FASHION Magazine

  A photo posted by Kim Kardashian West (@kimkardashian) on May 7, 2015 at 5:23pm PDT Personal trainers, beware: There’s a newbie in town. Seen on celebs like the Kardashians and Jessica Alba (who says she wore two corsets to get her body back to post-baby shape), the waist trainer is becoming the most coveted […]

The post What is waist training? All about what the new celeb trend does (and doesn’t do) to your body appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

While a more accurate title for this post would have been “Celebrities, they’re nothing like us but we can dream!” we promised ourselves that this year, we’d gear up for TIFF (which starts today!) by indulging in some super-luxe treatments that sound fit for a Kardashian. A regular old face mask in our bathrooms? Not […]

The post Celebrities, they’re just like us! 4 extremely fierce things we did to prep for TIFF appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Around the white, light-filled studio, flashes of lime green, fuchsia and black Lycra blur as a roomful of people sway together, balance one another overhead, roll around or gently connect palm to palm. We’re at 80 Gladstone—a movement studio in Toronto opened by yoga teacher Diane Bruni—and this is Contact Improv, which involves moving spontaneously for an hour and a half while maintaining a point of contact with a partner. You sweat and gain strength from bracing your core and supporting your weight so you can lift your partner off the ground, if the urge strikes you, but you’re also forced to be present and mindful, as the movement is always changing. “It’s a wonderful metaphor for life,” says Bruni, who also offers classes taught by a Shaolin monk. “His spiritual practice is qi gong and tai chi and kung fu. It’s not praying and it’s not sitting; it’s all in movement.”

The search for spiritual stand-ins is on. “The yoga studio is a modern-day church, in a way. It’s where people go to be with their community,” says Jeff Krasno, co-founder of Wanderlust, a festival of meditation, yoga, movement and more that takes place in 14 cities worldwide—including Whistler (July 31 to Aug. 4) and Mont-Tremblant (Aug. 21 to Aug. 24)—and expects about 120,000 participants this year. “It’s about being around people who share your values and beliefs. [It’s] not religion in the more theocratic sense, but there’s an ethos to live mindfully.” In 2012, Krasno spoke at the Gospel of Sweat, held at New York’s Riverside Church and spearheaded by Lululemon, a company known for extolling the virtues of self-empowerment and inner development to its staff. Yogis and fitness aficionados gathered to sermonize about how a growing wellness-focused contingent is “praying through their pores.”

See our top workout shoe picks »

Sneakers are getting mileage this spring—both on and off the treadmill. The fashion set is pairing sporty kicks with anything and everything (A Chanel ensemble with tweed lace-ups? Yes, please!) While choosing footwear to complement your #ootd is a matter of taste, decoding what shoe fits your workout can seem daunting. Barefoot style or thick soled? Minimalist or supportive? Here are some tips on navigating the shoe wall from Colin Dombroski, PhD, pedorthist (expert in orthotics and footwear), and clinical and research director of SoleScience in London, Ont.

See all the Barre Burn workout moves »

A few weeks ago we had the chance to do a Beyoncé-themed workout at Equinox Toronto, and, like any opportunity that involves Queen Bey, it was a no brainer to give it a try. The class, led by Nike athlete Eva Redpath, was a special version of Equinox’s very popular Barre Burn workout. Barre Burn is a ballet-inspired full body workout that seems easy at first, but quickly melts into a core-strengthening sweat session. So the all-Beyoncé soundtrack makes sense: You’ll definitely leave the class feeling confident enough to star in your own “Partition” video remake.

Tracy Anderson, the woman responsible for Gwyneth Paltrow’s impressive quadriceps, dropped by Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel this week to lead her signature dance-based studio class and chat about the launch of Samsung’s Gear Fit ($219, bestbuy.ca) wearable fitness tracker. If you’ve tried her workout videos (and really, who hasn’t flailed their arms back and forth in the living room while staring intently at the laptop?), you know she’s a tiny powerhouse whose empire and influence grows by the minute. Herewith, the gospel according to Tracy:

Olympians perform some breathtaking feats—many of which are top of mind a month after the winter Olympics in Sochi. But have you ever looked at an Olympian up close? Clear skin, bright eyes and well-muscled bodies are just the icing that comes from their years-long dedication to healthy eating and exercise. Case in point: Kelsey Serwa, 24, who took home the silver for ski cross in Sochi. Here are her top tips to take you through to summer sports, shorts and beyond.

