Madonna's Gym Probably Won't Make You Look Like Madonna: Here's How She Maintained Her Material Body Through the Decades

Matrix

Body fat? Who needs body fat!: Madonna opens a gym

Madonna got her start as a dancer, dropping out of college and giving up her chance at a dance scholarship to try to make it in New York. She has confessed that she thinks of herself primarily as a dancer and as a result, her workouts have remained dance-focused and her live performances are still high-energy.

As early as the 1980s, there were rumors of her traveling with her own personal trainer, and jogging for hours per day in order to get the arms made famous in the Material Girl video, wherein she channeled Marilyn Monroe á la Gentlemen Prefer Blondes:

In 1996, she began practicing Ashtanga Yoga in order to get back in shape after giving birth to her daughter, Lourdes, with the assistance of Ray Kybartas. Clearly, this worked; she appeared in the video for the title track to her 1997 release, Ray of Light, looking as amazing as ever.

In the 'aughts, she hired the beleaguered Tracy Anderson, who transformed Madonna's soft curves into sinew through a combination of dance, cardio, and pilates-like micro-movements designed to strengthen the core. Some didn't care for the new look, but her Sticky and Sweet tour grossed over $250,000,000 dollars -- not bad for a 52-year-old lady!

After working together for three years, Madge and Tracy "mutually parted"; currently Madonna adheres to a strict macrobiotic diet and practices a combination of ballet, pilates, and yoga known as Barre3 under the tutelage of Sadie Lincoln .

In addition to working out two hours a day every day, Madge eats a strictly macrobiotic diet, traveling everywhere with a Japanese chef that prepares macrobiotic food and taking calls on her stairmaster.

Moral of the story? Looking young forever doesn't come cheap.