Entertainment

GREAT GUNS! THE SECRET BEHIND MADONNA’S BEEFY NEW BOD

GET a load of those arms!

Thanks to the ultra-beefy arms she’s cultivated by doing a strenuous combination of Pilates and ashtanga vinyasa or “power yoga,” Madonna looks buffer than ever as she begins the U.S. leg of her “Drowned World Tour.”

Madonna’s shockingly pumped-up upper body made its stateside debut last weekend, when she was photographed leaving her Central Park West apartment to head for Philadelphia and her first area show. (She opens at Madison Square Garden tomorrow.)

She wore baggy blue jeans (complete with tough-guy chain wallet) that fell low on her boy-slim hips and a black T-shirt with the words “You Suck” on the front. It was sleeveless to show off the tight, veiny muscles in her strangely stocky arms.

This butchy image is a far cry from the ones she wears on-stage (geisha, cowgirl, etc.), not to mention the ones the performer’s recently sported in real life – devoted wife and mother, for instance.

“Over the last year, she’s done some very traditional things,” points out Fitness editor Emily Listfied. “She become a mom for the second time. She got married in a wedding ceremony that was as traditional as you can get.

“So I’m sure part of her having this look is to show that she’s still in great shape.”

Equinox trainer Courtney Barroll agrees.

“I’d feel a lot of pressure, too, if I were a 43-year-old performer, coming back after almost 10 years and up against singers like Mandy Moore who are young enough to be her daughter. So of course she’s going to be damned sure to look 10 times as fit as she ever did.”

Barroll can’t recall Madonna ever having arms this cut. “She used to have truck driver arms,” she observes.

“Now, she looks like a triathlete or a cyclist. She has much more sculpted, leaner muscle rather than massed muscle.

“From the neck down, she has the body of a fit 19-year-old.”

Most women would want the body of a teenager – but the arms of a WWF wrestler are another story.

“The trend right now is toward a strong, toned body rather than a waiflike one,” says Listfield. “But that doesn’t mean women want to see veins on their arms.”

In power yoga, one’s entire body weight is supported by the arms, which develop highly defined muscles – especially when you spend as much time on the mats as Madonna does.

Will Madonna’s carved, sinewy look catch on? Probably not, predicts Listfield. “Madonna tends to set trends that are more extreme – she’s an arrow that way,” she says. “But she’s thin and has very low body weight, so everything she does can be seen more clearly than on someone who has more body fat.”

SO, HOW DOES SHE LOOK? VOX POP

“She doesn’t look like a woman. Her muscles are very big. She looks very tough.” Lori Frees, Manhattan, book sales

“She looks like she’s been working out too much. Women and muscles is not a good look.” Chandra Kota, Metucken, N.J., software engineer, J.P. Morgan

“She doesn’t look good. She looks kind of skanky.” Rebecaa Stuard, Manhattan, actress

“She looks like Kid Rock. She looks like she needs to put on a little weight.” Jimmy Ojeda, Bronx, mail sorter

“She sucks; you can’t see any cleavage.” Eric Helmar, Manhattan, computer engineer

“She looks like a bodybuilder.” James Sewell, Queens, movie production

“She looks better than she used too. She’s healthier and dresses more conservatively now.” Damon Hing, Brooklyn, operations manager at Macy’s

“She looks more active. I think she looks a lot better than she used to.” Sarah Parks, Louisville, Colo., student

“Who is he? Oh, that’s Madonna. She looks like a man with her hair like that and those muscles.” Terri Joseph, Brooklyn, investment banker