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Madonna's daily routine

Madonna's daily routine

By RICHARD PRICE

05feb06

EVERY woman of a certain age dreams of fitting into her daughter's clothes.

Yet when Madonna recently attended a film premiere, it was daughter Lourdes wearing mum's coat. Consider it: she is nine and her mother is 47.

Lourdes is not big by any standards. She is a healthy, slim and active little girl with the dark good looks and impressive physique of her father, a personal trainer.

Madonna is unusual. And when it comes to her physical condition, "unusual" does not do her justice.

Friends say the superstar is obsessed with fighting the ageing process.

"Her life is dedicated to diet and exercise to the point where she genuinely believes she can go on forever," one says.

On a rare night out at a restaurant with her husband, British director Guy Ritchie, last week, she looked hollow-cheeked and gaunt.

Those who know her know how hard she drives herself to the point of exhaustion every day in her quest for a 21-year-old's body.

But they admit that these days she looks more like a prepubescent schoolgirl.

Close friend and pop singer Sharleen Spiteri says: "I went to a party recently and Madonna walked into the room with her arms in the air shouting, 'Ta dah!'.

"She looked incredible. Her body wasn't a 20-year-old woman's, it was a 10-year-old's."

It's a phenomenon that becomes more extraordinary by the year: How does Madonna manage to look so young?

She has said: "I am certainly not against plastic surgery. However, I am absolutely against having to discuss it."

But the answer lies in an exercise regimen that is, as one acquaintance puts it, "beyond fanaticism".

"The answer is easy," a close friend says. "She wants another baby. But her force of personality can't get her the one thing she wants -- to be a decade younger and able to have another child."

(Madonna's youngest son, Rocco, was born in August 2000.)

"I remember she went to see a doctor when she was desperate to have another baby. He said, 'You look fantastic, but you have to face facts, you are in your mid-40s and you will find it much harder to conceive'.

"That sent her into an absolute fury and Madonna's reaction to these things is always the same: She starts exercising like a maniac."

Her dancers call her "the bionic body" and it is easy to see why. Her exercise regimen takes at least three hours a day, starting in her home gym with a session of Ashtanga yoga -- a highly advanced form -- for muscle tone and to build up her cardio rating.

Then she has a macrobiotic vegetable soup for breakfast with a juice made from fresh, seasonal organic vegetables.

Before lunch, she has a regular Pilates session and is occasionally joined by Stella McCartney and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Lunch consists of Japanese-inspired dishes, mainly macrobiotic, involving lots of steamed vegetables, tofu, seeds, lentils and beans.

And, still, Madge is not finished for the day.

She then likes to choose a third daily exercise session: karate, swimming, pumping iron, running, cycling or horse-riding, which she credits with toning her thighs.

Madonna also works on a stepping machine in her office as she takes calls. During her pregnancy with Lourdes, she maintained a 45-minute daily routine on the machine until the day before she gave birth.

She has three hour-long shiatsu massage sessions a week and at least once a fortnight is strapped into a Gyrotonic Expansion System rack (dubbed 'the torture chamber') a machine that stretches and tones smaller muscles that get less regular use.

Fitness expert to the stars Cornel Chin estimates her body fat levels are about 17 per cent -- well below the ideal 23 to 33 per cent for women.

The 160cm singer weighs 50kg, but much of her weight is due to sheer muscle.

Friends say this level of fitness is not dangerous for Madonna because she has spent the whole of her adult life in peak condition.

"Forget Kabbalah (the mystical form of Judaism she follows), exercise has always been her No.1 religion," says one associate. "Madonna loves to punish herself.

"The truth is that she takes only Christmas Day off from the workouts. If she has a bad day, she will start exercising furiously. It's like an emotional crutch -- she might have a row with Guy, for example, and her response is to start exercising like a fanatic."

And it would seem that rows with Guy are increasingly frequent. Sources close to the star say that her obsession with exercise, diet and youth place a "tremendous strain" on their relationship.

Recently, rumour has it, the couple have been repeatedly clashing over Guy's drinking. But those closest to them say the drinking is a diversion and the real issue in their relationship is Madonna's controlling personality.

"She's worried the menopause is going to start soon and she thinks that with Kabbalah and the diet she can stop it," says a friend.

"But deep down she knows she is fighting a losing battle and the thought of it depresses her beyond belief."

Back 05.02.2006.