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 The Los Angeles-based trainer, who turns 40 next month, is
determined to fight, rather than embrace, that milestone.
"I‘m trying to get into the best shape of my life for 40,"
Michaels said in an interview in New York while demonstrating a
workout designed for Curves, the global chain of women's fitness
centers.
Her own fitness path began as an overweight 13-year-old whose
mother enrolled her in a martial arts class. She has spun her TV
role improving the fitness of people who are 100 pounds or more
overweight into an empire of exercise DVDs, equipment,
best-selling books and clothing.
These days, she said, her fitness credo is all about variety and
gradually ratcheting up the intensity of her workouts.
"I don't lock into one type of exercise," said Michaels, adding
the workouts she creates focus on flexibility, balance, core
stabilization, power, speed and agility.
"I change the workout every month, so you never adapt and never
plateau."
She also advises upping the ante of a regimen at a 10 percent
rate every two weeks, by increasing something, be it weight,
repetitions or speed.
"The more you change and stress the body, the quicker it's going
to adapt and change," she explained.
Dr. Michele Olson, of the American College of Sports Medicine,
agrees with the 10 percent rule as a general means of adjusting
exercise intensity or length in order to gain improvements at a
reasonable rate.
"It can help you progress but is not such a leap that you might
risk overexertion or injury," the exercise physiologist said.
She said periodization, or varying the type, intensity and
duration of an exercise can prevent staleness, reduce fatigue
and injury, and produce power changes.
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 Michaels's weekly routine is nothing if not varied.
"Usually I'll do one boxing session, one yoga session, two
resistance sessions a week," said Michaels. "I'll also work out
with friends, and then once a week I'll go for a jog."
For inspiration she cites her fitness idols Jack LaLanne and
actress Jane Fonda, even as she stresses the importance of
knowing your limitations.
"For example I've never been flexible so I'm not able to just pop
into splits," she said. "But the more I take care of my body the
more I progress."
Michaels is quick to label her tough reputation "a television
persona created to market a television show" even as she concedes
that it resonates.
"The reality is I'm not a sympathetic person. Sympathy to me is an
agreement that you are sad and sorry and (can't do it)," she said.
"I'm empathetic. I get it. It's hard. It sucks. But I also know that
you can do it."
Michaels see fitness as transformative and knows from experience
that it can improve confidence and empower people.
"I could take somebody that is a second away from having a heart
attack and in four months I can have them running a marathon," she
said. "That's amazing. I would never have thought that was possible
10 years ago."
(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Stephen
Powell)
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