Lotte Berk in the Press

Victoria Beckham has embraced a new fitness fad taking Hollywood by storm.  

The mother of three, who is said to be trying for a baby girl, has been doing four classes a week of the punishing Core Fusion workout.

"Beckham was introduced to it by her Desperate Housewives pal Eva Longoria and they are now obsessed with it," says a source. "It combines core conditioning with Pilates, the Lotte Berk method designed by a German ballet dancer, interval training and yoga. It's amazing!"

"Teachers prodded every muscle into the exact position to work those spots my other workouts had left behind... students held on to their barrres, groaning through their moves as the teacher enthused, 'bend, stretch, wiggle, thrust!' This Jane Fonda meets Margot Fontaine workout was not only fun, it was sexy. I truly loved it. In fact after my first class I thought where has this exercise been all my life?... having lost an inch off my bottom and half an inch off my waist, I can face my bikini again. You can 'spot reduce'; it's called Lotte Berk."

Anna Magee (Red Magazine, Health Editor)

"Good posture can eliminate back pain, flatten a pot-belly, add a couple of inches to your height, provide stress relief, reduce headaches and sharpen up a saggy jaw-line. No wonder when it's done right it has the opposite sex captivated....Lotte Berk the formidable doyenne of deportment opened her doors to hundreds of women seeking improvement. Britt Ekland, Yasmin Le Bon, Joan Collins and Edna O'Brien are alumni who worked through the punishing pelvic tilts and back realignment techniques of the Lotte Berk Method. But the results are worth it: the late Ms Berk moved as though she were on rollers. She believed that to be ladylike was a way of life, but that, like a swan it should appear effortless, despite the hard work going on behind the scenes."

Kelly Gilbert (Vogue, Nov 2008)

"Hers is the most intense, effective form of exercise you can do - a cross between yoga and ballet that's designed to strengthen and stretch the body. Once you start, it almost becomes a drug - you just can't stop. In the Harper's office there are eight or ten women who go to Lotte Berk classes regularly and you can just see the results - long lean legs and a high bottom."

(Liz Tilberis, Editor of Harper's Bazaar) 

 

"Lotte is the hardest thing I have ever done, save for the London Marathon... the exercises which quite often seem like tiny postural corrections are killers once you get going.... closely allied to Pilates it is faster and more fun. Lotte is tough but it can really get you into shape.... everything bulked me up apart from the Lotte Berk Method which slimmed and elongated me."

Tina Caudoin (The Times)

"Lotte Berk is practically a cult among it's ladies.... they show up to sculpt, and the results are visible... Lotte traits are a defined back, thigh muscles as long and steely as knives, the 'deux petit pains-ish' buttocks."

(Rory Evans, Conde Nast Sports) 

 

 

"Lotte Berk is the woman who kickstarted the modern fitness industry... celebrities from the Sixties onwards - including Zoe Wanamaker, Maureen Lipman, Prue Leith, Shirley Conran, Joan Collins and Britt Ekland flocked to Berk's classes to improve their attractiveness in mini skirts. Lotte told them in a thick German accent, how to adapt suggestive poses. "Think of your lover as a string bean," recalls Leith being instructed as she squeezed her pelvis. In between bursts of helpless laughter, those strong enough to keep up became almost (though never quite) as svelte as Berk herself."

Cassandra Jardine (The Daily Telegraph, July 2010)

 

"On my first day of Core Fusion and after 20 squats at the barre (but who's counting?) my legs were shaking, and I was gasping for breath. The others around me seemed to move with strength and ease - obviously they were die-hards who had jumped on this craze long ago.

Fusion classes, which mix body sculpting with flexibility, strength training and balance work, have become the latest trend in fitness, and boutique gyms offering them are popping up from New York to Los Angeles.

The low-impact workout first became popular more than 30 years ago, with a fitness regime called the Lotte Berk Method that combines pilates, yoga, barre work and core conditioning. After working each muscle group, a corresponding stretch ensures that the muscles formed are long and lean, not short and bulky.

Although it's been three decades since its origination, the famed Lotte Berk Method has recently enjoyed a rebirth in popularity and spawned numerous other fusion-type classes."

(By Jessica Seid, CNNMoney.com staff writer

August 16 2006: 6:34 PM EDT)

 

 

Having just turned 36, and determined to remain stick-thin, Victoria Beckham has embraced a new fitness fad taking Hollywood by storm.

The mother of three, who is said to be trying for a baby girl, has been doing four classes a week of the punishing Core Fusion workout. ‘Victoria was introduced to it by her Desperate Housewives pal Eva Longoria and they are now obsessed with it,’ says a mole.

“It combines core conditioning with Pilates, the Lotte Berk method designed by a German ballet dancer, interval training and yoga. It’s amazing!”