Social Workout

Celebrity Fitness

Madonna, Future CrossFit Champ?

As Oliver pointed out earlier this week, CrossFit has hit the bigtime. In case this year's CrossFit Games being held at the giant Home Depot Center in L.A. (home of the Lakers) isn't enough evidence, here's one more data point: Madonna's ex-boyfriend and father of her daughter Lourdes, trainer Carlos Leon, is apparently talking her ear off about it:

"Fitness is one of our conversations. She asks me what the latest work-out is. At the moment, it's CrossFit, which I follow myself."

If all goes well, Madonna will forget about her fancy new home gym and start working out in the church basement with CrossFit Gotham any day now.

Celebrity Fitness

Tracy Anderson Glad Madonna Dumped Her

Just a little bit of celebrity-trainer gossipy silliness to start your day off right. You may recall that back in October Madonna unceremoniously ditched her long-time trainer Tracy Anderson. This week, Tracy's in the UK's Star, explaining that she's way over the whole Madonna thing:

"Gone are the days I give myself to a celebrity. Madonna was my priority for three years but that's not why I set out to do this. Now I have a long list of people who I design [fitness programs] for, but my time is now spent on my company. I can't just be training a celebrity. I didn't do 11 years of research and development for that."

My only hope is that more bootleg videos of her "research and development" will be released soon.

Fantasy Home Gyms

Madonna Is Adding A Whole New Floor to Her Townhouse For Her Gym

What do you do if you're really into working out, really rich, and own a fancy townhouse on the UES with a little airspace to spare? Duh, you build another floor and turn it into a kickin' gym. Which is what Madonna is reportedly doing as part her New York townhouse renovation. (Other renovation features: A wine cellar, a hair salon, a luggage room, 10 bedrooms, 13 bathrooms...) Now that Madonna and Tracy Anderson are on the outs, she may need other accessories for her gym. For her consideration, I suggest the following fantasy home gym items:

Scenes

Live From ECA: Flags are the Future

The ECA Convention, Marriott Marquis, Times Square. Fitness instructors from around the country gathered to take the hottest new classes...Ridin' Dirty, Hi/Low Fix... You haven't heard of these classes? You will soon. A sea of seriously sculpted arm muscles, fake tans, and extreme color coordinated spandex. 

In the main ballroom Calvin Wiley preaches on the virtues of adapting what you're learning at the convention to your students out there in Middle America. "I'm in an urban center where they get me. You have to take this and make it work for your students. I can't make a lesson plan for your students." 

Then he wraps his audience up in flags and makes them do a procession, waving their body bars as they sashay across the room to Madonna. 

Batwings

Gwyneth's Tracy Anderson Bootleg Video

Last we checked in with Tracy Anderson, she was getting sued by her ex husband and breaking up with Madonna. Well, today begins the counter-offensive, courtesy of Gwyneth, who has rallied a crew of celebrity buddies — Courtney Cox, Donna Karan, and Kristen Davis, among others — to give Tracy testimonials in the latest issue of Goop. Gwyneth also includes the following down-homey video of Tracy demonstrating a Tracy workout; which workout, G. says, she "did every day preparing for Iron Man," and which apparently solved her "batwing problem." TMI?! The workout looks sort of sexy and fun. It also looks like Tracy is desperately trying to communicate, via erratic arm waving, with a visiting space alien. Given that she's got mirrors on all sides, that may not be far from the truth. Oh snap!

Wake Up Call

On Self Expression

I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.

~ Madonna

Insiders

Elizabeth Ordway Speaks

Elizabeth Ordway, Hollywood personal trainer to the stars, stopped by Social Workout HQ yesterday morning, fresh from a Pilates master class at Re:AB on Bleeker Street. Elizabeth's home gym is Private Fitness in West Hollywood, otherwise known as the "Gym on Nemo," where one might spot Cameron Diaz, Charlize Theron, or any number of Hollywood studio rainmakers. She comes to New York, "literally, just to work out," and stay in touch with the fitness and Pilates scene here. I grilled her for the inside dope on classes and teachers in New York and L.A., and, of course, on Madonna and Tracy Anderson whose Tribeca studio she just toured....

