TRUDIE STYLER: Warrior yoga, lots of snacks and a little bit of Botox for my scars

By Bonnie Estridge
Updated: 15:05 EDT, 19 December 2009

Holistic harmony: Trudie Styler took up yoga almost 20 years ago

Whatever day you read this, Trudie Styler will probably have already spent 90 minutes practising yoga - wherever she is in the world. It's that sort of discipline that she says has helped her and husband Sting stay in fabulous health - both inside and out.

'I practise for 45 minutes to an hour-and-a-half every day, wherever I am,' says Trudie.

'Yoga is the best holistic workout and body toner there is. It sorts out a chaotic mind and calms the body - it is how I de-stress, or stop myself getting stressed in the first place.'

Trudie, 54, has just launched the first of a set of five health and fitness DVDs, entitled Warrior Yoga, which she describes as 'the warrior poses or sequences from Ashtanga yoga', filmed at the couple's stunning estate in Tuscany. For the time-poor, Trudie has devised a 25-minute 'express workout'.

Ashtanga was developed by teacher Pattabi Jois from Mysore, India, who refined this form of yoga after translating ancient Indian texts on the subject. It promotes an intense internal heat through continuous movements linked with breathing, while practising a set of postures.

This heat 'purifies' the muscles and organs and helps the body expel toxins while releasing beneficial hormones into the blood stream. Practitioners say the health benefits include lowering blood pressure and improving flexibility.

Trudie has used the warrior poses from Ashtanga as the basis of her new routine, devised with her teacher, James D'Silva.

However, what makes it different from Ashtanga is that no pose is held for longer than a couple of breaths, so there is more movement and flow through the workout. The positions incorporate all parts of the body, moving in all directions, so the moves you might make in life are reflected in the routine.

Trudie has been practising yoga for 20 years and although its surge in popularity during the Nineties is often linked to Madonna, it was Trudie and Sting who introduced the pop star to the practice.

'Madonna came to visit one day, about 15 years ago now, and Sting and his teacher Danny were practising yoga. She was intrigued, and soon took it up herself,' says Trudie. 'She has an amazing practise regime and, of course, really got the whole world into it as they saw how fit and strong she became.'

Sting, who is also accomplished at yoga, enjoys a fairly solitary regime, while Trudie prefers to have James with her 'because I'm far too easily distracted on my own'.

'Sting is much better at switching off than I am. He can concentrate and meditate whatever might be going on in the room and is far more disciplined,' she says.

The couple are not, however, competitive about the number of hours they put in nor the demanding poses they make. In fact, Trudie admits that when their schedules allow them the time to practise together they normally end up 'in gales of laughter'.

'He tries to focus and then I get the giggles because he's being so serious. We usually end up teasing each other.

'I took up yoga when I was trying to get my figure back after having my third child, Coco. Sting's long-time guitarist Dominic Miller told us that there was a famous yoga teacher in town, Danny Paradise, and would we like to see him giving a yoga demonstration?

'We were hooked from then on. Yoga is immediately rewarding, whatever your level, because it's not about being able to attain the perfect lotus position. Each day there is an improvement on the day before. It's not competitive, it's not a race. With yoga, the journey is the destination.'

Given the couple's zealous commitment to yoga, it would be tempting to think that they are equally obsessed with their diet, but far from it. 'I eat organic food as much as possible, but I'm not militant about it. If I'm a guest in someone's house or in a restaurant, I eat whatever is on offer.'

She adds: 'But I do have to eat regularly during the day because otherwise my blood glucose levels drop and I start to feel faint and become hypoglycaemic. I usually have healthy snacks on me, just in case I've been too busy running around to eat properly.'

Food, Trudie says, was an important factor in her upbringing because her father, Harry Styler, a factory worker, was also a farmer during the Second World War and her mother, Pauline, was a school dinner lady.

'Mum was a pretty good cook - we had a modest upbringing but we ate well and grew vegetables in our garden without the use of pesticides or herbicides. I have always impressed on my children the importance of good, nutritious food. Generally, they eat good food, and the older ones particularly are health-conscious now.'

Trudie and Sting married in 1992 after living together for nearly ten years and the couple have four children: Mickey, 25, Jake, 24, Coco, 19, and Giacomo, 14.

Synchronicity: Trudie Styler with rock star husband Sting

The couple were both born into working-class families, Trudie near Birmingham, Sting near Newcastle. Educated at the local grammar school, Trudie trained as an actress at Bristol Old Vic, going on to appear in various Seventies TV dramas, including Poldark.

When she was two-and-a-half, she tripped in front of a baker's van while crossing the road coming home from a friend's house. The under-age driver rolled over her and she was dragged along, her face torn open by the gravel.

'The scars were terrible and so near to my left eye I was lucky not to lose it. I was in hospital for three months and had many operations as I was growing up. I had a miserable time at school, being called "Scarface". I was unhappy for a long time.'

Her mother sued the company that employed the driver and won compensation. 'It was amazing that she had such foresight. She told the judge, "My daughter might need her looks one day. She might have a job in front of the camera."'

Her mother was right, of course, but not only has Trudie been a film and TV actress, she is also a successful producer with her own film company, Xingu Films.

She executive-produced Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (introducing Madonna to her second husband Guy Ritchie, who directed the film), and has had considerable critical success with movies such as A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints starring Robert Downey Jr, and her latest co-production, Moon, which won Best Film at the British Independent Film Awards.

