3 Celebrity Workouts You Can Do at Home

Train like a celeb

How did Gwyneth Paltrow get those lean ballet dancer’s arms? Genetics and diet helps a lot, sure. But behind every celebrity body is a smart personal trainer wielding a butt-firming, ab-tightening workout. These professional body sculptors are now offering their regimens to you and me. Here are three unique celebrity workouts-from beginner to advanced level-that you can do at home.

Beginner level

The trainer: Ramona Braganza

Celeb clients: Jessica Alba, Anne Hathaway

DVD: 321 Method: Ramona Braganza’s Secret to a Hollywood Body

The workout: Braganza focuses on circuit training with 10-minute cardio bursts in between. (The workout is 60 minutes in total.) The one problem: you have to create those 10-minute cardio bursts on your own.  She offers suggestions-power walking, elliptical, stationery bike-but doesn’t actually lead you through any. I would have liked the cardio to be embedded in the DVD to make the workout seem less choppy.  But the exercises she offers during the circuit- training sections kept me working. There’s nothing too crazy here, just a roundup of classic and effective gym exercises such as squats, chest presses and step-ups. The core section offers a strong challenge to all the major abdominal and back muscles.

Body parts worked: Biceps, triceps, quads, hamstrings, core. The program is designed to work most of the major muscle groups.

Grade: B- A good beginner-level introduction to circuit training. Weights in varying sizes-from five to 10 lbs-are needed to perform the workout.

Intermediate level

The trainer: Valerie Waters

DVD: Action Hero Babe Training System

Celeb client: Jennifer Garner

The workout: The Action Hero Babe Training System is a 12-DVD set that comes with diet and fitness information, as well as a resistance band and the “Val Slider”-two small sliding discs that challenge stability during exercises and push muscles even further. Waters takes the circuit training approach to strengthening and toning. The six workout DVDs are divided into three different phases: “Build,” “Burn” and “Sculpt,” the idea being that you’re doing one of each, three times a week.  (You need to do cardio on your own on the days in between.) There’s nothing fancy about the DVD-the production values are nil and Waters often refers to her notes on camera-but the workout itself is fast-paced and had me breathing hard. The only drawback is that you need a stability ball and weights of varying sizes to complete all the exercises as demonstrated.

Body parts worked: It’s a full-body workout that focuses on the core, arms, backside and thighs. Best suited to a fairly fit individual that’s looking to kick her strength-training intensity into high gear.

Grade: B

Advanced level

The trainer: Tracy Anderson

DVDs: The Tracy Anderson Method: Mat Workout DVD; Tracy Anderson’s Dance Aerobics DVD

Celeb clients: Gwyneth Paltrow, Shakira

The workout: Anderson’s regime consists of four to six days of cardio and about 60 minutes of targeted toning exercises (that’s roughly 2 hours of exercise a day!) You need to splash out on both the Dance Aerobics DVD and her Mat Workout DVD to get the entire method, but it’s a pretty potent combo. If you have two left feet, the dance aerobics choreography will take some time to learn. The mat workout consists of light weight-work for the arms and a number of dance-inspired sculpting sequences that had my arms and legs burning.

Body parts worked: Anderson’s approach really works those hard-to-tone places: the underarms, the core and those pesky saddlebags.

Grade: A- for intense effort. Anderson’s method offers an effective workout for someone looking to tone and tighten-but it isn’t easy!