Dance Cardio and the Tracy Anderson Method

(A review for the new Tracy Anderson Slim+Sculpt Cardio DVD is below, stay tuned to the end!)

A friend recently asked me to give her a bunch of info about the cardio aspect of the Tracy Anderson Method, and while I was giving her the info, I realized that a lot of her questions were questions others of you have also asked me, and that lots more of you probably would like to ask. And so, behold! A blog post, all about cardio with TAM.

So here’s the rundown. With the Tracy Anderson Method, she likes you to do two different pieces, the dance cardio and the muscular structure work. You do both parts each day for a total whole-body workout. And the best part with TAM is that you have tons and tons of options!

Of course, I started with the Metamorphosis program. The program comes with its own 1/2 hour dance cardio DVD, which is a lot of freestyle dancing and hopping around, lots of jumping jacks, skips and the like. I have to point out that I am not, Not, NOT a dancer! I’m super uncoordinated, and I just look like a dork anytime I try to dance, but I was really surprised how much I enjoyed the dance cardio and was able to (eventually) catch on. The program is here:

She also has several DVDs on Amazon that are fairly cheap, I’ve seen them as low as $6 and as high as $30. You can buy most of the same titles through the instant video option so you can start right away and not have to wait for a DVD to be delivered. This one is a great start:

This is another great one that is fairly new. I haven’t tried it out yet, but I’ve heard it is super fun! It’s definitely on my list to buy soon:

There are so many different cardio options on Amazon that I encourage you to explore, but lastly I’m going to talk about her newest offering, the Slim+Sculpt Cardio DVD.

I just bought this DVD and gave it a try, and I’m going to give you the good, the bad, and the ugly, here we go!

The good:

• Great price! I had an Amazon gift card, so really I didn’t pay anything for this, but it runs about $11? Gotta love that!
• It comes with the band! I hate starting a new program only to realize I don’t have all the equipment, so it was great to have the band right there in the case. Of course, if you buy the digital version, you won’t get the band, so I would probably recommend buying this one as an actual DVD.
• This is 3 different workouts, broken up into 20 minute segments. I try to always dedicate an hour to my exercise, but let’s face it, sometimes I sleep through my alarm or hit snooze too many times. Plus, I’ve got kids, and everyone knows that anything could happen at any time, and suddenly instead of having an hour to exercise, you’ve only got 20 minutes. It’s better to pop this baby in and do 20 minutes than nothing at all! The first two 20 minute segments are each dance cardio, and the third one is the muscular structure work with the band.
• The dance cardio sections are super fun! The first one is lower impact and super easy to follow, and yet I still really enjoy it. The second section I actually laugh out loud each time because at one point she says something like, “You’re doing great now!” and it’s obvious that she can’t see me because, no, I’m not doing great. But I’m having a great time and even though the dance sequence is more complicated, it’s still super fun.

The bad:

• I hate the music for all of Tracy’s dance cardio. HATE it. I don’t know what it is, but the music just grates on my nerves. The music on this one is WAY better than her other DVDs, but I still just turn the volume down and use my own playlist of some fun tunes that make me want to move!
• The muscular structure part with the band is much too easy for me. If you are new to TAM, this is a really great place to start, but I have been doing this long enough now and am strong enough that I really felt like it wasn’t doing much for me. I did this part of the workout 4 times, and I don’t think I’m going back.
• Again in the muscular structure part, it was fun to play with the band at first and try a new way of getting that resistance, but after only a couple of days of use the band started sticking to itself and rolling up into a tight rubber band. I know that to fix this I just need to dust it with some baby or talcum powder, but I don’t own either of those things and I don’t really want to go to that much effort. And again, like I said above, I wasn’t too impressed with that part of the DVD, so my band has received an early retirement. So I guess maybe the Instant Video option on Amazon isn’t a bad thing after all.

The ugly:

• Ok, so I don’t actually have anything to add to the ugly part, I’m very pleased with my purchase of this DVD!  I’ve been doing the 2 dance cardio sections as my cardio, and then just doing the muscular structure for my current level of Continuity (which is the part that comes after Metamorphosis). It’s been a really great addition to my rotation. Tracy has spoiled me with her ever-changing content and I have been getting bored easily with the dance cardio, so this has been a welcome change, love it!

Have you tried any of Tracy’s dance cardio? What’s your favorite way to get your heart racing?