Q&A With Celeb Trainer Simone De La Rue

Chatting with celeb trainer Simone De La Rue

I think I found my new form of cardio. And much to my surprise, it’s dancing!

Winners invited Best Health to take a Body By Simone class and check out the spring fitness lines in store right now. Celeb trainer Simone De La Rue is a classically trained dancer, who after she retired she opened her studio in 2011 (she now has studios in L.A., too). She also has quite the following on Facebook (22K) and Instagram (111K). You might also recognize her as one of the trainers on Khloe Kardashian’s show Revenge Body.

In my years as a health and fitness journalist, I’ve met many of De La Rue’s clients, including models Hilary Rhoda and Molly Simms. But her client list also includes Selena Gomez, Reese Witherspoon, Emily Blunt, Chrissy Teigen, Taylor Swift and others that are too many to mention right here. So you can imagine how excited I was to meet (and work out with) De La Rue myself. Of course, my first question was about her celeb clientele.

Who is your hardest working celebrity?

They’re all very committed. It depends why they’re coming in – whether it’s for the red carpet, a movie they’re in, a magazine cover – they get paid to look like that. They’re all very driven. All my celebs work hard.

Dance is a fitness trend again, right?

Yes! And I’m so glad. Was it Richard Simmons who was the original… or Jane Fonda? It’s funny that it’s all coming back full circle and it’s coming back now. But I think people want instant gratification. People want to take different classes. And boutique fitness studios are a big thing. You want to be able to spin on a Monday, do yoga on a Tuesday and dance on a Wednesday to stay fit. And that’s why boutique studios are working, because they bring variety for people. But the beauty about dance is that you can do this without any equipment. You can do it at home. I have so many followers around the world who are doing my dance routines in their living rooms. You don’t need a gym membership.

On Revenge Body, Jamie Lamb lost the most weight (60 pounds!). Why do you think dance made that happen?

It was because of the amount of cardio she was doing. The other trainers relied on the contestants to do their cardio on their own and do the strength training with the trainer. But the she was doing 55 minutes of dance cardio. She dropped the weight more quickly because she was doing such high amounts of cardio.

But what about those of us who don’t have rhythm or don’t know how to dance?

A lot of people who come into Body By Simone don’t. That’s the idea. I’m not expecting you to learn the routine in one-minute time. It’s something to work toward. It’s a challenge. You have to use your brain to learn the choreography. So, it’s mentally stimulating you as well as physically stimulating you. The great thing about dance is that it works your entire body. It’s not just the lower body on a bike. It’s not just the lower body going for a run. You have to have a really strong core because of the moves. It’s a wonderful workout from head to toe, and mentally and spiritually as well because it’s a creative expression.

How do you set up your workouts?

We follow a program that is done through the dance choreography. We do dance cardio and then, just like my DVDs, we do lower body, upper body and trampoline cardio. Depending on the class, if you take lower body, it’s going to be about predominantly sculpting and toning the lower body. And for interval training, there are three dance routines thrown in there.

Three questions with celeb trainer Simone De La Rue

Now, I have to admit that I wasn’t the best in the class. And often I found myself lost in the footwork. But as someone who does ladder drills and carioca almost every workout, I can’t handle my two left feet dancing. Maybe it’s because I need more practice, or a glass of wine (that usually works when I got out dancing).

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