Over the past few months Madonna has been criticized for her seeming obsession with fitness. And who could blame the media? First the 51-year-old single mom steps out with killer, overly-muscular arms, reportedly injects herself with vitamins, buys a 6 million pound house and turns it into a gym, and then fires her long-time trainer Tracy Anderson because the celeb trainer wouldn’t go on tour with the material girl.

In an interview with GMTV, Madonna defends herself saying that she has to work out as much as she does to be able to make it through her concerts.

“[I do it] for health reasons and for aesthetic reasons. If I have to go out on stage and, you know, jump around in a pair of hot pants I better look good,” she says on the British TV show. “And also when I perform I’m like an athlete and I have to be in good shape. I’m not panicked, I just know what my job is and I know that if I want to be able to wear whatever I want to wear on stage, then my body better look good.”

The ultra-atheletic Madonna has reportedly given her trainer Tracy Anderson the axe. They have been training together for the past three years but it seems that all good things must end and the two have decided to part ways. According to a source for the New York Post Tracy was carrying ‘baggage’ that Madonna was tired of dealing with. In addition, Tracy skipped the final leg of the Sticky and Sweet Tour because she has hooked up with Philippe van den Bossche, the head of Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity and the two are now living together. Others speculate it’s because the two have different opinions on exercise, for example Madonna’s veiny arms that she sported over the summer and Tracy claimed she told Madonna to lay off the yoga and lift lighter weights. Tracy’s publicist did release a recent statement in regard to the claims made by the New York Post:

“This is not true. After working together for three years, Tracy and Madonna mutually parted ways because Tracy wanted to look after her son.”

It probably was mutual to a certain extent, but considering Madonna’s reputation for being a control freak, perfectionist, etc… she probably felt like Tracy’s new found stardom as a celebrity trainer was too much of a threat and decided to let her go.
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Each year in Morocco the country hosts a grueling six-day race across the Sahara dessert called the Marathon des Sables. Madonna plans to take on the challenge and run what some consider to be the toughest foot race on earth.  Participants run 151 miles over six days, that’s equivalent to five and a half regular marathons.  One source said,

“She’s always been in great shape, but she is now taking things to a whole other level. She is serious about doing it.”

Over the years talk about Madonna’s body has been prevalent in the tabloids.  In the late 90s she was a yoga guru who could bend her body into the shape of a pretzel but over the past few years as her workouts have intensified with Tracy Anderson she has become a true athlete.  Madonna has even had to justify her strict eating habits and exercise regime as she now looks sinewy and rather unwomanly but she defends herself and knows that exercise is tied to her career as an artist.  She said in a previous interview,

“My body is an important instrument as well as my voice. Does working out really help with singing? Yeah, absolutely. Using your diaphragm properly is connected to having good posture. Your body is one organism. You can’t separate it. If you are not in good health your vocal cords will suffer. Everything will suffer.”

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They may not be weapons of mass destruction but more and more female celebrities are showing off their guns and are proud of it.  Michelle Obama was the first to be lauded as she has a tendency to wear tank and sleeveless dresses that show off her great triceps.  Brooke Shields gave a tearful speech at Michael Jackson’s funeral and instead of getting credited for her speech, the media decided to praise her toned arms that she flashed while presenting on stage.  Last but not least, we’ve got Madonna who has been under fire because of her sinewy arms that her personal trainer Tracy Anderson claims is a result of too much yoga.

A body composition specialist told the Daily Mail that Madonna’s look is a result of having lifted heavy weights in the past but is now on a different workout routine that uses less weight but her body is trying to keep that old muscle.  He explained,

“Even if she’s using lower weights now, she’s still using her muscles enough to warrant her body keeping them.  Her new regime of one hour of cardio work will reduce her body fat level, which is why she’s so defined and you can see her muscles and veins. Even if she is using only her own body weight during exercising (such as doing push ups), it is still a form of resistance training. It won’t build her muscles to the optimum, but it will keep them as they are.”

As for Madonna’s current training with Tracy Anderson they do an hour of cardio as well as an hour of pilates-style muscle toning and Tracy never goes above a 3-pound weight.  But considering the arm portion of training is about 30 minutes and the fact that Madonna has such low body fat the result is what you see in the photo above.

