Hey guys,
This week’s blog post is going to reveal the 12 best kept celebrity fitness secrets. These secrets are shared among the biggest Hollywood celebrities that we love.
They are also shared by our favorite fitness influencers who both train and inspire trends. What are the secret routines, workouts and training regimes of some of the most aesthetically beautiful people on Earth?
The magic words are always going to be consistency, effort and intensity. Furthermore, straying away from fear-based thinking about lifting weights, becoming strong and loving that title are also crucial!
In this blog post, I will also go over the celebrity’s trainers’ routines, mindsets and their own training regimens that have garnered them their celebrity status!
The most important take-away from this post should be that fitness does not discriminate between socio-economics, status, or even country.
After all is said and done, these celebrity and influencers go through the same pain, grueling workouts and discipline to get their sculpted bodies!
What training did J-lo have to go through in order to get her body ready for Hustlers? What is Kate Upton’s favorite glutes exercise and how does Kim Kardashian’s trainer sculpt both celebrity and millions of people’s bodies?
Can the secret be found in their routines? I did the research and came up with a list of their secrets to share with you.
Among every athlete, fitness-lover and gym-freak is an ambitious person who has everything it takes to become an inspiration for others. Inside all of us resides star potential, we just need to believe it’s there and harness it.
Without further ado, here are the 12 best kept celebrity fitness secrets. First, let us go over the 4 non-negotiable rules of getting into shape.
4 non-negotiable rules of getting fit:
#1 Don’t be afraid to get strong!
Here are trainer Ben Bruno’s A-list celebrity female clients lifting weights! Among his clients are actresses Jessica Biel and Kate Upton.
J-lo’s trainer describing her training style:
“J Lo’s workout is very similar to Ellie’s – a weighted gym routine consisting primarily of compound exercises. As I mentioned, I do these weekly – they’re one of the easiest ways to future-proof your body. From this set, I love kettlebell swings and hip thrusts – you’ll feel totally badass being able to increase the weight you can lift week-on-week.”
#2: Be consistent with your training.
Aiming for consistency over perfection will get you fit for life. Aim to train for as long as possible and stick to it for the physique of your dreams.
“Fitness trainer Brittany Matthews, who is engaged to NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes, knows a lot about fitness. She actually has a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, but even she recognizes that you won’t get anywhere without consistency. Any fitness routine can yield results as long as you stick with it and stay consistent — something Brittany even did throughout her pregnancy with daughter Sterling. (She worked out up until the day before she gave birth!) (Thompson, 2021)”
#3: Give your best effort during every session.
#4 Always practice good form.
Here are the 12 best kept celebrity fitness secrets:
1) They manage stress in their daily routines.
Stress is notorious for disrupting many factors of our lives, from our skin to our hair to our fitness goals.
Stress closes down the peripheral central nervous system, making our bodies closed off and in fight-flight mode.
Because building muscle requires our bodies to be functioning to their full capacities, we need to make sure our bodies are open to thriving and growing.
You can manage your stress levels by meditating, doing yoga, going on a walk, getting a massage, taking deep belly breaths or just by going outdoors/being in nature.
Sleep is also important for our bodies to recover between our training sessions.
From a celebrity personal trainer’s perspective:
“”Stress management really is the “X-factor”‘, says Johnson. ‘If we can incorporate a few strategies to edge our clients towards a more parasympathetic state (also known as the rest and digest state), that’s a huge win and will help immensely.”It might be going for a leisurely stroll, incorporating bodywork (massage), breathwork, sauna or cold exposure. The importance of sleep can’t be overstated, as well. The actual amount may be a luxury to some, so making sure the quality of sleep they get is vital.’”
Prioritize these tips and make sure to find ways to manage adding stress reduction and sleep as a permanent lifestyle change as it will lead to better health and beauty outcomes.
“In particular, [celebrities] prioritise sleeping on a regular schedule and balancing stress and excitement. That means very little late-night partying, and if they live high-stress lives, it also means they make a concerted effort to de-stress by scheduling relaxation activities (Fawkes,2019).”
2) Find your why.
