Let's start by stating the facts. I have made it my mission to get a tight, toned celebrity body, but currently, I don't work out. Like, not at all. Yes, I am the rightful owner of a $30 a month LA Fitness membership, but that doesn't mean I am using the keychain card to do anything except pick my teeth after dinner. Classy, I know.
And I'm not alone (well, maybe the teeth-picking part). According to the surgeon general, more than 60 percent of adults don't exercise regularly and 25 percent of us don't work out at all. And yet we all worship (and secretly despise) celebs with perfect bodies who essentially have "Be superhumanly hot and toned" written into their studio contracts.
So why are we all so sedentary, especially when the benefits of staying active are well documented? After all, breaking a sweat has been proven to ward off disease, improve your mood, and boost your energy. Hell, it can even put some spice back into your sex life.
I know that for me, a host of excuses help me hit the couch instead of spin class after work. I tell myself I don't have time, I'm too tired, I get bored, confused, self-conscious, blah blah blah. So before I even start, I'm feeling like Physique 57 is going to have to really bring it in order to get my ass in "Ripa" gear.
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How Ripa gets ripped
What is this workout and how does it get Ripa into crazy shape? This is what I want to know before committing. I do some research and make some calls (remember, on most days I'm not just a couch potato, but also a journalist).
One measly Google search and I find out that Physique 57 is worshiped not only by Ripa, but models like Christy Turlington � great, I'm going to fit right in. I then watch a video of Martha Stewart giving it a go and relax a bit. If Martha can do it, surely I will be OK.
I gather the basics: Physique opened its doors to hip Manhattanites in 2006, and is based on the popular "Lotte Berk Method," a combination of strength-training, dance, and orthopedic stretches created in the 1950s by a former well-known ballet dancer. It was co-founded by Jennifer Vaughan Maanavi, a dance enthusiast, Columbia MBA, and former Wall Street professional (pssh, not intimidating), and Tanya Becker, one of the foremost instructors of "The Lotte Berk Method" for more than a decade. It now has droves of fans and devoted followers all claiming unique, rapid results from the low-impact workout and thanks to so many clamoring for it, Physique opened new studios in New York and Los Angeles and came out with a series of fitness DVDs.
But more importantly, I wanted to know if this workout would work for me:
Fun dancing and ballet integration that's likely to keep me interested: Check.
Low impact, which is easier on my joints: Check.
Unique, rapid results: Double check.
Alright, where do I sign up?
Before you judge me on wanting to look like the five-foot-two, less-than-a-hundred-pounds Kelly Ripa, hear this: I fully understand on a fundamental level that I will never, ever look like Kelly Ripa. I'm sane. Reasonable. Not short, or naturally thin. Oh, and I'm a brunette (wink!).
Seriously though -- do I want arms like Ripa's that don't flap in the wind? Yes.
Should my ass be less obtrusive? Probably.
Would it be nice to sit and not have a jellyroll slowly unfold over my jeans? Ab-solutely.
But above all, as a twenty-something woman, do I need to stop considering the walk, I repeat w-a-l-k, up the three flights of stairs to the office my fitness routine for the day? That, my friends, would be an affirmative.
I came to these revelations after a recent visit to the doc. I was sitting in the waiting room and spread across the coffee table were a bunch of "Fitness" and "Shape" magazines with bikini-clad celebs glaring their shiny teeth and flat bellies at me.
There she was -- little-but-larger-than-life Ripa posing in a neon orange two-piece. I picked up the mag and as I thumbed through the pages, reading about her adventures in motherhood, how she never exercised in her twenties, and her "new" love of Physique 57, a trendy workout my friend Tricia was just raving about as I shoveled in a cheesy omelet at brunch, I had a thought.
Do these high faultin' celebrity workouts splashed across glossy magazines actually work for real people? Could I, the former chubbiest girl in the 5th grade whose thighs have never not touched, get the toned body of a celebrity? Could this fitness fad really be as life changing for me as it was for Miss Ripa?
I was determined to find out, to make a change. I was determined to try this Physique 57.
