Interview with Karen Voigt

MJ: Karen, thanks for joining us today.

KV: Thank you for having me

MJ: Tell us about your work, especially in the fitness business and what

you do.

KV: Well, my work consists of teaching exercise classes, I've written a

book, I've made exercise video tapes, I work with some celebrities, and

then I work with the everyday person. I make in-store appearances and talk

about fitness, I answer a lot of questions about people's concerns on the

future of fitness, what has worked for them, what doesn't work for them,

and I sort of get an idea from the consumer what it is that they're looking

for and I go out and I make that product if I have the capabilities to.

MJ: How did you become interested in fitness?

KV: I used to be a ballet dancer, and so I used my body. I knew what it

was like to use my body and to do it with music and in a classroom

situation and I also know the right and wrong ways of working the body, and

I, I just thought, you know, if I could transfer that over, that

information over to the everyday person who may not have any dance training

that's trying to just get fit and in shape and lose weight that it would be

a good service. So basically I just transferred my own movement from dance

to exercise and I basically teach it with that in mind, teaching people how

to move correctly so that they don't hurt their bodies, but they get the

effects of exercise for their body.

MJ: How did your youth and your upbringing affect, you know, your decision

to get involved in this?

KV: I don't know that it did, I mean I just was a kid, like every other

kid, and I liked to dance and I liked music and you know, I liked to work

hard and, and that's it.

MJ: So you weren't particularly sickly or, nothing in particular in your

childhood...

KV: No, nothing at all, nothing...I just liked to.. I mean, I thought that

I was going to be a ballet dancer so to me, that was the only thing, I mean

I wasn't converted over to exercise through being overweight or being

anorexic or anything like that.

MJ: So right now you have a, you put out videos, you have books. Tell us

about your whole empire here and what ...exactly things, the ways that you

get your message out.

KV: Well, I have a book that I've written and basically I have... eight

video tapes that I've made, you know, every category from stretch to

aerobics to step to... low impact, to sculpting and to sculpting the lower

body to sculpting the upper body and then consumer based, I mean...

celebrity-based videos where, you know, a supermodel would be exercising

with me... and that's Elle McPherson, and then I worked with Paula Abdul on

her tape, so.. basically I think, all I want to do is get the message out

that exercise can really make a difference in your life. It can make you

feel better, it can make you have much more stamina as far as, you know

just getting through your everyday... hassles and busyness, and I guess the

strong message that I would be... would have when I'm out there with the

public is telling them that it's not always easy, it's not always fun and

it's not always fast which are basically what everybody.... the media tells

you about exercise, but I don't think it's true, I think that exercise...

takes a long time, I mean, the results of exercise may take a long time if

you really want to transform your body. You have to really want it because

if you don't it's not going to just happen on its own you have to make it

happen. So there is a lot of discipline and some commitment behind it and

...when it comes to easy I don't know that that's always easy. I think

it's sometimes...you're hooked on the feeling after awhile but it may not

be something that is fast and easy like they like to tell you.

MJ: How much time do you spend exercising in a typical day?

KV: Just about an hour, maybe an hour and a half at the most.

MJ: That's not a lot

KV: No, no.

MJ: How much time should the average person count on spending?

KV: I'd say three times to five times a week. Three times if you're just

trying to maintain the shape that you're in, five times a week if you're

trying to change the shape you're in. An hour to an hour and a half I

think is enough. I've exercised up to eight hours a day, you know, when I

make a videotape or when I'm, you know, working with clients and sometimes

it just happens. I don't look that much different than if I looked... you

know, basically you can just keep doing it and it doesn't really change the

genetic makeup of what you have to work with. It's a combination of diet

and exercise. If you exercise more you end up wanting to eat more 'cause

you're hungrier, so you balance it out that way, and if you're exercising

less you could eat a little less, and you're balancing out that way. I

don't think that you have to go to the extreme of exercising to... you

know, like two or three hours a day. Some people think that that's the

only way necessary and it's not.

MJ: Tell us about your work with some of the stars. How do you train them

and do they have problems that are different from the average person, how

do they work?

