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FROM the concert stage to the big screen, some celebrities get rave reviews for the figures they flaunt in movies and on the red carpet. But they aren't born with washboard abs, Tina Turner legs and sculptured backsides.

To get and to keep fabulous figures, many hire personal trainers who specialize in training the stars and keeping them fit. Among the leading celebrity trainers are Darrell Foster, who trains Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, and Orlando Brown, who supervises Kirk Franklin's workouts. All say that training stars is more demanding than training non-celebrities because the celebrities' time is at a premium and everybody can see and comment on the results.

Darrell Foster (Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith)

Celebrity trainer and fitness consultant Darrell Foster, who has been involved in boxing since he first entered the ring as a fighter in 1972, uses his extensive knowledge of the sport to train celebrities like Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, Antonio Banderas and Woody Harrelson.

Although he also works with people who are not celebrities, Foster takes his responsibilities as a celebrity fitness trainer seriously. He teaches the actors how to fight, not how to fake it. "They have to learn the basics and how to take a punch," he says. A licensed boxing and fitness trainer and emergency medical technician, Foster is the owner of Omega Bodies, Inc., a fitness and fighting outlet based in California. He not only works with celebrities on coordinating their fight scenes, but also on their lifestyle and weight management, because, he says, "a lot of diseases are lifestyle-related."

Actor Will Smith says Foster is an asset to his business team. "I first started training with Darrell to prepare for my role as Muhammad Ali for the film Ali," he says. He has continued to use Foster for his other roles in Men in Black II, Bad Boys II and I, Robot. "I train with Darrell because he is simply the best."

The actor's transformation into a young Muhammad Ali for the film even impressed the champ himself. Muhammad Ali says Foster is extremely talented and an exceptional trainer. "He was able to train Will to fight as I did, to dance around the ring and be light on his toes. Will's transformation into Muhammad All the boxer was total and complete" he adds.

Foster also trained Smith's wife, Jada, for her strenuous fight scenes in The Matrix sequels and in the film Collateral. He says when training Jada for The Matrix, he had to consider her post-partum condition, because she had recently given birth to her daughter Willow. "We had to take the training a little slower," he says. But in her recent film, Collateral, he almost had to do a reverse training for her, encouraging her to "consume a few more carbs" and incorporating more cardiovascular fitness into her training regimen.

# posted by Medical Information : 1:40 AM