Social Workout

FIterati

The Sting and Trudie Show

Sting and his wife Trudie Styler are suddenly everywhere. Last week they celebrated the 200th birthday of Robert Schumann by reading the composer's correspondence with his also-a-brilliant-composer wife, Clara Wieck Schumann, accompanied by a six person classical ensemble. THIS week they've given an EXCLUSIVE joint interview to Yoga Journal in which they say they meditate and do lot's of yoga. This interview may have something to do with the fact that Trudie has just released a new yoga DVD, with Sting providing musical backing. Rad! (Seeking reviewers....) If you were hoping for salacious tidbits about their sex life in this interview, calm down. Here's the hottest part....

Online & Video

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How Tracy Helped Gwyneth Become Pepper

Old school, mega, fitness celebrity jackpot: Gwyneth publishes her Pepper Potts workout and diet routine. (It's Ironman 2 day, all day!) Lurking behind the scenes in high lipgloss is Tracy Anderson, whose fitness videos are looking evermore expensive. Check out the layered mesh tanktop Tracy wears in sultry leg workout teaser vid which apparently gave Gwyneth the gams heard around the world. More importantly, Gwyneth reveals she has a post workout kale juice habit! Note: If Gwyneth does it, your friends can't laugh at you! And file away also the fact that Gwynnie consumes various powders ("Move" and "Nourish") created by celebrity nutritionist Dr. Alejandro Junger in her Almond milk breakfast shake. Ah, the incestuous world of the fiterati: Earnest reveal of effective supplement, or calculated product placement, or both?

FIterati

Hot Tickets: Wanderlust Previews and Eddie Stern at the Urban Zen Foundation

It's rainy in New York — maybe also where you are? — and  we all wish we were partying like rock stars in Austin at South by Southwest. Whatevs. New York yogis have at least two promising events to look forward to....

Starting this Wednesday evening, Eddie Stern will teach a weekly, led Astanga yoga class at Donna Karan's Urban Zen Center. Who's Eddie, and so what? Oh, grasshopper. In New York, Eddie is perhaps the staunchest keeper of the Ashtanga yoga flame, the designated representative of Ashtanga's founder, the late Sri Pattabhi Jois. Full cultural significance detailed after the jump, but suffice to say this is opening Wednesday, and it should be an interesting scene. Price of admission $20. 

Separate and unrelated: On Saturday, the Wanderlust crowd (please recall the annual Yoga Rock Festival in Lake Tahoe) are hosting a pre-festival, momentum gathering bash at Kula Yoga Project. Two hours of "tag team vinyasa classes" with the ever-popular Elena Brower and Schuyler Grant, among others, backed by a crowd of yogi musicians. Naturally, class will be followed by a game of late night Extreme Twister. It's kind of pricey at $40, but can you really price late night Extreme Twister? Also, you get in free if you buy a Wanderlust ticket, and some of the proceeds go to cool charities.

New York

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Yogi Hits the Road: Dina Amsterdam in NYC

A friend emails to say Dina Amsterdam, voted best yoga teacher in San Francisco in 2007 (whatever exactly that means), is on tour in New York this weekend. Can we talk about the growing trend of "touring" yoga teachers?

FIterati

Jennifer Aniston's Guru Launches Yogalosophy

Lest you doubt the bond between personal trainers and their disciples: The Post reports that Jennifer Aniston has rushed back from a stay in North Africa to host a DVD launch party in L.A. for her personal yoga teacher, Mandy Ingber. "Jen works out with Mandy up to five times a week, and they have become such great friends she even takes Mandy on vacation with her," says the Post's source. Oh, to be a celebrity trainer. Naturally, you've gotta have a gimmick. If Tracy Anderson has "accessory muscles," Mandy, who's sexy in a natural, salt-and-pepper hair kind of way, has "Yogalosophy," a "groundbreaking" workout that "pairs yoga poses with toning exercises that will get you into the best shape of your life while connecting your mind, body, and emotions." Jen does the introduction, and then you can choose either the 30 minute or "fully loaded" 55 minute workout. Available for just $29.95. Look, this is likely to be miles better than the Kim Kardashian workout DVD, and possibly a fab gift for your favorite yoga buddy with Friends obsession. See Mandy in hot Self video shoot after the jump.... (Via k.ben.)

