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I've been GOOP'd. You will eventually be GOOP'd as well if you watch television, read books or spend any time on the internet. GOOP is Gwyneth Paltrow's new website and lifestyle enterprise. She has been online, on Oprah, and seriously on task offering tips about everything from exercise to recipes to parenting. Why GOOP? New York Times writer Bob Morris pondered that same question in his Sunday article, Martha, Oprah...Gwyneth?. He quotes a Toronto Globe and Mail writer who quipped "Perhaps 'Any Old Load of Rubbish and Learn From Me, Ungrateful Peasant' were already taken." Morris goes on to explain that GOOP is a derivative of Gwyneth's initials.

Truth be told, many women of my generation admire Gwyneth Paltrow. She is talented, smart, beautiful, and married to one of the hottest rock stars alive. But do any of us really want to be Gwyneth Paltrow enough to discard our own common sense and insert hers? I doubt it, especially when the advice is whacked. Consider Gwyneth's fitness regime. On Oprah, Gwyneth sold her fans on the value of training Tracy Anderson style, in an overly heated studio with weights no greater than three pounds "to avoid bulk". Anderson, Gwyneth's personal trainer, recommends doing 60 or more reps of arm circles and leg lifts placing special emphasis on her signature lilt at the wrist which she says is key to engaging the larger arm muscles. What?????!!!!!!!!!! Come on Gwyneth! If we all had your svelte frame and a lifestyle that required no more of our bodies than turning the pages of a movie script than this plan might work, but if that were the case, then we would all be on Oprah and you'd be sitting at home with the remote.

I can't comment on Gwyneth's parenting tips or garlic bread recipe, but I will share my two cents about the workout. Women shouldn't be afraid of building bulk. Very few women have testosterone levels that allow for that level of muscular development. And if we did, so what? Do muscles make us look less feminine or attractive? Would men really mind if we all started asking 'Honey, does this make my butt look too muscular?' Edina personal trainer Natalie Roberts agrees. "Women are capable of lifting more than three pounds, and very few of us have the time to do 60-80 reps of each exercise".

Would men really mind if we all started asking 'Honey, does this make my butt look too muscular?'

Gwyneth and Tracy are reportedly opening gyms together to promote the Gwyneth way. If their efforts get non-exercisers into the gym in hopes of sharing a piece of celebrity pie then more power to them. But I'll pass.