I was at the library with my daughter the other day, and I ran across 30-Day Method by Tracy Anderson. I vaguely knew who she was. Of course, I had to bring it home and check it out. If you are not familiar with her, she trains Gwyneth Paltrow and a few other big names.
Basic Philosophy: A small dancer type body is the perfect body and by following her method without deviation your body will be perfect too. The way to achieve this is to only work small muscles using cross-vectors of force (basically creating your own resistance by pulling with the opposing side of the body), do an hour of cardio/dance and follow the eating plan.
The workout is comprised of three ten day sequences. For the each of the ten day sequences their are seven variations of leg lifts, six moves that focus on core, and four moves for the arms. Each is preformed for 40 repetitions. No weights are used, but you can add ankle weights and decrease reps when it becomes easy. Their are two dance/cardio sequences, and a meal plan.
Tracy recommends that you do no other workout than this one for the 30 days, and work your way up till you are doing this workout for 2 hours 7 days per week.
My Experience: I have been doing the first sequence for about a week now. It seems very similar to Pilates. Although the moves are basic, forty repetitions of anything is going to burn. It takes about 30 minutes to complete and then you move on to the cardio. The cardio is all dance, and for someone like myself who is not a dancer, it's tricky. My heartrate stays around 80--85 bpm for the duration. That's well below "fat burning" range, but that being said, maybe if I was better at the moves I could do it with more intensity. After three days I switched to alternative cardio and added some weight lifting, but continued the other portions of the sequence. Tracy doesn't explain why she does not allow a day to rest the muscles. Generally, your body needs a day or two to recover before you work the same muscles again, but I think it is because she feels that "these exercises do not tear down muscle, rather build upon muscle" (a quote from her book). I am not familiar with this science, but my hips were quite sore which I associate with the tearing down of muscle. Maybe she is not allowing rest is so the muscle cannot repair and therefor not get bulky. I'm just guessing here.
The dance portion of the workout is constantly forcing you to move on a variety of planes so you are never continuously working any specific muscle. The reason for this is so you do not develop the large muscles. In contrast, with an exercise like running you are constantly applying force to the same muscles in the same way. I can see the dance being a lot of fun for someone who likes to dance. It is definitely a great way to change things up.
The diet plan seems a little restrictive. I am not a nutritionist, but from my calculations the first day allows about 700 calories. The final 10 days culminate in a cleanse. I will not be following the diet plan.
My Conclusion: All in all I found it to be a good workout and definitely something I will use to supplement what I already do. I don't have any desire to be really small. I like being strong and having more defined muscles. I would agree that in a more traditional workout we tend to neglect some of the smaller muscles in favor of developing the showy ones. However, when you work larger muscles, you burn more calories. It's more efficient for weight loss, and although I can see the value in targeting those small muscles on a regular basis, I cannot agree with excluding the larger muscles always. Some would argue that building more muscle is important for increased metabolic burn. That is because for each pound of muscle you theoretically burn an additional 30-50 calories per day. (That's questionable science too, but I thought I would throw it out there.) I probably will not do the dance portion, but again that is personal taste and I'm just bad at it. I enjoy working out at higher intensities for shorter duration and I don't have 2 hours a day to commit to exercise, so for me, it's not realistic. I would strongly advise anyone considering the diet plan to talk to a nutritionist or get it ok'd by your doctor.
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