Finding your why is possibly the best way to tap into your motivation reserves. Motivation is a feeling that largely feeds off of other feelings.
Taking the time to find out why we do things can help us use that emotion to realign ourselves to our goals when we are not feeling it.
Many celebrities, fitness influencers and celebrity trainers have a reason why they train or look the way they do.
Not all of us are getting payed to look a certain way, so for those of us who are not getting payed, a strong why will force our habits into place.
“Third, celebrities are in great shape in large part because their careers depend on it. Intuition says they’re famous because they’re good looking, but the reverse is equally true: having greater stakes attached to being in shape motivates them to stay in shape (Fawkes,2019).”
Check out this post on habit formation and mindset to find out why having a strong why is crucial towards becoming successful in fitness.
“In many ways, celebrities are easier to deal with than professionals or entrepreneurs. They have to maintain a certain image, and staying in shape is usually part of that. So they’re more dedicated and motivated to get into shape compared to non-celebrities (Fawkes, 2019).”
Furthermore, according to celebrity trainers, they each have their own lifestyles, goals, weaknesses, injury history and preferences.
It is hard to just assign a one-size fits all solution to all of us when it comes to what works or doesn’t.
This nuance is important because those of us who are not payed for a movie role, social media post, or a video clip need to assign ourselves a solution that makes sense to us and our own inner selves.
Or you can simply workout because moving makes you feel good!
Fitness experts all have agreed that working out offers incredible physical, mental, and emotional benefits. “Think about how working out makes you feel,” fitness instructor and Byrdie beauty and wellness review board member Jennifer Polzak says. “Runners high, exercise endorphins, and better sleep are all attributed to a good workout”
3) Have realistic goals.
Having realistic goals is important to celebrities and fitness influencers because it allows them to plan for success.
Knowing the pressures and competition that is out there both in Hollywood and on Instagram is crucial towards developing feasible objectives that can be helped via the use of a personal trainer or a well-planned fitness program.
“Make a bet on meeting your fitness goals, keep a public journal, or even sign up for an amateur powerlifting contest, or schedule an amateur photoshoot, to give you a speficit deadline to get motivated for so you can’t make excuses to put things off (Fawkes, 2019).
4) Perform unilateral exercises for bigger glutes
Performing unilateral exercises definitely places more stress onto the gluteal muscles. The reason for this being that they are more difficult and can isolate the gluteul muscles more than a regular bridge, hip thrust or squat.
That does not mean that you should not perform other exercises, it just means that unilateral exercises can increase the tension and difficulty of the exercises that you are performing.
The glutes eventually adapt by getting stronger and bigger. Celebrity trainers know this, make sure to check out Bret Conteras’ advice on unilateral training/his exercise list.
Watch actress and model Kate Upton performing a single leg hip thrust:
4) Engage the mind-muscle connection.
The mind-muscle connection activates more muscle cells than adding more force or tension without it. It encourages more neural activity on the glutes.
Studies have explored whether such a link between the muscle and the brain exists. It was found that it does indeed. A simple way of doing this is by thinking about the muscle working as you train it.
Check out this blog post for more information on the mind-muscle connection!
5) Find workouts that you enjoy doing.
The best workout program is one that you can stick to. Celebrities and famous influencers are just like us in the sense that they will have a workout style that they prefer.
Our fitness success is always contingent on our ability to stick to our workout routine over time.
“You should never feel like working out is something you have to do,” Laffon says. “It should always be something you want to do, even if you’re tired or feeling uninspired. The best way to do this is to find a style of working out that can adapt to your needs.”
Whether it is lifting weights, yoga, pilates, walking/running, cross fit or swimming that you enjoy doing, aim to stick to it for life and you are sure to get that perfect body!
6) Hire a personal trainer.
Celebrities hire trainers because their jobs require their bodies to look and perform their best. Trainers have gotten educated in exercise selection, instruction, safety and tailoring workouts to meet the celebrity’s goals.
Celebrities have busy enough lives and schedules between movie or video clip shoots, media appearances, travelling and their own private lives.
A trainer takes care of scheduling, accountability, motivation and reaching your goals quicker.
