16Sep / 2011

B’s Beauty: “Powertone”: I think they’re ON to something

I had seen the Power Plate in the myriad of gyms I’ve joined, but I had never used the thing. I was pretty darn skeptical, to be honest. I had always heard very mixed reviews, anything from “It’s life-changing amazing!” to “Oh, yeah, that’s not a real workout; it’s just for lazy people.” I was offered a free trial of Powertone classes through work, but I cancelled my appointment twice because I wasn’t sure it was for me. Eventually I did go and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t a “bolt of lightning” kind of wow. It was more of a “Hmmm, that was interesting.”

For those who have never used or haven’t heard of the Power Plate, it’s basically a vibrating plate with a long handle. The studio I go to has four plates and one teacher—that’s a darn good ratio (and often the classes end up being private tutorials). Each class is 30 minutes long, and reminds me of a “Legs, Bums, and Tums” class all done on a vibrating plate (which, ladies, is not nearly as fun as it sounds, so don’t get too excited). It’s actually bloody hard. You can do virtually any strength move on the Plate: push-ups, sit-ups, squats, lifts, weights, you name it. You can change the settings to increase or decrease the speed of the vibrations, making it harder or easier.

It took me a couple of classes to get used to the vibrations and my robotic voice during the abdominal exercises (when your back’s on the Plate, your vocal cords will know). I’ve come to love Power Plating and I often go four times a week. As a working gal, it’s the perfect workout: challenging but not exhausting, fast but effective—and the best part is you don’t sweat all that much and the studio I frequent has fans behind every Plate. This means it’s easy-peasy to fit in a session before work or at lunchtime.

It’s not, however, the perfect workout. It’s not very aerobic; the trainers recommend at least one or two other cardio sessions a week to round it out. But I do love it: it fits seamlessly into my busy lifestyle, and it will shake you into shape!

http://www.powertonestudios.com/mayfair-powerplate-studio.html

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14Sep / 2011

B’s Beauty: “Hair’s” to the Braun Silk-épil 7

Oh “hair’ve” we struggled. That’s the last of my hair puns, I swear. Prepare yourselves: I’m about to get serious about hair removal. I have had and continue to have an issue with hair, and have resigned myself to the fact that this issue will most likely follow me for the rest of my life.

It’s not all bad; there are some positives. I have thick, dark, no-nonsense hair on my head. I can shower, sleep, and wake up with totally functional hair. It naturally falls into a style that looks no different from well blow-dried, carefully coiffed hair. Awesome. I also have thick, dark eyebrows that, as I am constantly reminded, are “totally in.” Awesome again.

The problem is that the thick, shiny, dark hair on my head translates to thick, dark hair everywhere else. Literally everywhere! I have waxed more times than I’ve climbed flights of stairs (and I’m a walker). I do use and like the Veet at-home wax strips. No, they’re not as good as a professional wax, but they cost £6.79, so they’re great for a gal on a budget (aren’t we all?). I’ve done laser hair removal and I truly can’t think of one positive thing about it, even though I’ve been told a number of times that I’m the “ideal” laser candidate. It’s freaking expensive, it’s incredibly painful, and as far as I can tell it doesn’t work and there’s nothing permanent about it (hello, total regrowth after 4 months or so).

These days I epilate, and for me, this seems like the best solution. Before I began to epilate I had begun shaving again, but for this Madame Yeti, maintaining silky smooth legs required that I shave every day or two, which that resulted in—yup—razor burn. I had switched from waxing to shaving because it’s hard to wait for enough regrowth to wax, especially during the summer. The hippie-psychedelic-flower-child look is just not me. Then I heard a couple of friends talking about epilators. Even though I didn’t know that much about them, I decided, out of desperation, to splurge. The Braun Silk-épil 7 is £80.90 on Amazon—and it was the best £80.90 I’ve ever spent. The epilator is easy to use, easy to clean, and easy to charge. It comes equipped with a little light to help guide you and the flexible head can pivot by up to 15 degrees forward and backward, which means it actually moves with the contours of your body. Remarkable. It can be used wet or dry, but believe me: wet is a lot less painful! On that note, it is painful, there’s no doubt about it. But so is waxing and lasering and sometimes shaving and, particularly if you use the epilator wet after you shower, it’s not that bad, and it, too, shall pass. And when it does, you’ll be silky smooth, no matter where you’ve decided to epilate. It even works on the face, but I’m not that brave. The only downfall: it purports to grab hairs the size of a “grain of sand.” Not quite, but it can definitely get hairs that wax could only dream of.

http://www.braun.com/uk/

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12Sep / 2011

R’s Beauty: Tracy Anderson: Workout Barbie

Admit it—you may be a feminist now, but as a kid, you, like me, played with Barbies.

