Brooke Shields in Bathing Suit Is "Sparking Joy"

Brooke Shields is living her best life in her bathing suit! The 56-year-old flaunts her famous figure via her latest Instagram post, rocking a black swimsuit during a swim in the ocean. "Sparking joy," she captioned the video of herself, smiling and laughing as she floats on her back. How does the actress manage to look half her age? Read on to see 7 of Brooke Shields' top tips for getting into shape and the photos that prove they work—and to get beach-ready yourself, don't miss these essential 30 Best-Ever Celebrity Bathing Suit Photos!

During a recent interview with Celebwell, Brooke's trainer, New York based trainer Ngo Okafor, revealed that regular workout sessions are responsible for her fabulous figure. "Brooke and I would usually train for one hour, three to four days a week. Our sessions are results driven," the Iconoclast Fitness gym owner told us. To prepare for her recent Jordache campaign, they "ramped up" training. The goal was to get her as lean as possible, in a short time," Ngo explains. "We did a 14 day transformation program." During this period, Brooke worked out every single day. 

Brooke's workouts are intense. "The sessions consisted of strength training circuits and abs, with cardio bursts mixed in, with a goal to keep Brooke's heart rate elevated while she lifted weights, which will enable her to burn more calories than lifting alone," Ngo told Celebwell. "I would have Brooke do lighter weights, with high repetitions. This makes the exercises more cardiovascular in nature, which burns more calories. The goal is always to burn 10 calories per minute."

Ngo also revealed that Brooke would also do 30 minutes of cardio on her own. "The other two days would be cardio and stretching days," he says. "She would do an hour of low impact cardio (to ensure that she didn't get injured), abs and stretching."

Brooke's workout sessions focus on training smaller muscles. "I started working on little individual muscles, and sort of shaping the muscles that don't really get attention," she said on the Today Show. "You don't have to deadlift 100 pounds. You can do small, teeny movements to activate these little muscles that actually wrap around other bigger muscles, and they tighten them all in. It was a revelation to work with a personal trainer and it not be a crazy painful thing."

Brooke's flat abs take a lot of work. Last year, she demonstrated one of her new ab moves on Instagram dubbed The Penguin. "It's harder than it seems… keep your stomach tight and work your obliques," she instructed. She also uses an exercise ball to activate her abs. 

You won't find Brooke on a trendy diet. "We've been taught, 'Deny yourself pleasure.' But moderation is harder because it requires really committing to balance," she told Health. "I find that if I say, 'I'm not gonna eat ice cream' or 'I'm not gonna drink,' all I want to do is drink and eat ice cream. It's some kind of psychological battle."

"Truly, when I get enough sleep and drink enough water," she told Healthy Living Magazine when asked when she feels her healthiest. "I don't think there's a trick to being healthy; I think we all know what our limitations are." "Dimming the lights in your bedroom and turning off all electronics about 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime can be very helpful to increase the release of melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that helps regulate your body's internal circadian clock. It increases in the evening as it becomes dark, which helps induce sleep, and shuts down when it's light outside, which can then increase wakefulness and alertness," says the Mayo Clinic.