FIterati

The Lebron Workout

Oh boy, Men's Health scores interview with NBA mega-superstar Lebron James, and they've created an eight page online feature detailing the non-basketball parts of his dailly workout. Here's the truth: In addition to being a comic genius, Lebron is a personal trainer's dream. There's nothing fancy or super macho here: Pull ups, push ups, some tough-looking core exercises on an exercise ball. (Does Gaiam make balls big enough for a guy 6'8" and 250?) No bench press, no Oympic clean and jerk. Nothing to wow the CrossFit set. Minus the part about doing squats on a vibrating platform, you could start this today. And if you aim to dunk this summer, you probably should....

FIterati

Vinnie Marino, King of L.A. Yoga

Belated shout out to our very own Deborah Shoeneman, who expanded her Social Workout reporting on L.A. yoga star Vinnie Marino into a profile for The Times' Style section this week. "A few other yoga teachers pack their classes," Deb writes, "but Mr. Marino ellicits a special kind of loyalty from his students and rewards them with some very tough love." She goes on to tell the full story of how Vinnie was a recovering drug addict, and going nowhere fast, when Grace Slick told him to teach yoga: "I'd rather take yoga from you than from some weird dude in a robe,"  Vinnie recalls Slick telling him. Now he packs them in, 90 (!) at a time, at various Yogaworks locations, and his students include "Heather Graham, Kate Hudson, David Duchovny, Jeremy Piven and Adrien Brody...." Among others.

Los Angeles

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Jane Fonda, Teenage Girl

Note to parents: At 71, Jane Fonda can still do aerobics, and she blogs like a teen girl. We're just saying. Anyway, was it the workouts, or the anti-aging effect of celebrity and Ted Turner's billions? Who knows, but last week Jane busted out her leotard for a campy Broadway Cares benefit skit, and she still had the moves. Some of them anyway. Check the video on her site, or skip it, and spend several hours reading a minute-by-minute account of her daily life. "Today, I slept till noon!!!!" she writes. "This is an event for me." How un-seventy-something is that? Watch out Lindsay Lohan, Jane is en fuego. Typical day: Get up really late. Walk the dog, respond to blog commenters via Blackberry, and then head to the theater to star in 33 Variations (she gets warm reviews, the show doesn't). Then go out and party with Dolly and Lily. Not bad, plus she's smart enough not to blog-diss her friends the next day, "They look fabulous!" she writes. Really? Dolly's a little scary looking, no? Moral: Workout now, live to blog about it much later.

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Tracy Anderson in Fake Lashes on Today

Tracy Anderson visited the Today show this morning, and demo'd her super special workout Method. (Recall that Madonna swears by T.A., as does Gwyneth, with whom she has partnered to open an uber premium gym in Tribeca.) We watched the video -- embedded below, complete with annoying Pledge ad -- and came away thinking The Method looks a lot like Pilates done up against a kitchen counter. Also, that Tracy is wearing fake lashes and looks like she's had lip injections. Not that we're judging.

FIterati

Lulu Ladies

Life in Los Angeles: I've got these two hot, very eligible bachelor friends. They're in their early forties, and always on the prowl for ladies, though they're never really wanting for dates -- one even dated Selma Blair and Minnie Driver. Anyway, on a recent Saturday, we all had brunch in Venice, and then they left me to head to the Santa Monica Lululemon to, get this, pick up girls. Yes, they confessed, Lululemon shoppers are their type: Cute, sporty, yoga bodies.... They struck out that day, but vowed to keep trying.

Los Angeles