(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

How does a former Victoria’s Secret model stay in shape? In Helena Christensen’s case, by getting punched. “I’m not really into exercising, to be quite honest,” she said at a screening of The Wrestler on December 8. “But I realize that you have to do something to stay in shape, so I box. I’ve boxed for almost two and a half years.” She spars twice a week at Chelsea Piers, where she works with a private trainer. “It’s the conditioning I’m really into, the skip-roping,” she said. “We do rounds too.” Isn’t she worried about damaging her face? “You just have to avoid being hit,” she said, laughing. “But I would never really worry if anything went wrong. They just take it out in the retouching.”

Have good intel? Send tips to intel@nymag.com.

Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Bennett Marcus
• Table of Contents: Dec 22, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!