Recalling the days before she came to terms with her injuries, she says: 'I hated looking in the mirror. I didn't know who I was and certainly didn't like the person I saw. But by the time I was 18, the scars were fading and things began to change for me. I learned to feel more attractive and had more self-esteem.

'When I landed my first job in Poldark, I tried to keep my face in profile because one of the scars looked like a crease, as if I'd been sleeping on my face. I felt so bad when the cameraman started whispering to the director about it. I wouldn't watch myself on TV at all. In fact, I still don't like watching myself.'

Yet the scarring clearly did not detract from her good looks - if anything it enhanced them. In his 2003 autobiography, Sting implies that they were one of the reasons he fell in love with her.

Of their first meeting he writes: 'Her eyes are a pale, pale green and across her left cheek is a whitened strip of scar tissue that curls like the violent memory of an animal claw around the socket of her left eye. Strangely the scar in no way detracts from her beauty because she looks to me like a kind of damaged angel.'

These days, the marks are barely visible thanks to celebrity dermatologist-Jean-Louis Sebagh who gives her filler injections.

'I go twice a year to have the injections and a bit of Botox. The fillers have definitely evened out the scars and made me feel much better about my face.'

Slim, toned and glowing, Trudie radiates good health. Yoga, cardio-workouts and other exercises such as Pilates aside, she sticks to a supplement regime that includes multivitamins, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids and Vitamin D to protect her bones.

She also values a good night's sleep, beating the worst bouts of jetlag with the sleep hormone melatonin. 'It's frustrating to be exhausted but unable to sleep because your body is confused from not knowing what time it is.

'That said, in my work for the Rainforest Foundation and Unicef over the years - in Brazil, Ecuador, Sri Lanka and Pakistan - I've met so many women suffering great hardships yet being strong mothers, wives and workers, and also still caring about their health and their beauty.

'I admire the courage of women for their every-day heroism, keeping it all together in the battlefields that are often their lives. The idea of the Warrior Woman is a genuine and central aspect of feminine nature, and one worth celebrating.'

How does she feel about the inevitability of ageing? 'I feel good in my skin and body and accept the ageing process, but I am mindful that my mum suffered from Alzheimer's. She was only 54 when she developed it, and died at the age of 60.

'Both Sting and I know how important it is to keep the brain active. He is a crossword and sudoku fanatic and can sit doing puzzles for hours.'

Apart from their home in Wiltshire and the Tuscany estate, the couple also own property in London, New York, Malibu and the Lake District.

'With more life behind me now than in front, I love just to be wherever the family is or where Sting is, with the little crowd that love me.'

Talking of love - what of those stories of tantric sex in which Trudie and Sting allegedly enjoyed up to eight hours of continuous sex? Were they true? Or simply a joke (as was reported some years after Sting first mentioned it in an interview).

'What have I got to add that is useful?' Trudie laughs. 'For couples who have been together for a long time, sustaining intimacy is an important ingredient in the chemistry between the two of you.

'Tantra [a yoga discipline that explores erotic potential] is basically about devoting time to one another, making a date with your partner.

Inspiration: Trudie's new DVD

'One of the upsides to being married to someone who is away from home a lot is that we have a lot of reunions, and there is romance inherent in that.

'We have our special meeting places, one or two favourite hotels, and if we haven't seen each other for a few weeks we make a date, we get excited about seeing each other again, and we spend real quality time with one another while we can.'

• Trudie Styler's Warrior Yoga DVD features a full-length 50-minute workout as well as a 25-minute express one. RRP £17.99, available at all good DVD retailers and online at www.clearvision.co.uk/gaiam. Some of the proceeds from the sales will go to Unicef Ecuador Water Project, which provides cleaner, safer water to indigenous people whose land and water source have been polluted by the oil industry. www.unicef. org.uk/trudie

How Ashtanga boosts your body to the core

Full swan dive

• The sanskrit word 'yoga' means 'to join or merge' and the practice of yoga aims to create balance between body, mind and spirit. Yoga teaches sequences of poses as well as breathing, relaxation and meditation techniques.
• Ashtanga is regarded as the most challenging form as it is built on a series of continuous movements. Those practising will learn postures so the flowing movement can continue uninterrupted.
• It is believed to improve blood flow to the major organs and be good for the heart. Several studies have shown that yoga can help to lower blood pressure, regulate hormones, relieve digestive disorders and stress, improve core muscular strength, posture, flexibility, stamina and sleep.
• The full swan dive is a good way to stretch muscles and is the ultimate back strengthener for the spinal muscles. To begin with, lie on your stomach with your palms faced down on the floor in line with your shoulders and legs, hip width apart. Point your toes, inhale deeply and pull your shoulder blades down and straighten arms to lift your upper body off the floor. Keep the neck long and your head straight. Exhale and lower your body back down to the floor and repeat.
• The samasthiti to mountain pose lengthens the spine and neck and stretches the shoulder joints. Stand with feet together and pressed into the floor. Keep your legs straight without locking knees. Lengthen the neck and keep your chin parallel to the floor. Keep arms straight and wrists facing forwards. Inhale and sweep your arms from your sides towards your head. Keep palms facing downwards until you reach the halfway point. Now turn them to face upwards as you bring palms together above your head and look up at your hands. Bring your head back to face forwards and exhale as you bring hands to your sides. Repeat.

Samasthiti to mountain pose