Tracy Anderson’s Method Review – TA Online Studio
There are many great workout programs out there and you guys are really interested in me reviewing them, so I’m back with another one! :)
This time I’m reviewing one of Tracy Anderson’s programs called TA Online Studio and I’m excited to share more about this popular program with you! She is a big, well-respected name in the fitness industry with popular workout routines and celebrity clients!
If you want to learn about other programs, be sure to check out my other reviews. I have also written reviews on Emi Wong’s 21 Day Transformation Program, Kayla Itsines’ BBG, Chloe Ting’s 30 Day Lean Thigh Challenge and Leslie Sansone’s Walk at Home Program.
WHAT IS THE TRACY ANDERSON METHOD?
As I mentioned, Tracy Anderson has been in the fitness industry for a long time, training celebrities like Penelope Cruz and Gwyneth Paltrow. She even spent about a decade doing research into muscle groups to create the most effective program!
Here are the key components of the Tracy Anderson Method.
Emphasis on small, repetitive movements
Tracy Anderson designed her workouts around small, repetitive movements. Typically, her resistance exercises use just bodyweight, but occasionally she will use light hand weights and exercise balls.
These movements target your entire body: core, legs, butt, arms, and back.
Engaging accessory muscles
Tracy is all about making your small, accessory muscles work non-stop. By strengthening the small muscles in your body, she believes you can better support your larger muscles.
Dance-inspired aerobics
Tracy also makes sure you’ll work up a sweat! Her dance-inspired aerobics target those small muscles (once again), while also giving you a cardio workout.
The cardio workouts will help you burn a lot of calories which is always a plus. ;)
RELATED POST: Will These Exercises Make My Legs Bigger
ONLINE STUDIO STRUCTURE
Tracy Anderson’s Online Studio program has six different segments:
- Start (for beginners)
- Fundamental (for intermediate users)
- Attain (for those who are advanced)
- Cardio
- Multitask (30 minutes of cardio plus 30 minutes of muscular structure)
- Bonus content (15 minute workouts that target specific body parts, like your butt or abs!)
Every Wednesday, Tracy updates her Online Studio website with new workout sequences for each of these levels. Because of this, the curriculum is always evolving.
MUSCULAR STRUCTURE EXERCISES
THREE LEVELS
Tracy focuses on working your muscles in the first three segments of the program (Start, Fundamental, and Attain).
The Start (beginner) level focuses on teaching you how to do her Online Method. This level helps you learn techniques. Tracy Anderson encourages people who are new to exercise or to her programs to start here.
The Fundamental (intermediate) level focuses on improving form and enhancing performance. People at this level should notice their strength improving significantly too.
The Attain (advanced) level is meant for people who have significant experience with the Tracy Anderson Method. At this level, clients can follow integrated sequences, master their moves, and build the connection between their mind and body.
STRUCTURE OF THE MUSCULAR WORKOUTS
Tracy offers three different levels, but the layout of each is very similar. Every sequence includes the following five types of video:
Breakdown video
In this video, one of Tracy’s trainers demonstrates key movements. The trainer explains proper form, and also lets you know what equipment you will need. Tracy doesn’t talk during the movements in the mat class lesson, so it is important to watch this video beforehand.
Mat Class
This is the actual exercise, and it includes a front-camera angle view. Watch this as you workout! The class focuses on floor-based resistance training, but there is also a 10-minute dance warm-up before the resistance training begins. The warm-up workout will help get your blood flowing and will help prevent injuries from strained muscles.
The class is 30 minutes for true beginners, 45 minutes for people who are transitioning from beginner to intermediate, and 60 minutes for both intermediate and advanced users.
The fact that Tracy doesn’t talk during the video might be challenging for some beginners. This is something to keep in mind while evaluating her program. :)
RELATED POST: Most Common Workout Injuries And How To Prevent Them
End-of-class chat with Tracy
In this video, Tracy will review the movements and explain more about the method. She also encourages you to stay at your level until you are bored and certain you can move up.
