appears to be someone who studied dance and who wishes to make a living by using her dance background to teach a fitness method.

Abbe

02/25/2011