This DWTS Dancer Knows How to Make Pro Athletes Do Whatever She Says
Whether or not you watch Dancing With the Stars, you’re gonna want to pay attention to every word Lindsay Arnold, one of the show’s hottest pro dancers, has to say.
I mean for God’s sake, her job is literally to make celebrities do whatever she tells them to do!!!
Clearly, she’s doing something right with her life.
We talked to Lindsay about everything from dieting to how to keep things sexy in the bedroom even when you’ve been with your man forever.
Grab a pen and paper and get ready to take some notes.
A huge part of your job on the show, especially in the first few weeks, is whipping all these professional athletes or moody actors into shape – even though the circumstances are a little bit different on the show than in real life, how do you get those boys to realize you’re the queen and make them do everything you say?
That’s a really good question – it’s tough. I’ve been blessed with celebrities that have been very sweet to me and been very ready to work hard. And especially this season with Calvin [Johnson, Jr., Lindsay’s current partner on DWTS), he’s used to having a coach.
All his life he has had a coach who just told him what to do, that has gotten mad at him, yelled at him, and that’s what he’s used to. You just have to work through it so I’m really lucky that he knows what it takes to work hard, and he also knows that I’m probably gonna yell at him and tell him that he’s doing things wrong, but that’s because I’m trying to make him better and he never takes it personally.
Are you good at regular dancing?
What do you mean by regular dancing?
Like the kind of dancing you’d do when you’re out at a party, or a club, or whatever.
Okay, no. I am not.
It’s really funny – if you ask any of my friends or my husband, I cannot dance in the club. I can’t. It’s so weird. I guess it’s because I’m not good at freestyle, but when it comes to just a song coming on and me freestyle dancing to it, I get so awkward and so uncomfortable and I think it’s probably because my whole life I’ve just done choreography.
So we’ll be out and I’m like, ‘okay, what choreography are we doing here’ and everyone’s like, ‘no, you just do your own thing,’ and I’m just terrible at it. Everyone will be like, ‘Lindsay, you’re a dancer, you should be good at this,’ and I’m like ‘yeah, I definitely should be, but I’m not.’
I know you’ve been with your husband since high school, but do you think there’s a way to find out if a guy is good in bed based on his dance moves?
Ooooh. That’s tough cause my husband can’t dance, but I’m super pleased right now. I don’t think that’s the end all be all. But you know what, it would probably be really fun. I’ve never dated a dancer, ever.
For some reason I find that the people I dance with become like a brother to me more than anything which is funny because we’re doing all these sexual moves and dancing up on each other, but I’ve never been into a dancer so I guess I couldn’t tell you, and my husband’s not a dancer and we’re good so far.
Speaking of your husband, you guys have been together for five years now –
We have.
So you’re obviously an expert on this next topic: how do you keep a long-term relationship hot and spicy?
You know what, the best thing that we’ve found is that we’ve literally become each other’s best friends. Like if I have something to say I don’t go to a girlfriend, I go to him.
And I know some people say, how do you keep it romantic, how do you keep it sexy all the time if you’re best friends, but that’s the thing. We’re best friends, we want to make each other happy, we want to do things – we’re open to more because we’re so close. I think that’s what’s kept it so great for us for so long.
What are some tips you have on how a regular person like me can get a hot dancer bod?
I would say, if you can dance, dance. Even if you’re a non-dancer, that’s almost even better because I’ve found that because I dance so much, my body actually gets used to that, so I have to do a little bit more on top of that to stay in shape. But if you’re not a dancer, get into dancing. I think it’s one of the best work outs because you’re doing different movements every single time and you’re working muscles that I don’t think you can necessarily find going to the gym.
But if you can’t dance, if that’s not your thing, I absolutely recommend doing Pilates – it really helps with lengthening your muscles, which is important because it helps you from getting injuries.
Any food tips?
The biggest thing for me is I try to eat in moderation. I don’t put crazy diet restrictions on my meals because if I do that as soon as I turn it into a “diet”, my mind goes crazy and all of a sudden wants to eat every piece of junk food in the world.
Also eating more frequently throughout the day instead of just eating two really big meals a day. I try to eat 5 or 6 small meals and take snacks, which has been really helpful for me, especially in rehearsals. We’ll rehearse six hours straight and I won’t eat a meal between that but I’ll try and eat snacks so as soon as I come out of rehearsal I’m not dying for a huge buffet.
Also another tip that I found is do not eat any carbs after 7 PM. Like nothing. If you need a snack, you try and eat very little – I mean, watermelon. Stuff that doesn’t have any carbs in it. Because I feel that if you eat after 7 PM, your body’s not going to digest any of that and it’s just sitting in your body absorbing all that fat.
