Greetings, Friends:

If you haven’t heard about the Bar Method and want to get in shape, read on. Our glorious intern Amy Copperman reports on the latest exercise craze out of California.

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The Bar Method
By Amy Copperman
One of the things I love most is a really good exercise routine–the kind that makes you sweat and leaves you feeling with that euphoric “I just worked out and deserve a treat” feeling.

At the same time, I have neither the patience, nor the will power to stay on the treadmill for any reasonable amount of time. Free weights intimidate me, and when at the gym my focus is usually on the latest US magazine rather than physical activity. So instead, I’m in a constant search for a class or routine that will keep my attention. I’ve done swimming, yoga, pilates, and dance to get my endorphin fix, and recently, I’ve fallen in love with the latest exercise trend: the Bar Method.

The class combines the best aspects of yoga, pilates, strength training, and stretching, using your own body weight and deceptively easy moves to build long, lean muscles. Jane magazine says it “Burns fat and carves muscle.” Its website promises it will result in a leaner, slimmer, more youthful body. I say it leaves my muscles shaking, heart racing, and thighs more cooperative when putting on a pair of jeans. In other words, it rocks.

During the hour-long class I am never bored. Nor do I even have to look at a treadmill. Plus its use of the ballet bar and emphasis on stretching has me feeling like a ballerina…and what’s not to love about that?

While classes are currently limited to a handful of locations California, New Jersey, and Connecticut, do-it-yourself videos are available through the website.

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Know the difference between a very successful person and a dreamer? Execution.

I remind myself of this all the time when I see ideas I once had brought to fruition by someone else. During the first Gulf War I wrote down a book idea. Six years later the same concept received a Best Sceenplay Oscar nomination under the movie title “Wag the Dog.”

Striptease aerobics? Mine, too. In 1997, I blew the lid off of L.A.’s underground celebrity topless-club hangouts Crazy Girls and Cheetahs (the latter once featured topless Pussycat Dolls–long before they went PG-13). After noticing their popularity among female customers I approached a strip club manager about creating a ladies’-only night during which women could come and drink cocktails, dress up in stripperwear, and learn how to pole dance from pros as their peers cheered them on. At 9pm the doors would swing open to male guests, and you’d have a club full of very buzzed, confident, sexually charged people. What could be more L.A.?

I guess technically the idea was more like strip karaoke, but WHATEVER. I’m still convinced it’d be a very viable business. But alas, I couldn’t envision myself as an executive of exotic affairs.

But here’s a wild freshly executed idea that came to me…today via press release. It’s kooky fun and something I never would have thought of in a million years: the hula hoop work out.

Called “Hoopnotica,” it integrates electronic music and matching groovy dance moves with a fad that was resurrected by the Burning Man crowd in 2003.

You really must watch this video:

Word is there are wait lists for Hoopnotic Hoopdance classes in L.A., Vogue called it one of the “25 new obsessions for 2007,” and celebrity hoopers include Beyonce, Kate Moss and Sandra Oh.

But if you’re not in L.A. and want to join in on the hoopla, an instructional DVD provides home hoop therapy and the nifty new pack-and-go TravelHoop allows you to take your show on the road this summer.

I can hardly wait for the US Weekly spreads of Matthew McConaughey caught by paparazzi while getting his hoop on along the Santa Monica shore.

Who’d have thunk the next core body strengthening exercise regime would come from an act usually reserved for the circus or play date? Certainly not me, but it’s quite possible that life in the NorCal ‘burbs has me a touch out of the hoop.

Erika Lenkert

Technorati Tags: exercise, lose weight, tip, hula hoop, hoopnotic, celebrities, trends, Beyonce, Kate Moss and Sandra Oh, pussycat dolls, Matthew McConaughey

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