The trouble with books written by fitness trainers to the stars isn't that people read them. It's that they read them for the wrong reasons.
No book by an A-list Hollywood trainer can make you look like Halle Berry in a cat suit (or, for that matter, Christian Slater in boxers). And whatever they can deliver will take a lot longer than the improbably few weeks hyped on the cover.
But the programs subject to these pumped-up claims do offer some value for those of us who aren't celebrities, people I think of as members of the "E-list," as in Everybody Else.
I know this only because, to spare you the embarrassment, cost and pain, I have spent the last couple of months reading these books and performing some of the workouts that appear in them.
First, let me say that the books can be wildly uneven and impractical. "The Ultimate New York Body Plan" presents a nuttily difficult program that, if followed as written, would become a part-time job. Most other workouts don't realistically fit into their alleged time limits.
All that said, the A-listers' workout routines for the most part fit E-listers well, largely because we have at least some things in common with celebrities: We're busy and don't want to spend much time working out but would like to see some results within a reasonable period of time.
Most A-list trainer books I've checked out embrace, to various degrees, the following concepts, which serve the rest of us well. They also happen to represent some of today's key fitness trends.
* Circuit training: In circuit workouts, you perform a sequence of three to 10 different exercises with little or no rest in between, then repeat the circuit two or three times.
Circuit training is very time-efficient, delivering simultaneously the benefits of a cardio session with those of strength training. And by keeping you working without rest, it torches more calories than conventional weight work.
In other words, circuit training is a good approach for people who do a lot of meetings, whether with agents or day-care teachers.
* Multi-joint, multi-muscle exercises: Do a half-squat against a wall while curling a pair of dumbbells. Then press them overhead. That's a multi-joint exercise, and it'll work your thighs, shoulders, arms and gut.
Multi-joint, multi-muscle work boosts your heart rate, multiplying the cardio benefits of circuit training. It spreads the benefits around your body, so you don't look distended in some spots and puny in others.