“A trainer will not only hold you accountable, but they can also help you create new workouts or give you a new way to improve your current workouts,” Masiello explains. “Sometimes, all it takes is one or two sessions with a trainer every other month to help keep things fresh.”
Even if you are already an avid fitness-freak or a fitness influencer, remaining a student and having a growth mindset can definitely help level up our levels of fitness at any stage in our fitness journeys.
7) Switch up your routine
While consistency and being able to stick to a sport and routine is important towards achieving our goals, variety also leads to success in fitness.
Celebrities and fitness influencers are open towards learning new things and trying out different styles of training.
One can perform powerlifting for a month or two and then move to hypertrophy or pilates. Variety does not confuse a program, it instead adds more depth to it and allows our human-side to be satisfied with the process as training may become mundane after a while.
“Adding variety to your workout routine will prevent it from becoming monotonous and give you something new to look forward to. “Doing the same thing day in and day out is a surefire way to kill your enthusiasm,” Laffon adds. “Don’t be afraid to practice yoga one day, go for a run the next, and do a HIIT class the next.”
Even the most neurotic of us can benefit from being more flexible with our training, it can even be just adding one or two HIIT workouts or pilates/stretch sessions in between strength training workouts.
Check out this sample training week with variety for those of us who love the gym:
Monday:
Lower body workout
Compound lifts (Choose 3-4 exercises. Perform 3-5 repetitions with a powerlifting style)
Deadlift
Squat
Lunge
Hip Thrust
Isolation exercises (Choose 2-3 exercises. Perform for 12-20 repetitions):
Leg extensions
Hip Abduction
Kickback
Glutes hyperextension
Machine hip abduction
Leg curl
Tuesday:
Pilates/Stretch
or
Upper body workout (Choose 3-4 exercises. Perform 3-5 repetitions with a powerlifting style)
Bench Press
Shoulder Press
Back Row
Lateral raise
Chin Ups
Isolation exercises (Choose 2-3 exercises and perform for 12-20 repetitions):
Triceps extensions/kickbacks
Bicep curls
Straight arm pulldown
Wednesday:
Upper Body/Lower Body or Abs (Lighter weights/pump-style/movement day)
(Pick 3-4 upper body exercises from this list for each body part followed by 2-3 isolation exercises from here.)
Thursday:
Cardio or yoga
Friday:
Lower body workout (8-12 repetitions for hypertrophy)
Compound exercises (Pick 2-3 and perform for 7-12 repetitions)
Squat
Hip Thrust
Deadlift
Hip thrust
Step up
Lunge
Isolation Exercises (Choose 3-4 and perform for 12-20 repetitions)
Leg extensions
Leg curl
Glutes hyperextension
Glutes kickback
Machine hip abduction
Side laying hip abduction
Saturday:
Cardio
Sunday:
Rest
7) Create a workout playlist
Another great way to get into and stay in shape is by having awesome music to vibe with. Celebrities, fitness influencers and their trainers are no stranger to how important music is for feeling upbeat and motivated.
Make sure to constantly change yours and keep things fresh!
“Experts also love workout playlists because they can boost a client’s morale. [Creating a new playlist] is a great way to infuse new energy into your otherwise routine training sessions,” Masiello adds.”
It definitely goes without saying that half of the battle with training is just showing up. Making it fun and worthwhile comes down to factors we can also control like music, wardrobe and the setting of our workouts!
The devil is in the detail so make sure to make your music choice count.
8)Find a workout that challenges you
You want to make sure not to stay complacent with your training. The reason why a lot of gym-goers have bodies that stop transforming or remain resistant to growing is because their workouts simply are not challenging enough.
A good personal trainer will constantly be changing program variables to ensure that you are getting stronger week after week.
9) Make your workouts short and consistent
Most celebrities lead very busy lives and personal trainers are aware of it. They therefore have to plan their clients’ workouts in between big things like shoots, travel, dinners and their own personal lives.
“‘Like any other important meeting, I recommend scheduling your workouts a week ahead of time so there are no last-minute issues because you have already scheduled life around [your workouts],’ Bullock says.“
Celebrity personal trainers make sure to plan workouts beforehand as to factor in the busy schedules of their clients.