It’s #NewYearNewMe time. Practically everyone has resolutions—even the supermodels (Kate Upton wants to start a journal; Cindy Crawford wants to take more beach walks). While writing down the day’s highs and lows and strolling seaside sound pleasant, the tough-love kind of goals can be downright difficult to keep (Give up chocolate? Hells no!) But we hear you: You want to be toned so you can rock spring’s crop-top trend, and we will make sure you can do so.

“Resolutions, as far as I’m concerned, fail,” says Eva Redpath, founder of Body Conditioning by Dancers and Nike Master Trainer. “We’re super committed to them, we’re hot and heavy with them, and we’re doing them for a short amount of committed time. In order to achieve what you want, you should make a lifestyle change, and that takes time.” And if your NYR list is a page long, she suggests you lighten up. “Choose one particular thing you want to work on. I wouldn’t recommend you try to quit smoking, lose weight, drink more water, go to the gym five times a week—all of that is extremely overwhelming and in my experience doesn’t work.” Once you’ve chosen a specific goal, “Set little miniature goals, so it’s like a ladder. Take one step at a time,” says Redpath. For instance, in the first week, try one new workout class and in the second week, try two.

If you’re like me, sometimes the hardest part of going to the gym (besides actually going to the gym) is figuring out what to do once I get there. But now, thanks to Nike, that “what to do at the gym?” guesswork is no more. The sportswear juggernaut recently launched the Nike Training Club (NTC) app and with over 115 workouts and 120 drills available, it’s basically like having a peppy personal trainer in your pocket.

The current fitness landscape provides endless ways to track your every mouthful, workout and calorie burned. As Lisa Jeans knows, the outcome isn’t always healthy.

Sweaty and breathing hard, I pulled out my phone and opened MyFitnessPal. After morning Ashtanga yoga and a sunset run along the Vancouver Sea Wall, my “calories remaining” count was 1,000. I was ecstatic—I had burned more than I had eaten. An advisory in red letters popped up: “Based on your total calories consumed for today, you are eating too few calories.”

“I’ve been caught,” I thought. I may have started using the app to help me train for a 10k run, but I have struggled with an eating disorder in the past, and at times I fall back into the vortex of anorexic thinking.

Technology is democratizing the fitness industry. While you might not be able to work out with a celebrity trainer, you can sweat like Serena Williams (in theory) with the Nike Training Club app. Smartphone and tablet users have access to hundreds of custom get-fit programs, meal plans and activity monitors to keep them on track and provide a social media cheering section. But they have their limits. “An app is you working on this project by yourself,” says Dr. John Berardi, co-founder of Precision Nutrition, a health coaching company that has developed an online tool to help serve its clients—he calls the new paradigm Fitness 2.0. “You don’t get wisdom, you get information.”

Preview the Reebok Classic x Alicia Keys Summer 2013 collection »

In the midst of her Girl on Fire world tour, we sat down with Alicia Keys in New York (looking very uptown-downtown in a printed Givenchy shirt and sneakers—the new A.Keys wedge from her fall Reebok collection) to talk Crossfit, vitamins and being a slave to fashion.

She was ahead of the curve on the sneaker resurgence:
“When I was a kid, I’d get the Reebok Freestyle sneakers because they were a good price range, multiple colours and I could match them with my jacket and shirt. In 2002 or 2003, I did a song called ‘If I Ain’t Got You.’ For the video, we were in Harlem and I brought the Freestyle and I painted it purple. I thought, ‘Man, it’d be cool to bring the sneaker back.’”

Ever the pioneer in getting us to run faster, farther and more frequently, Nike has launched a futuristic new running shoe that weighs in at less than eight ounces. The Flyknit Lunar1+ ($195, nike.com) fits like a second skin—it almost feels like wearing socks—with cushiony Lunarlon, a resilient foam that keeps runners’ soles supported and comfortable. The upper part of the shoe is nearly seamless, which cuts down on materials by a claimed 80 per cent. Nike’s Toronto flagship on Bloor Street is home to its only machine in Canada that steams the shoes before fitting them perfectly to each unique pair of feet; even after removing the shoes an outline of your toes will be visible (Canadian Olympic triathlete Paula Findlay was first in line to test the shoes, remarking how well they molded to her feet before taking them out for a winter jog). And the only thing better than putting on a toasty pair of kicks is the neon colour combos they come in. —Caitlin Agnew