Like a gym nerd
Today’s Mirror features a long interview to Tracy Anderson – the personal trainer who has finally silenced the scariest lady in showbiz. For the past three years, Madonna has handed all control of her body over to this size six slave driver – in return, Tracy has given her the most talked-about physique on the planet. ‘People say to me, “Madonna must really boss you around” and I tell them “No! She’s the most docile, sweet, quiet little student”,’ laughs Tracy.’She’ll follow everything I want. Madonna never slacks off. She’s like a gym nerd.’
Tracy’s method requires nothing less than total submission from Her Madgesty. ‘I said to her, “I’m going to be bringing crazy equipment into your house, and you can’t work with anyone else,’ explains Tracy. ‘So she dropped all her other training and committed to me. She doesn’t tell me what she wants to achieve with her body I tell her,’ says Tracy. ‘She trusts me, so she does it.’
That or Madonna doesn’t have the energy to talk back with Tracy’s schedule of two-hour workouts, six days a week. ‘We do 75 minutes of muscular structure work and 45 minutes of dance aerobics,’ explains Tracy. ‘I change the regime every 10 days. She’s an unbelievable mover so it’s easy for her. I’ve had her in all kinds of crazy positions.’
Madonna’s body has been showcased recently in photoshoots that have split the nation between, ‘Doesn’t she look amazing for 50?’ and, ‘Put your legs together, grandma’. Does it annoy Tracy to hear her creation being attacked?
‘Everyone’s entitled to their opinion,’ she says. ‘As her trainer, what matters is that I like how she looks – and I do. I challenge anybody to see Madonna in person and not want her body. What she’s achieved is not unnatural. If your body looks old at 50, it’s only because you’re not making the effort. Madonna will keep her physique forever because she’ll always keep up my programme.’
Believe it or not, Tracy reckons her regime has made Madonna less muscly, not more. ‘She can build muscle very easily, so when I started working with her, we really wanted to stay away from getting bulky. We wanted her muscles to be leaner. She was going on tour so she’s got to be like a professional athlete too. I work a lot on the butt, because she doesn’t wear anything under those fishnets and everything shows. If there was the tiniest bit of cellulite I’d be like, “Uh-uh, NO’. My method is about toning the skin as well as the muscles.’
You might think Madge looks like Popeye on steroids here, but according to Tracy the camera does lie. ‘Her arms are actually teeny tiny in real life!’ she insists. ‘Here she’s just come out of the gym, and I’ve just done really awful things to her arms which make the muscles swell afterwards. So all these paparazzi shots make her arms look much more muscular than they really are. I personally love the definition Madonna has on her arms. I work them really hard, but I want them to be tiny too, so we never lift anything more than 3lbs.’
Click here to continue reading this interview on the online website of The Mirror.
Thanks to BabyGeorge.