Front View: Arms
This video provides a different camera angle on the opening dance workout. If you are confused about how to do an exercise, this can be helpful.
Legs Summary
This is another camera angle to show you the leg movements during the mat video. Watching this will help you correct and modify your movements.
CARDIO WORKOUTS
Tracy Anderson’s cardio workouts are designed for every fitness level, but beginners might struggle with learning some of the dance moves! :) The cardio video collection is regularly updated, and the videos are archived for users to access on rotation no more than seven repetitive days.
As you can see, Tracy is a huge fan of cardio workouts. I totally agree with her on this point! My favourite type of cardio is power walking because it is excellent for slimming your legs down.
Tracy, however, prefers dancing, and I can understand why she enjoys it. It is a fun, full-body cardio workout! :) Tracy loves dancing because:
- Dancing engages a variety of muscles. When you dance, you move your body in several directions, and you work both small and large muscles.
- You can dance anywhere, even in your bedroom!
- Dancing doesn’t cause as many injuries as other forms of cardio, like running, that are more repetitive.
- Dancing helps improve your mobility, flexibility, and balance!
Tracy has a few different types of dance-inspired cardio videos that she includes in her program.
Dance Cardio with Tracy
These are choreographed videos to use as cardio. Unlike the muscular structure videos, they include a breakdown of all the needed steps. These videos are for all levels.
Low Impact Dance Cardio
These videos are perfect for beginners or more experienced people who need a lighter day. The routines are easy to learn, but they don’t include a breakdown of the steps.
Low Intensity Cardio (LIIS) such as this won’t cause any bulkiness and it may help you burn more fat. However, from my experience, this type of cardio isn’t as effective as power walking.
RELATED POST: Is Walking Or Running Better For Fat Loss
Catalyst Cardio
These videos introduce you to the intermediate level Tracy Anderson cardio. In Catalyst Cardio, Tracy leads dance-inspired cardio with basic footwork and fairly easy-to-learn dance moves. Still, you’ll get your heart rate up and burn a lot of calories.
Catapult Cardio
These are the most intense cardio videos! These dance routines are high-intensity and require practice and/or coordination. These videos burn a lot of calories. So if you’re looking for that extra burn and you’re already fairly fit, this is the level for you.
MULTITASK WORKOUTS
Doing a cardio workout, plus a muscular structure workout, in one day can be a lot for some people. Combining these two types of workouts could easily put you at about two hours of fitness a day.
For some women that’s totally fine, but some might struggle with fitting that amount of exercise in their daily schedule.
The multitask section solves this problem. The multitask workouts are 50 minutes in total. They include 25 minutes of muscle definition workouts and 25 minutes of catalyst cardio videos.
Tracy designed the multitask workouts for all fitness levels.
BONUS CONTENT
In this section, Tracy provides videos that target specific parts of the body. She breaks the bonus content into three types of videos:
Bodycentric Add-Ons
Tracy includes videos for women who want workouts that help them focus on a specific body part – abs, booty, etc.
15 Minute Cardio Bonus
These videos are shorter versions of Tracy’s signature dance cardio workouts. :)
Tracy Anderson Ball Customized Body Workouts
Tracy works out with her own exercise ball, and she demonstrates how to use it in four different bonus videos.
DOES THE TRACY ANDERSON METHOD WORK?
As I mentioned, Tracy Anderson has been a successful trainer for a long time. She’s had many famous clients, who have praised her method! In fact, she continues to train celebrities, including Tracee Ellis Ross (her abs are amazing!) and Jennifer Lopez.
I personally think a lot also depends on your goals. Tracy’s programs are all about creating that lean and toned look (Woohoo!). However, if you are an Endomorph or Mesomorph body type and you start doing a lot of her high-intensity cardio, your legs could potentially bulk up.