Be it the First Lady, Brooke Shields or Madonna these three women look great.  They are healthy, they exercise and eat right.  Maybe it’s time the media stop worrying about the celebrities’ arms and instead be more concerned about real guns and weapons in the community and how that’s effecting society.

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Madonna has kicked off her summer Sticky & Sweet tour this past week in Europe and of course she is looking as fit as ever.  According to the Daily Mail she has been training two hours a day with celebrity trainer, Tracy Anderson.  Anderson said,

“I change her regime every week. She does 45 minutes of dance every day and then a series of sequences. She is easy to work with and a professional athlete.”

But something Anderson is not going to take the credit for is Madonna’s veiny arms.

“I have completely changed Madonna’s body. I told her to forget everything she had been taught before and to give up yoga, which can make you look terribly veiny. Madonna’s very healthy and looks fantasic but those veins have nothing to do with me!”

I’ve never heard of yoga giving you veiny arms, it’s probably just because Madonna is 50 years old and has zilch when it comes to body fat so her veins are visible.  Tracy also mentioned that she gives Madonna and all of her clients coconut water while training.

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Madonna is back at the gym just three days after being hospitalized when she was thrown from her horse. Granted, she was discharged just a few hours after being submitted but her representative, Liz Rosenberg, did say she will have some more tests done and remain under doctors’ observation.

However, there is no stopping Madonna, (as we all know) and she will continue to train and prepare for the summer leg of her Sticky & Sweet world tour.  Madonna’s trainer, the now considered fitness guru to the stars, Tracy Anderson, told US Magazine,

“She’s going to be fine. She fell on her butt. She’s fine.”  Tracy continues, “We’re going to train tomorrow. We have our set training. She’s like a professional athlete. She can’t mess around with her training. I mean, she has to be able to perform in front of 70,000 people who are sucking the life out of her, and she’s singing and dancing. There are no shortcuts when you’re training in that way.”

Tracy went on to say that Madonna trains six days a week for two hours each day.

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We all know that Madonna is the ultra-buff and over-flexible yoga practitioner who can sing, dance and still be a mom on top of all of that.  But what we don’t know is how she keeps herself motivated year in and year out to push herself to the limit and strive to always be at her physical best.  We’re in luck, because Fitness Magazine teamed up with Humberto Carreno, the photographer for Startraks Photo, that observes Madonna’s every move in New York City and they can give us some more insight as to how Madonna does it.  Humberto says,

“She’s amazing. She never misses a day.”

Below is  a list of five of Madonna’s workout tips according to Fitness Magazine:
1. Stick to a time, but be flexible.
Madonna leaves her house every morning at 8 o’clock on the dot to get her workout in, no matter how late she was out the night before.
2. Ditch the crummy sweats.
The Material Girl only wears nice athletic clothes that match.
3. Change it up. According to Carreno, Madonna never does the same workout two days in a row.  One day she’ll be at the gym and another day she’ll be jogging in the park. This will help with boredom issues.
4. Find friends who love to work out. Carreno has shot Madonna running with Ingrid Casares; in London, and she’s been seen leaving her gym with Gwyneth Paltrow and Stella McCartney.
5. Don’t overdo it. Madonna works out for 45 minutes each day.  She proves that you don’t have to spend loads of time at the gym.  What’s more important is to do efficient workouts where you blast fat and get that heart rate going.

Celebrity trainer Tracy Anderson has become oh so famous in the past year.  Starting out as a regular trainer at a local gym her name has become commonplace in the exercise industry thanks to Madonna and Gwyneth Paltrow.  Madonna introduced Tracy to Gwyneth and since Ms. Paltrow has become a business guru as of late, the two of them are planning to open a chain of gyms in the US.  

Now, Tracy has become a celebrity herself and she was interviewed last week by Catt Sadler on E! television how where she revealed some of Madonna’s and Gwyneth’s workout antics.  When asked about the dance portion of the celebrities workouts here’s what Tracy had to say about Madonna and Gwyneth:

“Obviously someone like Madonna is an amazingly gifted dancer so that was easy…but someone like Gwyneth…when I first started working with her -bless her heart – it was like step touch step touch! Now she’s a pop star she could go on tour herself if she wanted to!”

Catt also asked Tracy what it’s like to work with an international superstar like Madonna.  Tracy replied,

“Well, Madonna has an unbelievable work ethic she’s extremely consistent she’s an amazing student. … I don’t work with people that aren’t hard workers, that don’t take it seriously.”

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