How Can Jennifer Aniston Smoke and Work Out?

Secrets of how stars keep their vices while workin' their bodies

By Leslie Gornstein Mar 24, 2009 1:53 PMTags
Jennifer AnistonSteinberg/Mauceri/INFGoff.com

How do stars like Jennifer Aniston balance their "exercise/yoga addictions" and smoking cigarettes? These two habits seem incompatible.
—JHaars, via Twitter

Until celebrities find a way to pay peons to work out on their behalf, they are stuck doing it themselves. And, surprisingly, many smoker celebrities, including, yes, Jennifer Aniston, manage to work out quite a bit. Her secret isn't some miracle energy pill—though many stars do fall back on prescription drugs like Adderall to keep themselves cadaver-slim.

No, her secret is at once more mundane and more fascinating...

...most likely, a celebrity trainer tells me, her body has simply adapted to its circumstances.

"The body adapts to things, just like it adapts to good diet and exercise," says Joy DiPalma, who has appeared as a trainer on Tori Spelling's reality show. (And for those of you who were wondering: No, DiPalma says, neither Tori nor husband Dean is a smoker.) Aniston has worked out for years, delving into everything from water workouts to yoga, giving her plenty of time to build up a serious endurance that can kick in regardless of a smoking habit.

That doesn't mean a smoker can conquer a decathlon without difficulty. Instead, DiPalma explains, "they may work out for the same amount of time as a nonsmoker, but lower their intensity at times, slow their pace."

Either that, or the celebrity simply cuts down on smoking.

"The more cardio you do, the more you get lung capacity you get, the more your body rejects those kinds of toxic chemicals," says Bravo TV's Workout guru Jackie Warner. "It doesn't want cigarettes; they taste dirty to you. You get headaches.

"It's really common for someone who starts an intensive program to go down from a pack a day to a half-pack a day."

Or even just a single smoky treat.

"The whole goal is to get them down to one treasured cigarette a day," says Warner, adding that many stars can't quit completely because of the emotion attachment people get to cigarettes. "That is the deal I make with my clients."

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