Page 137 - Tracy Anderson Magazine | Spring 2021 Issue

Method on every level. I’m deeply passionate about it, blessed to be a part of this amazing community, blessed CASSANDRA (CASSIE) PADOVANI
and I’m grateful for what it has given me and continues to to have a relationship with Tracy, beyond blessed to have
give me every day. I’m in the best shape of my life! More made so many incredible friends that I know I will have Location: Madison, WI
importantly, I feel incredible in my own skin. I actually for a lifetime. This Method brought me back to myself— IG: @sass.time
feel like I’m getting younger! If that’s even possible. I’m and keeps me there. Years Practicing TAM: 2½

Real talk: I first came across Tracy five years
ago via some definitely pirated videos of
LAILA ANDRADE THEN NOW Metamorphosis on YouTube. The no talking,
Location: Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil the interesting free arms, the blurry Russian
subtitles—it was confusing. I’ve always been a
IG: @lailabeandrade “workout person,” but for all the effort, I was
Months Practicing TAM: 10 never happy with how I looked. But there I was,
paying closer attention to the angle of my foot/
My journey with the Method started in March knee than I’d ever assumed would be necessary,
2020, shortly after the establishment of the and I could feel the difference. Eventually, the
pandemic state in my city and country. I consider bootlegged videos got dragged and I ponied up
myself a tenacious seeker for inner peace, and for the Metamorphosis DVDs and a few others.
of course this requires a healthy and balanced I didn’t fully commit until I finally got tired
body. At the time I had recently made the choice of everything else (running, spinning, barre,
to change my physical practice, as I was a Pilates kickboxing, weights, HIIT, yoga), leaving me
student for four years and I was noticing that my either skinny-fat or too bulky to fit in my pants.
body—that of a 25-year-old young woman—was I started streaming in summer/fall 2018, and I THEN NOW
craving something that would work my muscles haven’t missed a single day since. I started lurk-
in a more integrative and aerobic way. following #TAmily around then too, but it took a
As Tracy always tells us, it’s so true that most few months to muster the courage, and the right camera therefore our world, in new ways. Am I only meant to
people don’t know how to design and work with angles, to post myself. move in one plane or can I somersault on a diagonal, flip
their bodies in an integrative way. And I love I think that with Tracy, people come for the abs and back over my shoulder, then perch in a headstand? Tracy
how she puts it, “a whole conversation with our stay for something else. For me, it’s the sense of grounding. asks us to think like kids, before the years of experience
physical self.” So before the quarantine kicked I spent the better part of my twenties consumed by an and what we believe to be true about our bodies held us
in, I was doing some gym stuff, and I was already eating disorder, and the shame, isolation, and desperate back. I still fear the somersault. But I’m not afraid to try,
bored after three months. When I found her need for control that comes with it. I was past the worst and the shift in perspective is everything.
Method in a @goop post and saw the expressive of it by the time I found TA, but it casts a long shadow, That’s where the #TAmily comes in; if there’s one
nature of the arm workout, and then the creative and the darkest of our habits die hard. I will never have thing we’re all bad at, it’s seeing the beauty and potential
moves for the legs session with thousands of a completely normal relationship with food, exercise, or in ourselves plain to everyone else. You may not believe
repetitions, I was absolutely mesmerized. how my body looks or feels. But recovery doesn’t mean in yourself, or not yet, but someone here already does.
After doing two weeks of the 15-minute life without your demons, it means life with them. The The space to be myself, or maybe more to the point, to
workout post on goop, I signed up for the commitment: How far am I willing to go to really restore Method helps me cope. Wake up, work out, eat well, sleep see myself, I owe to the community. That and wearing
Online Studio program. Until today I only used Online and regenerate my health? well. Repeat. Seems simple, but consistency is everything a bodysuit as workout clothes. If not for the #TAmily, I
Studio programs, starting with Intermediate, and after five In the atTAin lane I feel this deeper call of commitment, for someone who wasted years in an exhausting cycle of definitely wouldn’t have embraced Dance Cardio. Just a
months doing the FundamenTAls every day, I moved to for it’s not doing the moves in a mechanical “perfect” starve/binge/overexercise. It also happens to be great for short note here, because everyone’s already sick of hearing
atTAin, where I’m growing and learning so much about way, but the real goal is to know how to be yourself while building overall resiliency, something that came in handy about it. I will say it to anyone who will listen: If I can,
my true self. flowing with the movement. And I confess, this kind of in 2020. you can. I’m not by nature athletic or graceful. Sometimes
One of the things that keeps me hooked to this authenticity requires much more heart and patience. So the The community is half of the equation. It’s a unique I watch basketball and think, how? How does anyone
Method is that it imitates life, so the workout is ever path of learning how to move and be present is why I love group drawn together, I believe, by the appreciation of negotiate their body and the ball at the same time? Dance
changing, preventing us from stagnating in comfort (not- and cherish my workout, in addition to the obvious benefits a Method that doesn’t make empty promises and that is an incredibly cerebral activity. It’s not enough just to
challenging-enough) zones. It’s never the same; even for my physical self. It grows me inside out, and outside in. demands the best of you. This is no “20 mins a day, move your arms in space. Do you know where your arms
when we’re evolving within the weekly routine, each day It’s not easy to put yourself through a growth journey three times a week” gig. I never forget there are people are in space? Consider this: Dance has managed to make
presents a new breakthrough if you’re paying attention. like this one, but its worth is beyond what I can express practicing for more than a decade who still grow and learn me more athletic at everything, including being unathletic.
Actually, I feel that the Method is designed to keep us with words. So for those who are reading this, I would every week. We can argue about whether humans are The other day I tripped on something and sort of artfully
sharp and flexible to the impermanent nature of life, but say that this is the most important kind of self-investment, meant to be monogamous or not, but we all know the cradled my body into a roll midair as I fell to the floor and
obviously it requires our personal commitment—not only because you’re proving for yourself, with your own bare brain craves novelty. Every Thursday, there’s something my partner was like, “Whoa, good fall. Two years ago we’d
to the consistency that our physical health requires, but hands and body, that you’re worth the sweat and the tears new and exciting. It challenges us to see our bodies, and be in the emergency room for sure.” So yeah, I came for
to the brutal honesty that analyzes the extension of this of liberation that eventually come out on the mat. the abs, but I stick around for a lot more. ■

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