You can do it. Let the healing begin.

Good. Now that we’ve exposed each other’s retrogressive pasts, let’s imagine for a moment what would happen if those plastic models of unattainable female perfection came to life, strapped on a sports bra, and started jumping around like it was going out of style (which, arguably, it has). Simultaneously terrifying and intriguing, no?

Tracy Anderson might be the closest thing to that Workout Barbie of our imaginings. Barbie may have some height and a cup size or two on pint-sized Tracy, but our living doll is a blonde, perky powerhouse whose mission in life is to kick your bum into shapely submission. Perhaps best known for being Gwyneth “Actual Barbie” Paltrow’s BFF, Tracy has built a veritable empire of fitness, complete with an army of hot chicks.

Tracy’s newish “Metamorphosis” series is a 90-day program, customized for your body type, which promises to work what she calls the “accessory muscles” in order to sculpt a slim, toned, dancer’s body. Susceptible as I am to infomercials (I WANT IT ALL!), I decided to give it a whirl and fork over $89.97 for the whole kit-and-caboodle. First you take a good, hard look at yourself and determined whether you’re Omnicentric, Abcentric, Glutecentric, or Hipcentric (oh the joy of the pear-shape!). Then you order up your boot(y) camp, roll out the mat, and get a-sweatin’. Said kit includes an (absurdly-fruit-purée-based) diet plan, a workout calendar, a tape measure, a Q&A booklet, and four “Transform” DVDs. The first DVD contains a Welcome bit (Hi, Gwennie! You look great!) and the Cardio routine, while the other three are divided into 9 ten-day segments.

Step one: toss the diet plan. Step two: eat more veggies, less pizza. Step three: do the workout 6 days/week. Step four: rest on the 7th day like the divine being you are.

First the good stuff: This thing works. By switching up the workout every ten days, your muscles never get used to the moves, so you see consistent change. This change is very motivating, as you might imagine. The workout tracker and a tape measure will become your friends. Your human friends will comment on your bum with that mix of concealed envy and admiration that girls do so well. You will see some awesome ab muscles. You may have to go shopping for new jeans sometime in the middle of Level 5.

Also, for someone who used to spend 2 hours at the gym almost every day, doing the same workout and not getting anywhere (the treadmill: a metaphor par excellence), Tracy’s method is a “fresh of breath air,” as my mother says. 30 minutes of dance aerobics followed by 30 minutes of strength work is—eventually—doable, although while you’ll definitely feel stronger, more balanced, and infinitely more confident in your ability to play a kind of grown-up, silent Simon Says (more on that in a moment), the workouts never get easier. I just finished Level 6, and the sweat has not abated. The dance part is way more fun than the elliptical machine, especially if after you’ve watched Cardio routine a few times you ditch Tracy, put on your own music, and rock the hell out. Stress, begone!

The not-as-good: This is a lady of few words. Taking the “show, don’t tell” maxim to the max, Tracy only rarely explains what on earth she’s doing, and she doesn’t cue. That means you’ll have to really pay attention to the angles she’s hitting, even in the abs section. Watching each workout once through might be wise, just so you’re not utterly bewildered when she’s on this elbow and that knee and kicking to this o’clock and lifting this arm to balance while squaring that hip. The “standing abs” section of each workout continues to be a mystery to me, so I just follow along as best I can.

The other thing is that there’s no real stretching component, which is actually fine if you just take 20 minutes to really stretch those glutes, hips, and the key muscles along the spine. Believe me, you’ll need it—all that jumping around tends to compress things, and you will be much happier if you can move the next day.

Tracy Anderson may not be sweet and cuddly, but hey, neither was Barbie.