KV: I think that their problems might be different from the rest of the

people out there is that their... schedules are tighter. You know, they

don't have a lot of time to focus in on staying at the gym, so they're a

little bit more focused, I mean I think that that turns to be an added

advantage for them because when they do work out they have to be very

focused 'cause they know that this is the only time that they're going to

get, they can't slip in into the rest of their day. But I think it's just

as difficult for them to get into shape as for everybody else, I mean, it's

not, ...when you're having to contract your own muscle and find the

own...your own energy and your own stamina level, I don't know that it's

any different from a celebrity to..for an everyday person. The celebrity

might be highly motivated because of the fact they know that in two or

three months from now that they have to have a camera on their face and the

public is going to be scrutinizing everything that they, you know, every

part of their body. I think that might be a little bit more motivating,

but I think that the everyday person is just as hard on their body and on

themselves as a celebrity. I don't know that you know, someone who wants

to get into shape doesn't look at their body every morning and say 'well,

has this exercise really changed me' and if it hasn't, they get sort of,

just... they lose interest and if it has changed them, they get highly

motivated. I think that's exactly the same for a celebrity.

MJ: Can you tell us some of the people that you've worked with that might

be...

KV: Yeah, I've worked with....Elle McPherson, and Paula Abdul on the

videos and then I trained Bette Midler and .... I've worked with Bette

Midler, Tina Turner, Stefanie Powers, ... I've worked with... Faith Ford,

I've worked with...James Taylor, you know...

MJ: Are there some people maybe whether they're famous or not who just

have a certain type of body and you really can only take them so far and

you have to help them with that?

KV: I think that genetic makeup is a big part of how...what you're going

to do with your body. Sometimes people just are shorter and they, they

have stockier bodies and if they want to be slim like a, like a model it's

going to be harder for them to get their results. There's some women that

are just naturally slim and naturally tall and long, long ... long, lean

muscles on them and you know, they could eat crackers with cheese and

basically their body doesn't change so I think that it's..a lot of it is

genetic and acceptance is a big part of it.

MJ: As a fitness trainer, what is your view of plastic surgery?

KV: My view of plastic surgery on fitness? Well, I don't think it

changes your fitness level at all. People might wanna..... it, it changes

the look of your body I suppose if you...are you talking about plastic

surgery for the face or for the body?

MJ: Well, do you see it as a short cut to doing the work?

KV: I don't know, I mean I don't know that, you know people who get

plastic surgery and they get breast implants, they can't do that with

exercise, so I don't know that it's a short cut to exercise. I don't know,

maybe some women who get liposuction, you know, on their thighs might think

of it as a shortcut, you know, it's up to them, if they want to go through

that and have it, I don't know that anybody's research has come out that

says, you know, you could lose that exact same amount of weight and then...

that you would, that they would pull out through liposuction, I don't know

that it's been out there long enough to have any studies that compare the

two. I think that if, you know, if you wanna do it, you know then, go

ahead and do it, but I, I'd say do it on areas of the body that you can't

fix with exercise because you might as well try to do it with exercise

first and if doesn't work for you or if you're still not happy then maybe

liposuction or plastic surgery might be the only reason, but it's not gonna

really change who you are anyway.

MJ: Americans seem to be increasingly interested in fitness and yet they

keep putting on the pounds, why...what explains that?

KV: I think that they're aware that fitness is... I think that they're

aware that fitness is something that they need to be involved in. They're

aware that it is important for them to lose weight and so forth by their

eating habits but I think that people's lifestyles are so that if they

don't quick...get quick, fast results they lose interest and so they might

have good intentions to get started and then they lose interest because

it's just harder than they thought or it's going to take longer than they

thought so they just give up and then they go and eat their potato chips or

their Snackwells or whatever and think that well, you know it doesn't work

for me kind of attitude. I also think that maybe our, society and

Americans in general are spoiled and, and really...are really more

interested in just consuming as opposed to putting out effort and exercise

is all about putting out effort, and it's about monitoring your consumption

and I think that that might work against what Americans like to do in their

leisure time.

MJ: How important is diet and how do you personally structure your diet?

KV: I think that diet is a big part of...of exercise in the sense that you

can only exercise off maybe......you know...even if you exercise two hours,

you could eat more than you could exercise off in a day. You could eat

more in a day than you could exercise off in a day, so you really have to

combine the two and as far as I'm concerned for my diet, I eat a very

well-rounded diet, I don't like, I'm not a vegetarian, I eat a little bit

of fat, I try to keep my fat intake low. I try to eat protein and, and I

eat carbohydrates. I usually eat complex carbohydrates as opposed to simple

carbohydrates so instead of bread, I will have a baked potato or instead of

crackers I'll have whole grain rice. So...but I'm not extreme in any way.

