Health News Archive

Gwen Stefani's legs

The world of entertainment has no shortfall of leggy ladies, but sexy legs come with a price.

Celebrities work incessantly to sculpt their lovely limbs with strength training, cardio and a healthy

diet. But Who’s got great legs, and how’d they do it?

In an "In Touch" magazine poll, singer and movie and video actress Gwen Stefani surpassed Jennifer

Lopez, Cameron Diaz and Tina Turner to be recognized as having the best legs. Gwen’s winning technique

is to train hard. She likes exercises that get her heart rate elevated, like jumping rope, using her

elliptical trainer and strength training, which she recently rediscovered.

Gwen makes it seem easy to have gorgeous legs, but she has to work hard at it, just like everyone else.

She loves pizza but explains, "If I want to eat pizza, I do, but then if I want to wear cute clothes, I

don't. I have to get into these clothes, so I exercise outside, such as hiking, and work out with a

trainer."

Multitalented celebrities like Stefani have to keep in great shape for their live shows and photo

shoots, but when transitioning into film, they often have to increase the intensity to look the part.

Jessica Simpson worked hard with a personal trainer for 6 months to get her scene-stealing stems in the

Dukes of Hazzard.

The beautiful blonde has always had a fine physique, but for her role as Daisy Duke, she had to tone and

shape her legs and butt. Jessica simpson had to do justice to the famous Daisy Dukes that ushered in a

new era in short shorts. The movie and video actress used personal trainer Mike Alexander, who not only

developed and chaperoned her workouts, but also sat with her through every meal. The only bread Simpson

ate was wheat, and she abstained from sugar and fried foods.

The workout regimen that Alexander tailored for the Southern starlet consisted of 20 to 30 minutes of

cardio and 45 to 60 minutes of resistance training, 5 or six days a week. He explains that squats have

to be one of the biggest metabolism-boosting exercises there are. The two main exercises in Jessica

simpson’s routine were squats (2-3 sets of 20 reps) and lunges (each leg: 2-3 sets of 12 reps).

Alexander recommends trying squats to raise your bum and sculpt your thighs:

Stand with your feet approximately two feet apart.

Then turn your feet outwards, keeping them in line with your knees.

Hold your arms out in front of you and slowly lower yourself down until your thighs are

parallel with the floor.

Don't go past a 90 degree knee bend.

Keep your bum tucked underneath you and your stomach pulled in. Hold this position for three seconds before slowly standing back up.

Try to do 20 repetitions.

As you make progress proceed to do this excercise with small weights in hand. Use heavier weights later on with your hands by your side.

Legs have become such an asset in Hollywood that some stars are even getting them insured. Betty Grable

started this trend, and since then Entertainment Tonight's Mary Hart, movie and video actress Angie

Everhart, Jamie Lee Curtis and Mariah Carey have all had their legs insured for $1 million, In Mariah's

case for a cool billion. an bankrate.com. England's Lloyd's of London handles most of these unique

policies and doesn’t discriminate as to who can insure their legendary legs.

Back 30.11.2006.