Fitness guru Tracy Anderson has changed a seemingly endless list of celebrities’ bodies — turning already-in-shape humans into long, lean, toned, aesthetically balanced superhumans.
Now the trainer who has whipped everyone from Gwyneth Paltrow to Jennifer Lopez to Robert Downey Jr. into shape with her intense dance-based and small muscle-strengthening sweat sessions is advocating for something new: emotional work to balance the mind, body and spirit first.
“I did just launch a performance program that is about the deep work in before you do the work out because it’s important,” she exclusively told Us Weekly at The Daily Front Row’s Fifth Annual Fashion Los Angeles Awards with Maybelline New York on Sunday, March 17. “I think that one of the things that we can even look at as women — advocating for being treated properly and all these things — is that sex, intimacy, love, these things are not about the physical self. It is about feeling intimacy and real connections.”
In fact, the Tracy Anderson Method founder, 44, thinks internal work is more integral to results in the physical and wellness realms than any diet trend or exercise trick. “It’s not about some mechanical way of acting, looking, feeling. It’s about knowing yourself and being confident in who you are. So I really think right now the magic pill is like, Hit the pause button and do the work in: Who are you? Where did you come from? What do you look like? What do you want out of life? What are you seeking?” she explained. “And realize that we all have flaws. We all have — I don’t even think we should look at them as flaws. We’re all just unique, so I think that that’s key.”
Her new program is called The Per4mance Program, or P4P. On her website it’s described as “an annual curriculum of strategic, digital content designed to enhance the ways our minds and bodies speak to each other.” Participants of the program, which launches on March 29, will get “methodological, performance-based coursework” four times a year to help them connect and balance their physical and mental selves.
The NYC- and LA-based pro added that her plan is designed to make the results systemic and long-lasting: “I mean, obviously I believe in the workout. I believe working out regularly is key. But these magic pills, these magic diets, it’s like Viagra. Like, Viagra might make you be able to perform, but does it help you with intimacy? No.”
Meanwhile, Anderson is still helping clients get in even better shape, including her most famous protege, Paltrow, 46. “We’ve been friends for so long! There are plenty [of exercises] that she dreads,” the pro told Us. “When you’re just getting to know someone, she did everything I said and she really changed, but then I am really good at my job, so once you’ve done it a lot of years, you kind of own it. So now she’s like, ‘No, don’t get this done in 10 moves, get this done in six moves.’ I’m like, ‘Okay! No problem.’”
According to Anderson, the Goop founder has also gained plenty of confidence in her dance cardio abilities. “One of the things I love about her is that the dance for her was so challenging when we first met, and now she’s so wicked good at it,” Anderson added of Paltrow. “But she’s like, ‘More dances. More dances! Faster! I can do more. Your playlist sucks! Mine is better!’ I love it.”
With reporting by Carly Sloane
