Fitness
Fitness
Mission: Can I Get Kelly Ripa's Body?
One writer's journey to find strength (and a thinner waistline?) through the celebrity-worshiped fitness workout, Physique 57
The method to the madness I quickly find that each class follows a similar 57-minute (duh) format using five to eight pound hand weights, a ballet barre, and a "playground" ball. Each class also involves a bunch of exercises that use your own body weight, and all of it targets specific muscle groups at specific times.
The workout starts with the arms, then moves to the thighs, rear, abs, then cool down. Why? Co-founder Tanya Becker says, "starting with the arms is a great way to warm the body up and raise your heart rate. The arms have smaller muscles so they may not burn as many calories," which is why minimal, yet effective, time should be spent on them to prep the body for a workout.
Once you make it to the thighs and butt, your body starts to torch calories, says Becker, as these are the largest muscles in the body. Through what seems like never-ending repetitions of leg lifts, plies, squats, standing splits, "playground" ball squeezes (more on this later) and so on, this "interval overload" combines strength and cardio together for a high intensity, calorie-blasting workout that fatigues the muscle groups completely before you get a short stretching break where the muscles get to chill out and lengthen.
The core muscles (or abs) are engaged "80 percent of the class," says Becker, and then get an extra burst of action at the end of class with all kinds of crunches and scissor kicks.
So, as a total newbie, am I even surviving through the arm warm ups, you wonder? Very. Good. Question.
SEE NEXT PAGE: The burning means it's working
The workout starts with the arms, then moves to the thighs, rear, abs, then cool down. Why? Co-founder Tanya Becker says, "starting with the arms is a great way to warm the body up and raise your heart rate. The arms have smaller muscles so they may not burn as many calories," which is why minimal, yet effective, time should be spent on them to prep the body for a workout.
Once you make it to the thighs and butt, your body starts to torch calories, says Becker, as these are the largest muscles in the body. Through what seems like never-ending repetitions of leg lifts, plies, squats, standing splits, "playground" ball squeezes (more on this later) and so on, this "interval overload" combines strength and cardio together for a high intensity, calorie-blasting workout that fatigues the muscle groups completely before you get a short stretching break where the muscles get to chill out and lengthen.
The core muscles (or abs) are engaged "80 percent of the class," says Becker, and then get an extra burst of action at the end of class with all kinds of crunches and scissor kicks.
So, as a total newbie, am I even surviving through the arm warm ups, you wonder? Very. Good. Question.
SEE NEXT PAGE: The burning means it's working
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