I mean, I basically eat everything that everybody else eats, I just don't

eat as much of the fat and I don't eat very much of the sugar and I don't

eat a lot of the starches on a... processed way.

MJ: There are so many people involved in this business. Why would people

come to you. What makes you...what sets you apart from the others?

KV: People come to me mainly because I'm ...I practice what I preach. I

don't just ... you know, have it all in theory and then and learn how... I

haven't learned how to......just dictate to other people what to do but I

actually make it work for myself and then I share my tips and if what

works for me works for them, then you know, it helps and I think that

there's a lot of people that just basically have a similar lifestyle to me.

You know, I work during the day and I want to exercise at night and so, I

think that I'm like them and so they just, they are attracted to the fact

that there's not a lot of....there's not a lot of..., I don't know what the

word...flamboyancy with it.... it's just what it is , it's pretty basic and

it's pretty simple and as long as you do it and you get the right

information which I have to give people, then you are going to get the

results.

MJ: What advice would you have for people who are very busy, literally

don't have time to go to a gym... what can they do at work or at home or...

KV: Somebody that's really busy I think has to watch everything that they

eat, one, to give them the energy to stay busy, and two, to keep the fat

content low. Two, I think that they need to just use their busyness as a

fitness...to help them with fitness in other words, if, they're running

around and they have a lot to do, you know, use the fact that you're

running up and down the stairs or you're you know, having to hurry to this

appointment, to that appointment, because that does burn calories, believe

it or not even though you know you might think it's you know a stressful

part of your life, it does burn calories to be rushing from one thing to

another so you can, you can actually make it to work to your advantage, and

if you have a lot to do, you know, get your stamina up there and build,

build your schedule around the fact that you want to still get it all done

and make your everyday little inconviences like having to park far away

from the grocery store or park in a parking structure that's far away from

your work and make that ... you know, put on some tennis shoes and kind of

like, jog to work instead of walk slowly in high heels, that type of thing.

I think if you take the stairs instead of the elevator every single time

you have to go up and down the building that would help. I think that if

you wear flat shoes and tennis shoes whenever possible in your day, it's

going to encourage you to be active and on your feet as opposed to sitting

waiting for somebody else to do it for you because you're too uncomfortable

to get up and do it yourself. Those type of things would be good but you

have to look around your life and, and if you're a mother with a lot of

busyness of a hectic schedule with little kids, little kids, I've seen

women lose weight having to have kids because of the fact that kids keep

them so busy. So there's lots of ways, you just have to want it, like I

said before.

MJ: Can you tell us about your work as an instructor and your studios and

your plans for expansion.

KV: Actually, I'm... I mean, my past has really been involved in being an

exercise instructor and I've had you know been an owner of a studio and all

that. I'm interested in expanding beyond that, though, I've done that for

15 years and I know what that's like and I think I've peaked in that level

and I need to just get out and I want to get to consumers on a different

level. I do in-store appearances, I do a lot of motivational speaking, so

my plans for expansion is getting to the consumers in ways outside of the

gym.

MJ: Reaching beyond the Los Angeles area to the rest of the world...what

about your motivational speaking. What is that like? What do you do? Who

do you speak to?

KV: I speak to mainly women, women that are maybe high-profile women in

business and I speak to a lot of like.. I speak at the Governor's

conference for women which is 7,000 women all in different areas of life.

I speak to business councils of women. I speak to teachers of school,

unified school districts of teachers that usually get motivated to do their

work with, with kids and how do they stay healthy and motivated, so, and my

point to them is that you know, whatever you're having to deal with in your

life is... even it's stressful, you're going to do it better with a healthy

body and with a feeling of vitality coming from it, you're gonna be much

more successful in that, so I talk to a lot of women about how, how to take

care of themselves without taking a lot of time, just ways that I've done

it and if they can pick up on those tips, like I said before, if they can

pick up any of the tips that I've done for myself, I know it works, and

they usually are pretty motivated by it because it's so real to them.

MJ: What kind of feedback and questions do you get at these kinds of

seminars?

