Helen Mirren Credits RCAP Workout For Keeping Fit

After spotting Dame Helen Mirren’s enviable beach body in a two-piece bathing suit almost six years ago, admirers still wonder what keeps the 69-year-old in tip-top shape. We can all stop guessing because she’s spilled the beans on her workout regimen, and it’s made us even more proud to be Canadian! Although the actress admits she is a yo-yo dieter who fluctuates by 10 pounds, she credits her fitness to the Royal Canadian Air Force  created in the 1950s. Forget the treadmill and elliptical – Mirren goes old-school with simple stretching and toning along with push-ups, sit-ups, running on the spot and arm circling. There are levels to move on to once strength improves.

The actress told Hello! magazine, “Just this morning I started my exercises, which I haven’t been doing for months, maybe years. I do a thing that leads me into exercise. It is the Royal Canadian Air Force exercise plan; it is 12 minutes, and they have charts you follow… Each day, you have to do the exercises within the 12 minutes and until you can, you can’t move up.” Adding, “It is the exercise I have done off and on my whole life. It just very gently gets you fit. Two weeks of doing that and you think: ‘Yeah, I could go to the gym now.’” We approve!