E-Mail 'Gwyneth Paltrow’s osteopenia: Nation attacks her diet, ignores her flimsy weight training' To A Friend
Loading ...From Our Partners
MOST POPULAR STORIES
- Lithe opens its first cardio-cheer-sculpting studio in New York this fall
- Trend alert: Would you wear fitness flats?
- ANDI: The weird nutritional acronym explained
- Yoga, art, and music converge at Yoga Soundscape in June
- Brooke Burke shares her workout routine and philosophy
- Guinness finally names Tao Porchon-Lynch World's Oldest Yoga Teacher (at 93!)
Kudos to you for giving Tracy Anderson workouts the boot! We work so hard to educate women on the myth that lifting anything heavier than 3 lbs will get you bulky and she undoes it all by promoting such nonsense. Firstly, women don’t have enough testosterone to bulk up. We’d have to supplement heavily and spend hours a day in the gym lifting massive amounts of weights to look anything remotely close to a bodybuilder.
You’re right that lifting heavy weights gets you lean, defined and toned 10x faster than doing 300 (boring, yawn) reps of the same move. Bone mass and development is boosted as well. If you want to be as skinny as Gwyneth, you have to rely on your diet for 80% of the results anyway. So even if you do 3000 reps of these moves, it’ll take you 10x as long to get lean and fit.
Great information, Ariane! It always strikes me as odd that fear of bulking up is a reason to not lift weights, when there are so few actual examples of such a thing. (Except, as you say, in the world of competitive athletes who spend 4-8 hours training each day because it’s their job.) I have to dig out the source, but I recently read that the average woman spends 3 hours or less a week on working out. So if half of that goes to weights, just where is the supposed bulk going to come from?—Melisse of Well+Good
Well said, Ariane! I only have one thing to add… anyone notice that Gwyneth commented about carrying around her 30lb son? First of all, that’s proof positive why lifting challenging weights is essential to daily life – how else are you going to SAFELY and EFFECTIVELY do things like carry around your children or heavy shopping bags?
Second of all, I’ve heard that Tracy shuns certain activities that aren’t in line with her “method” – e.g., made Madonna stop running because she claims it gives her a lumpy butt (hmm, maybe that’s when Madonna got rid of her? Oops.) If that’s the case, is Gwyneth supposed to stop carrying around her son who’s apparently 27lbs too heavy for her to carry according to Miss Anderson??
Can you tell I’m heated? :)
I get the question all the time: will heavy weights make me bulky? I blogged about it here: http://slimandstrongin2009.blogspot.com/2010/06/q-i-have-question-about-weights-im.html
Doesn’t whether or not we bulk up also depend on body-type? Look at Gwyneth. She’s a classic ectomorph. This woman will NEVER have to worry about getting bulky. And what’s wrong with some muscles on a woman? Ok, I need to stop before this turns into a feminist dissertation in which I compare Tracy Anderson’s rubber bands to foot-binding.
This incipient”illness” calls to mind Gwyneth’s dear new age friend Christy Turlington’s early stage emphysema, which then, suddenly, vanished! If only this were the case for mere mortals. Another ploy for attention/sympathy to demonstrate the humanity of this vacuous, capitalist woman.
I am a healthy 55 year old Personal Trainer, I have seen the gamut of “Fitness” trends over the past 25 years! recent bone density test 5 years post menopause – above average bone mass – why? surely some genetics in play here, most important STRENGTH TRAINING! if you insist on following the fads, whether its spinning, barre, or sensibly do yoga – the real key to weight loss being to lower stress/cortisol for most women which yoga does so effectively, you must move some weights, I say “A Woman should be able to carry her own weight” dont be intimidated by weights, you need a weight that challenges the muscle in order to keep muscles strong = strong bones. its so simple! Even if you cant afford a trainer, most will offer a group discount if you get together with your girlfriends! and hey its about being healthy in the long term, NOT about being trendy or fitting into those ridiculous skinny jeans! I love that phrase from Susan Powter “STOP THE MADNESS”!
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! I train many women who also do Tracy’s method and all of them are injured and in pain. Seriously – she has told them to exercise a minimum of 1.5-2 hours daily with tiny weights and a lot of complicated dance moves, to eat baby food to lose weight, and charges $250 an hour for this “service”. Plus, her trainers are hired by dance audition and not by certification or past training ability – that’s right, UNCERTIFIED $250/hour TRAINERS!
Ditto…Not healthy!
[...] Gwyneth Paltrow’s osteopenia: Nation attacks her diet, ignores her flimsy weight training [...]
I disagree with both explanations.
Genetics tends to trump behavior. Considering osteopenia is largely heritable perhaps this was simply out of her control, despite her sterling diet & fitness habits.
p.s. I’m definitely NOT a fan of Tracy Anderson’s exercise philosophy, so please don’t read that as a defense of her.
Tracy’s method works. Simple as that.
yes, it works and I’m guessing those who don’t agree have never studied dance, yoga or pilates…please try not to criticize what you do not understand