A Big Attitude - Big in Hollywood

PRIMETIME BODIES

THE HOLLYWOOD FITNESS PROGRAM

From the recent bestseller Primetime Bodies: The Six-Week Hollywood Fitness Program, authors Cynthia Tivers and Kathy Kaehler share the secrets behind a workout that has shaped and toned Kathy’s celebrity clients. These same exercises will work for you and help you feel really good about yourself.

ABA’s “BIG IN HOLLYWOOD” has carefully selected excerpts from the book that apply to you and that you can relate to. Catch up on the latest trends with us, or dig through our archives for more on the Hollywood fitness scoop.

Getting the Parts

It takes muscle to make it in Hollywood. That muscle may be packed on Sylvester Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger or it could be sculpted on Jamie Lee Curtis or Julianne Phillips. These celebrities come directly off Kathy Kaehler’s personal training roster, but we can’t forget to mention Camryn Manheim and Rosie O’Donnell as women with Hollywood muscle too.

No matter who’s wearing them, well toned bodies are shaping their parts both on-screen and off. We’re going to put your muscles through a program inspired by our celebrities that focuses on strengthening areas which reduce stress on your joints. Women who carry more weight on their bodies put more stress on their joints and that could lead to injury. But if you strengthen the muscles around the joints, you can protect yourself from injury.

We’re going to show you how to work out skeletal muscles from your head to your toes. But before we work them out we’d like to help you “get” your parts by giving you some muscle “back-story.”

There are about 700 muscles in the human body. Women can improve their muscle strength through weight training. Strength training involves performing a body motion while you add resistance to that motion. Muscles get stronger or weaker in response to demands placed on them. Muscles lose strength when they’re not used and gain strength according to the load placed on them. As the muscle gets stronger, it has to be challenged harder in order to keep developing.

Why should women develop their muscles? First, a basic fact: muscle burns more calories than fat. Even when we’re asleep, our skeletal muscles (the ones we’ll be training) are responsible for more than 25 percent of our calorie use.

In addition, bones grow denser from stress placed on them. So weight-bearing exercises, like many of the exercises we’ll be doing, will help stem osteoporosis.

People who don’t train their muscles through exercise lose about one-half pound of muscle every year, starting in their late 20s.That gradual loss of muscle tissue means adults who don’t train will reduce their metabolic rate* by one-half percent every year. This gradual decrease in metabolism is closely related to the gradual increase in body fat that we all face as the years go by.

So not only does body muscle make you look good now, it also allows you to eat more and gain less weight as you go through life.

Now let’s take a look at four of the major muscles we should be working to help alleviate stress on vulnerable joints like the shoulders, hips and knees, starting at the top:

Deltoids for Stronger Shoulders:

These are your shoulder muscles. They’re used mainly to raise your arm. As we go along, we’ll use them every time we work out. We’ll be working on the anterior deltoids (at the front of your shoulder), the posterior (the back of your shoulder), and the middle deltoid (at the top). The deltoids form the shoulder cap.

Exercise:

Sit at the edge of your chair and bend forward at the waist with your arms down at your sides. Lift your arms out to the sides and bring them up to shoulder level. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and exhale, working your posterior deltoids, and return your arms to your sides. Do not drop your head; keep it forward and aligned with your spine. Complete 1 set of 10 reps.

Abdominals for Stronger Hips:

The rectus abdominis is a long powerful muscle that runs from your chest to your pubic bone. It pulls your torso toward your hips and your hips toward your torso. We’ll work the “abs” with sit-ups, crunches, and leg raises.

Exercise:

Crunches! Lie on the floor on your back. Bend your knees and place your feet flat on the floor in front of you. With your hands behind your head and chin off your chest, lift your shoulders off the floor and up toward your knees. (There are some things to be careful of here. One is that you don’t pull on your head or neck to lift off the floor – use your abs to do that pulling. Another is that you keep your chin up, but not too high. Picture your chin holding a grapefruit resting on your chest. That’s where your chin should be. And last, get your breathing right. Remember to exhale at the point of most exertion – so you exhale when you’re lifting up and inhale when your torso goes back down). Do this move 8times up and down – counting each round-trip as 1 – to complete 1 set.

Quadriceps for Stronger Knees:

The front of the thigh. It’s a group of four muscles that run down the front of the thigh to attach at the kneecap. These muscles all work to extend the leg and to flex the thigh. We’ll work the “quads” when we do lunges, plies, and leg extensions.

Exercise:

Plies! Your basic plie position is with your legs more than shoulders-width apart and your toes pointed in the 10 and 2 positions on an imaginary clock. With your hands on your hips, lower your body, bending your knees so that your torso comes toward the floor. As you go deeper toward the floor, your knees are over your toes. Your pelvis should stay neutral. Stop before your butt gets to a 45-degree angle to your knees. Your knees should be at a 45-degree angle to your ankles. Now, as you lift up, squeeze your gluts. Do not come all the way up to a straight leg because you want to keep the tension. Stop when your knees are slightly bent. Repeat 5 times.

Hamstrings for Stronger Knees:

Three muscles in the back of the thigh, which flex the knee, rotate the leg, and extend the hips. We’ll work the hamstrings both in a standing position and when we’re on the floor working our gluts with leg raises.

Exercise:

You’ll need a chair for this one. Facing the back of the chair, and resting forearms on it for support, walk your legs back a few steps from the chair. Stand on your left leg with your knee relaxed, your right leg bent slightly at the knee. Flex your right foot and bend your right leg more, squeezing as you bring your heel toward your butt. Keep your pelvis neutral as you lift your leg up and place it down. Make sure you keep your knees together to help isolate your hamstring muscle. Do this movement 8 times, and repeat with the other leg.

Now that you know the parts and you know the script, it’s time to take the next step toward our performance. But before we do, let’s look at our director – the person who will be calling the shots – you.

Shakespeare wrote “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players” (As You Like It). Going into the 21^st century those words ring true as ever. You may read about and admire the players you see on television and in movies, but remember – you’ve got your own program to appear in every day. You can look every bit as good playing your part as they do playing theirs.

As the director of your show, it’s up to you to decide where you want to focus your workouts. Working out puts all body parts in the spotlight.

*Metabolism is the rate at which your body burns calories for energy. The basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the amount of energy it takes to support the metabolic work of the body’s cells. This includes the beating of the heart, respiration, and the maintenance of the body temperature. The body must first use its energy to support these basic functions before calories can be used for any other activities including exercise.

Excerpted from Primetime Bodies by Cynthia Tivers and Kathy Kaehler (Contemporary Books). Click here to see the book.