Knowing every detail and preparing beforehand always leads to success.
“‘If your lunch break is one hour, use 20 minutes to walk through your office building or around the block,” Polzak says. “If you’re winding down at the end of your evening with some tv, take every commercial break to move around. You can do planks, pushups, or bodyweight squats.’”
Every bit of movement counts towards our goals so make sure to always schedule time in for it.
10) Get your mindset right
The final tip of this list is getting our mindsets right. Check out this post on 8 winning fitness mindsets and this post on having a growth mindset for more information on this subject.
Celebrities and fitness influencers have to have the right mindset in order to keep their jobs and their bodies in check.
Wonder woman’s Gal Gadot had to change her beliefs about weightlifting in order to become successful and look her best for the movie.
“‘Gadot, for her part, experienced equal and opposite anxiety. “I don’t want to be big and bulky,” she told Twight. “I don’t want to look like a bodybuilder.” Twight points out that “women’s testosterone levels are lower than men’s, so they don’t build muscle as easily. But the real difficulty is to change habits and to confront the expectations regarding exercise intensity and body image.’”
Gadot had to overcome her fear of looking masculine and bulky in order to embrace the intensity needed to look like the beautiful and strong wonder woman.
Her trainer Mark Twight encourages breaking down mental boundaries with training using his own tactics.
“Unlike many trainers, Twight believes that changing the body begins by changing the mind. His job involves subjecting clients to discomfort and then comforting them—and he even uses psychological “trickery” so that actors learn to see training not just as a way to enhance their appearance but also as a way of discovering new aspects of their inner selves.”
He also believes that “appearance is the consequence of fitness, and confidence is a consequence of capability.”
Check out these celebrities performing their weight lifting routines:
I also want to challenge you to look through these workouts and look for clues/commonalities between every celebrity, fitness influencer and fit people you may know (yourself included).
A huge way of remaining successful in fitness is by putting on a student lens when it comes to learning more about fitness and optimising our lifestyles to get better results.
What do these celebrities/influencers have in common when it comes to nutrition? What about when it comes to their training?
Go through the captions like this and find the hidden stuff, you will realise that there is a bit of “extremeness” or being a bit crazy in the routine of every fitness buff.
It doesn’t have to be Dwayne the Rock Johnson’s crazy discipline or routine but you’ll notice a bit of obsession and non-confirmity that drive their lives and overall fitness.
WWE Star Nikkibella training:
“I get asked a lot about my workouts, my diet and nutrition. On work days like today I usually give myself about an hour for workouts before I have to get ready. I like to get in 30-40 mins of cardio (or burn 300-350 calories) so whatever comes up first on the treadmill. Then get some arm exercises in with free weights (3 reps of 2-3 different exercises, no breaks) and some core exercises if I have time (usually 300 different type of ab crunches) I try to have my shake after my workout. So only coffee and water before. I’m always up at 5:30am with my little one and like to get this am workout in when he is napping. Sometimes it works out that way sometimes not 🤷🏽♀️ #momlife Ok more tips to come!💋💪🏼 PS I’m a calorie counter. That’s what helps me keep myself accountable. I like to know what goes in and what sweats out lol That’s the type A in me! I think I’m a type A haha Mom @kathylaurinaitis you think I’m a type A?! I do love an A @theartemc 😘🥰”
Nikkibella performing a heavy front squat:
How other female WWE superstars train (yes, they also lift heavy weights):
Watch Kim Kardashian’s personal trainer Mel train using heavy weights:
Follow these celebrity fitness trainers for more success tips:
I hope that you enjoyed this post on the 12 best well kept celebrity fitness secrets, please let me know what you thought about it in the comments below!
Sources:
Better Humans Medium
https://www.marieclaire.co.uk/life/health-fitness/celebrity-workouts-709296
https://origympersonaltrainercourses.co.uk/blog/celebrity-personal-trainers
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2016/03/mark-twight-hollywood-trainer
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/uk/fitness/strength-training/g37674249/celebrity-fitness-secrets/
Taras Fit World 
Thanks for sharing so many tips!
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Anytime! I’m glad you liked them ❤️
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