So if you want to get slimmer legs, I’m not sure how effective this method is going to be, especially if you don’t include power walking and if you don’t have a great diet.
HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO SEE RESULTS?
Tracy does not specify how long her program takes to work. She is clear that her program does not have a specific time limit. She encourages her clients to stick with one level until they are no longer being challenged by it.
In other words, if you are bored, it is time to move up to a new level.
I like to remind girls I know that change doesn’t happen overnight. :) If you want to see results, you need to find a program that works for your body type and then stick to it for at least 2 months!
WILL THE TRACY ANDERSON METHOD WORK WITH MY PROGRAM?
As I expected, Tracy Anderson created a well-designed program and I like it. Here are a few things I appreciate about it:
- Tracy focuses on workouts that target the entire body.
- She includes additional workouts in case you are concerned about a specific body part (for example, toning and lifting your butt).
- The program prioritises cardio! I love cardio workouts, and I think they are important to include in a workout routine.
- Tracy encourages people to use their body weight or light weights in her resistance training. I’m a big fan of bodyweight workouts too!
However, this is an intense program. As you move up in the levels, you can easily spend two hours a day doing it.
And even though you may think my program is juust for legs, it’s actually a full body program.
If you were to combine my program with the TA Online Studio, you would be exercising way too much. You would overwork your muscles, which can cause injury and can cause you to develop bulky muscles. My program is designed to give you results on its own. :)
So even though I think Tracy’s designed a great workout program, I don’t recommend combining it with my Lean Legs Program.
RELATED POST: Main Reason Why Your Legs Aren’t Getting Leaner
FINAL THOUGHTS
Tracy Anderson is well-respected and loved by celebrities for a reason. She has put in the time to create researched, proven workouts.
Remember, every person is different. Your goals, ability, schedule, etc., might be different than somebody else’s. That’s ok! But it is important to make sure you pick a program that suits your needs and desires.
I hope that this review was helpful to you! If you have any other programs you would like me to review, please let me know. :)
Love Rachael xx
Images credit: Tracy Anderson Instagram
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Rachael is an Australian born certified personal trainer and nutritionist who holds a Bachelor degree in Science.
After struggling for years to find an exercise and diet program that is tailored to women striving for lean and toned body with no bulk she designed her Lean Legs Program. This program is tailored to each body type and focused on helping women get toned but feminine bodies, without getting bulky.
Her mission is to empower women and help them stay in shape in a healthy and balanced way.
Great review! Very helpful! Thank you, Rachael!
What about adding workouts to your program that target specific body parts, like in Tracy’s program? Like ones that focus on toning the core or butt? How often should those be performed?
Hey lovely,
Thanks for reaching out and kind regards! :)
Rachael doesn’t suggest mixing up her Program with others, she simply can’t guarantee the results that way. :)
But if you wish, you can try and see how it works for you. xx
Love,
Ana
Hi Rachael. I love your program! I’ve done 3 rounds!! I recently went back to Tracy Anderson combined with your program. Here’s how I do it: M, W, F 30 min TA mat workout + 15 mins TA dance intermediate dance cardio, T, TH, Sat I do your power walking and I love your meal plans. I also do that cardio video that you did with your Mom once week or so. It’s working for me. Would love to see Lean Legs 2 from you. Much love.
Hi lovely,
thanks for reaching out! <3
I'm so glad to hear that! Rachael does plan on making a Lean Legs 2 in the future, just not sure exactly when.
Love,
Sanja
Once upon a time Tracy Anderson completely changed my body, including slimming down my legs. It was miraculous. Her early work tends to be more effective than her online studio, for whatever reason. Her more recent work isn’t as great for weight loss as it does tend to build some muscle. Likewise, if you do an hour of “Advanced” (Attain) you might not have enough energy later to do cardio. . .thanks for the review!
Hey lovely,
Thanks so much for your feedback, hun! :) xx
Love,
Ana