Ashley Tisdale's one of those people who genuinely enjoys working out. She's often seen smiling gleefully as she leaves the gym or hikes around L.A. mountainsides with friends, and she has an affinity for an oddball gym class called Piloxing. The Hellcats star has admitted she's been too skinny in the past, so it's not the rail thin look she's pursuing. The actress finds a "curvy and toned" body sexy, hopes to ward off her family's diabetes gene, and has a cute trainer who helps her to see the gym as a friend. Read on to find out how Ashley went from a gym-hater to an exercise guru who thinks about fitness first, food second.
.jpg)
Learning to Love Exercise: Back in Ashley's High School Musical days, she loved the singing and dancing rehearsals, but "the gym felt like torture," she's said. She had a major aversion to the gym until she realized an old injury from the set of The Suite Life of Zach & Cody was crippling her dance abilities. She wanted to strengthen her core so she enlisted the help of trainer Christopher Hebert. "He's cute, which makes it fun," she told Shape when she graced the magazine's cover in 2009. Herbert mixes up her one-hour sessions with 30 minutes on the elliptical and 30 minutes of weight training, where she focuses on core exercises (a strong core means a healthier back), free weights, push-ups, and running stairs.
"She really enjoys cardio," Herbert said. "Especially running stairs with a medicine ball." If it sounds like an acrobatic move, it kind of is. Ashley runs up a set of stairs 10 times while holding a weighted ball over her head. Sounds like her core must be in pretty good shape these days.One last exercise fave: Piloxing, which stands for Pilates + Boxing. The class has become a shared hobby for Ashley and BFF Vanessa Hudgens. "It's the best time of your life!" she said. "Vanessa and I go all the time. You have these little weights on your hands, and you're doing boxing moves. Then the Pilates comes in, where you do dance and ballet moves." Ashley's a big proponent of finding friends who'll hit the gym with you so it feels like a social outing. If all else fails for motivation, she tells herself "I love exercise!" and before she knows it she's on an elliptical.
Naturally Thin, But Still Conscientious With Diet: Ashley, who says she's always been very thin, used to eat junk food without mindfulness. She told Shape: "I was always super-thin – too skinny, actually. I felt like someone could break me in half. I realize now that being a bit more curvy and toned is so much more beautiful."
So, these days, she lets exercise dictate her diet: After she's worked out, she craves healthier grub. "I've found I'm definitely eating better since I started working out more rigorously. It kind of happened naturally. I don't really crave junk food that often now."
When she does want to lose her healthy inhibitions, Ashley's weaknesses are carbs: "bread, corn bread and french fries, all that stuff," she says. She's also a Diet Coke lover, but who isn't? At the end of the day, she says she eats what she wants and she works out. The actress says because she's always been "tiny," she's just not wired to obsess about food. She said: "I think it’s important to be healthy and work out, but to also make sure that I enjoy life!” That's a mantra we can live by.