Madonna has been proving it for years – you can look like a rockstar at 40. Of course next year she’s going to prove that you can look like a rockstar at 50. I guess you might as well look unbelievably hot while you’re cranking out hit records for 30 years.
Like LL Cool J once said: “I need to have a body like this, it matches my watch and my car.”
Madonna’s workout routine has achieved near legendary status – something like three workouts a day. ashtanga yoga, weights, kickboxing, she does it all. In fact she does it all nearly every day. If you’re doing that much working out, I guess that power plate workout thing can’t hurt either right? I think your third or fourth workout of the day can be anything you want =)
One thing that’s cool to see is Janet Jackson. Janet just made her second or third comeback, workout wise. What I like about Janet is that she sticks to smart workout basics, and eats really clean. Once again, Janet looks like a rockstar – which is good because she is a rockstar. And even more impressive, Janey isn’t working out 3 hours per day. Nothing against working out three hours per day, but I don’t have the time for that and I’m a freakin’ personal trainer.
Lots of people talk about how your metabolism slows down as you get older. The research I’ve read says pretty clearly that the metabolic slowdown is less than 100 calories per day, every ten years. That’s 1/3 of a Hershey bar, every ten years. That means that 30 years from now, you either need to skip the Hershey bar completely, or go for a hike or lift some weights. 100 calories is something, but it’s not much. Decreasing activity level is much more like the culprit in people’s slow steady weight gain.
And everything about the way your body responds to food has to do with your lean body mass. If you carry a little more muscle, you’re going to burn more calories when you are active than someone who has less muscle.
And what continually blows me away is just the difference in energy level between people who workout and people who don’t. I think the energy level drop is probably more pronounced than the metabolic drop. People who are super fit at 40, 50, 60, ect. are still sailing boats around the world and hiking the Inca Trail. People who don’t work out are usually watching TV, and the older they get, the more time they spend sitting in front of the TV. Nothing wrong with TV, I love to watch Entourage, but I’d rather be doing something in real life.
Last but not least – a really cool comparison between Janet Jackson and Madonna –
Madonna shows that if you keep after your workouts, you can maintain that wicked body as long as you want.
Janet proves that no matter how much you’ve let yourself go, if you work hard you can always get the body back.
By Josh Hillis
Author of How To Lose The Stubborn Seven Pounds: Take Your Body from Good to Rockstar.
Josh Hillis is a specialist in getting my clients lean – fast. Josh usually works with the hardest clients to lean out – women who are already in good shape. He likes the challenge of burning off the stubborn fat. Josh’s book is about how anyone can get that that lean rockstar body they’ve always wanted.
Josh is a personal trainer in Denver, Colorado.
© Joshua Hillis 2007