On NYC vs. L.A.: The best fitness trainers in L.A. have come from New York. I think the best Pilates teachers are in New York. Pilates started here. East Coast Pilates is a workout. There are routines. There's a flow. West Coast is physical therapy. Most West Coast teachers have to re-certify under classical Pilates to teach in New York.

In New York, I go to Re:AB. Brooke Siler is great. She's the author of Pilates Body, which is still the best Pilates book out there. I also go to Grasshopper Pilates. And I try to make it to see Brett Hoebel. He does capoeira and trains the Victoria Secret models. My favorite Pilates teacher in New York, though, is George Manles. He's in his 80s and worked with Joseph Pilates himself. But George can be very inappropriate. He lives on the Upper West side. We work out and then go to dinner. When you're looking for a teacher, try and see how many generations they are away from Romana or Pilates himself. It's only 100 years old, so you can do that. I also wanted to go do yoga with Dharma Mittra on this visit, but I ran out of time.

On the San Francisco: I did Pilates at Ellie Herman in San Francisco. (There's an Ellie Herman in Brooklyn too.)  And also at Mercury Fitness. In San Francisco, they work people out, but they've lost the technique.

Tracy Chronicles

Tracy "Roxy Hart" Anderson Sued by Machinist Ex

From just some dumb mechanic's wife...
I'm gonna be a celebrity,
That means somebody everyone knows
They're gonna recognise my eyes,
My hair, my teeth, my boobs, my nose.

She arrived in L.A. from Indianapolis with nothing but a suitcase and a whole lot of perfectly toned accessory muscles. Glynn Barber, "engineer/machinist" fell in love. He would build the exercise equipment, and she would sell it to celebrities, and on cable, and they would make love in Malibu beach houses or at the Chateau Marmont. She talked to him about the "Tracy Anderson Method," but didn't mention the method left a trail of angry people and large unpaid bills. "Tracy absolutely has some voodoo capability," Barber says now, in court papers. But then it was all just a beautiful future, and ecstatic workouts. Soon she was training Gwyneth and Madonna, and appearing on the Today show TV in fake lashes. She was cute, and also hot, and mixed dancing with fitness. Nevermind that she enraged fitness blogs with her promise that all women could have Beyonce's butt, and her warnings not to lift too much weight lest they "bulk up."

Hot Clothes

Suddenly Stella

Stella McCartney’s partnership with Adidas is nothing new (she’s been designing for them since February 2005), but I've never gone there. I'm a old-tanktop-and-linty-sweats yogi, and have yet to cross the spendy workout clothing hurdle. I like the idea of mixing high fashion with an old school sport brand, though. Original, if high risk. I've always loved Stella’s stuff, but what does she know about sweat? I've been curious. Recently Tracy Anderson, (yes, of Gwyneth and Madonna fame), has started consulting on the line, which means it's officially Social Workout business.

So, I stopped by the flagship Adidas store on Houston and Broadway today to investigate, and, after brief conversation with uninformed employee, found myself standing in the Stella McCartney section.

What happened?

Madonna Very Unlike A Virgin

Say it ain't so. In all her years of politico-sexual provocation, perhaps nothing Madonna-related was ever so primally disturbing as this "candid" shot of her arms. Could it be a hoax? Yes, hinted Tracy Anderson yesterday on The CBS Early Show, (while otherwise demo-ing how to skip on a treadmill.) “She’s gorgeous.” We do hope Trace is telling the truth, and there's an ill-intentioned Photoshop whiz at work here. Otherwise, we're seeing grounds for malpractic suit. So much for Tracy's much-hyped system, the "long and lean" and the focus on the old "accessory muscles." Looks from here like Madge has got nothing left BUT "accessory muscles." Make it go away. We'd take the old Boy Toy body over this, or better, everyone's favorite Virgin.