Happy Birthday Malaika Arora: Fitness secrets the star follows for her svelte frame and peaceful mind

The OG fit star of Bollywood, Malaika Arora turns 50 today. While the actor, dancer, host and mother has always been fit, over the last few years, she has taken her commitment to wellness to a different level and the Chaiyya Chaiyya girl is now redefining ageing. However, the star puts in a lot of hard work to maintain her svelte frame, and is known as one of the most focused celebrities when it comes to fitness. Here's decoding her fitness mantras....

Malaika or Malla as she is popularly known as, swears by Yoga. The actor is often papped outside her Yoga studio, where fans make a beeline to catch her in action. The actor feels that it is important to challenge yourself and not stick to one routine to avoid monotony. Malaika is a Yoga pro and has tied up with prominent Yoga studios to help others inculcate the practice in their daily life, too.

Known as a low impact exercise, Pilates includes controlled movements that enhance your balance, core strength, mobility, flexibility, and even mood. Malaika, as expressed earlier, mixes up her exercise routine to avoid falling into a rut. Her celebrity fitness trainer Namrata Purohit often shares videos of Malaika enjoying her Pilates session. Recently, sharing a video with Malla, Namrata wrote, "We make mistakes, we laugh at ourselves and we learn from it! @malaikaaroraofficial and I up to tricks as usual #PilatesGirls (sic)"

Malaika understands the importance of balancing core exercising with strength training for all round fitness. Apart from doing cardio, Yoga and Pilates, Malaika often trains with equipment like dumbbells and kettlebells to strengthen her core and make herself stronger. She is often seen in the gym experimenting with more equipment in order to maintain her lean frame.

Of course, only exercising is not enough to maintain one's fitness goals, so Malaika pays a lot of importance to what she eats on a daily basis. Usually Malaika follows the highly popular intermittent fasting schedule, where she fasts from night to late morning the next day, and then eats during a stipulated time in the day (usually within 8 hours). When it comes to her diet, she is a huge believer of clean eating and buys most of her food from organic stores. She enjoys khichdi, vegetables and lean meats. She also drinks a lot of water to keep herself hydrated throughout the day.