KV: I get a lot of questions like, 'What do I tell my daughter, she's

fifteen and she's really looking to be a supermodel, is that a good thing

for her...' or I get questions like, you know, 'I don't want my daughter

to grow up and be overly concerned about her looks and I think it's going

that direction.' I get people saying you know, 'I'm trying to make a

living, I'm trying to be successful, I'm a single mom, or I've, you know, I

have a lifestyle that I have to financially support myself and so how do I

do that and still stay healthy, because I'm getting up at six in the

morning and I don't get home until ten 'o clock at night....' so you know,

my advice to them ...and a lot of it is just common sense. I don't really

have all the answers and I don't claim to have all the answers. Unless

I've lived in their shoes I don't know what they're going through and I try

to be realistic about it and say, you know, what will help is eating this

type of food and taking this type of a supplement, you know and maybe

getting as much sleep is more important sometimes than exercise if you're

run down. Try not to get sick. Those type of things, but it's basically

common sense, but they need somebody like me to tell them because they know

it themselves but it encourages them to keep on track when somebody like me

goes up and talks to them about it.

MJ: Do you ever turn away some people you think...do you think some people

are unhealthily obsessed with their looks.... is there ever a case where

you're a little worried about people that come to you.... or does that not

enter the picture?

KV: I mean, I get some girls that are overly concerned about their looks

at a young age and you know, maybe they have anorexic tendencies or they do

bulimia and so forth. You know, I try to, I try to teach them that the

healthiest way to live is by watching what you eat and being healthy and

using muscle and strength as a way to get through things as opposed to

being weak and frail, so my....my advice to them is to, you know, try to

make changes in your lifestyle that's leading you through those areas as

opposed to just taking it and saying, 'no you can't exercise', because if I

don't let them take my class for instance, they're going just go take

somebody else's class. So it's a way of talking with them to say you know

if something bothers you in your life, maybe you should approach it from

that point of view..........instead of just using exercise as a cure-all

for everything.

MJ: Did you grow up in California?

KV: Yes.

MJ: Do you think that the attitudes on fitness differ in different parts

of the world, different parts of the States?

.......

MJ: Did you grow up in this area?

KV: Yes, I did.

MJ: Do you think the ideas of fitness differ around the world and also

just even in the United States in different parts?

KV: I think in the United States or here in Los Angeles in particular it's

very.... everyone's really concerned about their look because we walk

around in shorts most of the year and, you know people see our bodies, so

in that respect I think that it's more of an issue out here, but when I

travel to other, when I did my book tour and I met with women in... book

stores all across the country, I found that they're really interested in

their shape too because their family and their friends and their husbands,

you know, they're all looking at them and so they're as aware and I think

that everybody has the, has the overall need to look their very best and,

and to make the most of their looks with whatever they have. I don't think

that it's as extreme in other parts of the States, in other states as it is

on both coasts, I think that there's more pressure on them, but you have

to, see their lifestyle may be different too, I mean a lot of the girls

that I work with here are models and actresses and their whole job is about

their look while somebody that I worked with, you know in another state,

they're not an actress, and their job may be...a secretary, is maybe being

a secretary and so they have different, whole different needs. The actress

is maybe out of work or in between jobs and so she has a lot more time to

be at the gym and to be concerned about her looks while the person that's a

receptionist, every...eight hours a day she's sitting. It's a whole

different, I mean, so it's relatively, she's as frustrated with her

position as the actress is with hers because the actress has so much

competition of all these other actresses that look as good as she does and

so she feels pressure that way but then, the secretary might say, you know,

I'm sitting all day long and my husband wants me to be slim and in shape

like all the actresses on t.v. and I can't because I can't exercise as much

as the actresses on t.v. So, everybody has their version of a problem and,

you know, I don't know, I mean it's hard to, it's hard to compare it and

say one more person's more extreme than the other. I think it's the

person. I think that there's personalities that are, that are basically

more consumed with their looks and it could be a secretary consumed with

her looks about, because her husband's not happy with it and an actress

that basically is consumed because it's her personality. I know a lot of

models that really don't really care. They look as great as they look

because they're genetically gifted and they eat whatever they want. So you

can't say that that, you know, you can't really compare it in those terms

because you're, you're comparing apples and oranges.

MJ: Is fitness more than body? Is it mind too?

KV: I think that the mind comes into play. I ...

MJ: Karen, thanks for joining us today.

KV: O.K. You're welcome.