Mat Workout

Tracy Anderson
Year Released: 2008

Categories: Ballet/Barre


I enjoy Tracy’s mat workout, I am not an avid follower of her method, but like to include this for some variety / interest. Below you will find lots of in depth info from other reviewers, but I thought I’d add mine to the mix.

Warm-up

I really enjoy this warm-up, it may actually be my favourite warm-up compared to other fitness DVDs. It is a series of plies and flowing yoga style stretches. Some may find the stretches too intense so early in the workout though.

Standing legs

This section uses a chair for balance, like you would use a ballet barre. The exercises are a series of leg lifts and pulses in various directions. She talks about waking up “accessory muscles” and targeting your muscles from different angles, and these exercises do definitely do that. There is one exercise which can be a bit uncomfortable on the hip (this was talked about in the forum recently) especially for those of us with past hip injuries. This can be addressed by changing the angle of the working leg (more turned out) which seems to help, if you do this, then the standing leg should also be turned out I believe (so you’re symmetrical).

My only criticism with this section is that there are no guidelines about standing foot/leg placement, e.g. whether they should be parallel or turned out. Coming from a background in dance, I had dance teachers who were very specific about which exercises were done in turn-out and which were done in parallel.

Standing abs

These exercises (rib isolations) have a dancey feel to them, and seem to be about waking up the muscles of the abdomen, rib cage and waist. They feel nice to do but she does them quite fast. I think because Tracy is small she can move fast with ease, but a taller person might not find this so easy!

Arm work (unweighted)

I really like these exercises, they are like ballet arm exercises but done much faster. As Fuzzy says below, the key is to anchor the arms in the upper back. Something that was instilled into me in dance training was that arm movements (e.g. in ballet) originate in the back muscles, not muscles in the arms and shoulders, this creates a longer arm line and stops you lifting your shoulders when your arms are raised.

I did a TA “bootcamp” for about 10 days or so last year, and I saw biggest changes in my arms, which got much leaner and more “ballerina” like. I actually don’t mind having some bulk/shape in my arms, but I found it interesting to see how quickly these exercises did what Tracy said they would do.

Arm work (light weights)

These are similar, flowing exercises than the previous section. I definitely don’t agree with the whole “don’t lift more than 3 pounds” thing, but, I can see that with these exercises that is wise, they are done fairly quickly with a lot of reps so heavier weights would probably sacrifice form.

Floor Lower Body/legs

Unfortunately I have to skip this section completely. I have an old hip injury and virtually all of these exercises aggravate that. If you don’t have any hip issues, you may like these exercises, I seem to remember there are some pretzel variations and an interesting move combing a push up with rear leg pulse/lift. As seems to be the theme in TA’s method, she approaches the hip, glute & thigh region from a variety of angles. Having covered these areas in the standing leg section however, I don’t feel I’m missing out by not doing this section.

Floor Abs

Tracy’s theme here seems to be to do crunches with the legs extended rather than bent, also the upper body is supposed to reach up (instead of curling forwards, it is more like reaching upwards). This does seem to target different muscles than standard crunches. She incorporates some arm reaches and leg lifts which target different parts of the abdominal area.

I’m not overly enthusiastic about this section but it is ok. I feel more of benefit from other ab work such as that found in Pilates, Core Fusion and Callanetics.

Cooldown

The cooldown section is very similar to the warm up, perhaps a bit more dynamic.

Overall summary

I enjoy this workout, it flows nicely and I enjoy the music. I would class it as invigorating, light strength training for the whole body. But don’t let my use of the word “light” put you off. As I mentioned earlier, I did a TA “bootcamp” last year doing this Mat DVD every day for about 10 days, along with some sporadic cardio (not as much as TA recommends I should add!). I got the same kind of results I get with Callanetics and other barre style workouts which tend to create the “dancer’s physique” look (everything pulled in, lifted and toned, waist trimmed, good posture etc.) The results didn’t excite me enough to want to do TA’s method exclusively however, as I still want to enjoy my other workouts.

What I enjoy most about this workout is how it “wakes up” muscles in the body which don’t get used much, it gives my whole body an invigorated feeling which I don’t usually feel with other workouts.

Instructor Comments:
I like Tracy’s minimal style and lack of in depth instruction, once I have done a DVD several times and learned the routine I find comments and lengthy instruction a bit annoying.

Like others, I don’t agree with her opposition to heavy weights and comments that they cause bulk. I think it depends on your body type. I have thin arms and legs no matter how much I weigh or how heavy I lift, so have never worried about “bulking up”. This does not detract from my enjoyment of the workout though.

BalletCat

08/21/2012