Workout: Denise Austin wants you to get moving

Healthy Life magazine

Body. Mind. Spirit.

February 27, 2012 at 4:53 pm by TU Magazines

Power Play

By Larissa Lytwyn/HealthyLife

What keeps fitness guru Denise Austin going after more than 30 years in the business? “I’ve never been afraid to jump right in!” the petite powerhouse laughs. With the same honey-blonde hair and smooth skin she sported a decade ago, it might come as a surprise that Austin is turning 55 this year. The explanation may be a seemingly endless supply of positive energy and an even stronger sense of self. Austin was never someone other than who she was — a naturally athletic, effervescent California girl who caught the fitness bug in the late 1970s and never looked back.

What Austin advocates — a combination of dance, yoga, mixed martial arts and old-school aerobics — reflects virtually every cross-training trend out there. Yet, underneath it all, not much has changed. “It’s about getting off the couch and doing basic, cardio-blasting moves,” Austin says. Whether kettlebell-inspired or ballet-driven, the principles of the workouts — incorporating jumping jacks, squats and lunges — are basically the same as the Jane Fonda moves of the early ’80s.

Austin’s biggest inspiration was mentor and friend Jack LaLanne, the industry’s first mass media fitness pioneer who started his popular TV fitness show in the 1950s. “He was before his time,” Austin says.

She met LaLanne while he was out for dinner at the same restaurant. “I just went up to him, introduced myself and said, ‘I love you! My mom works out to your tapes! I’ll be on your show!’” Austin says. “You should never be afraid to jump in. You get the confidence, and you just do it!”

Austin found great success on the Jack LaLanne Show, serving as co-host in 1981. She stayed closely in touch with the fitness legend over the decades, until his death last January, at age 96. “I gave a speech in his honor at his (memorial) service,” Austin says.

In between, Austin carved out a fitness career that surely made her mentor proud. In 2003, she was inducted into the Video Hall of Fame for creating — at that point — 85 workout videos or DVDs. In the nearly 10 years since, Austin has released about a dozen more, including, most recently, Sculpt & Burn Body Blitz and Denise Austin: Shape Up & Shed Pounds, which came out in December.

The focus of Sculpt & Burn is high-intensity cross-training. “It’s a very powerful workout involving mixed martial arts, athletic conditioning and kettle-bell inspired moves,” Austin says. The DVD provides a choice of 10-minute mini-workouts, including mixed martial arts, athletic conditioning (classic sports drills and interval training), kettlebell-inspired and cardio sculpt (dance-based moves), eventually building up into a longer routine. The DVD also includes a specialized 30-day workout program in which people can see results in weeks thanks to specific combinations of mini-workout routines.

Shape Up & Shed Pounds, in contrast, is aimed mostly toward beginners or people coming off an injury. The workout is comprised of a 30-minute low-impact cardio routine that incorporates power walking, kicks and even the mambo, all leading to a fitter physique. The 20-minute portion that follows focuses on plank variations and core exercises. And, of course, a thorough warm-up and cool-down precedes and completes both.

Through the years, Austin has seen fitness trends come and go. (One thing she won’t release anytime soon is a stripper-pole video.) But if you think she’s someone who exercises for hours on end to keep her slender build (and insanely youthful vitality) in check, think again. “I mix it up during my 30-minute workouts, never try to do anything twice,” Austin says. “Some days I’ll do a little yoga. Or maybe it’ll be some cardio from Sculpt & Burn. Or it will be a yoga/pilates combination. But it’s just to get that heart rate up, get that metabolism burning.” She also says she has never had a stitch of plastic surgery. Austin is proud to be all-natural, 30 years after her career started.

She is particularly fond of yoga for its meditative soul-calming benefits. It’s the focus of several of her workout DVDs, including her personal favorite, Hot Body Yoga, which incorporates light weights into basic yoga moves such as Sun Salutation and Downward Dog. “You know, I had a foundation when I was young and was a gymnast as a little girl, and it just grew from there,” Austin says. “You learn a lot over the years, and you learn how to incorporate the new, but the foundation has gotta be there. Eat moderately, exercise moderately, and you will have success.”

And her top secret for staying so youthful-looking? “Dance and stretch and move as if you were 25 again,” Austin laughs, “and you will be.”

Photo courtesy of Denise Austin.

Posted in Body, General, HealthyLife [March 2012]

http://blog.timesunion.com/healthylifemagazine/workout-denise-austin/392/