The Biggest Exercise Mistakes Made by Female Celebrities
Let’s see how female celebrities and rock stars exercise, and the biggest mistakes they’re making.
Ben Greenfield
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The Biggest Exercise Mistakes Made by Female Celebrities
We’ve already dug into the fitness routines of male celebrities like Brad Pitt and Denzel Washington, and the biggest male celebrity workout mistakes. Believe it or not, while there are certainly some relatively smart Hollywood workout routines and celebrity exercise habits, many celebrities (and even the personal trainers of those celebrities) are unsurprisingly uneducated in exercise science research, and in what truly works and what doesn’t when it comes to efficient results for fat loss and muscle gain.
So now let’s see how female celebrities and rock stars exercise, and the biggest mistakes they’re making.
Female Celebrity Workouts
Anne Hathaway
Anne Hathaway’s slim and sexy Catwoman body in the movie The Dark Knight Rises was carved via a style of resistance training called the 3-2-1 Workout. Here’s how it works:
- “3” stands for the number of cardio sessions per workout
- “2” stands for the number of weight training circuits per workout
- “1” stands for the number of abs routines per workout
So, for a Monday workout, Anne performs:
· (Cardio 1)
· Jog 2 min / Run 6 min / Jog 2 min
· (Strength 1)
· Dumbbell Bench Press (20 reps)
· Dumbbell Flys (20 reps)
· Bar Dips (30 reps)
· (Repeat Strength Training Circuit, 2 more times)
· (Cardio 2)
· Sprint (30 sec) then Jog (30 sec) / Repeat for 10 mins total
· (Strength 2)
· Dumbbell Bench Press (20 reps)
· Dumbbell Incline Bench Press (20 reps)
· Tricep Extensions (20 reps)
· (Repeat Strength Training Circuit, 2 more times)
· (Cardio 3)
· Jog 2 min / Run 6 min / Jump Rope 2 min
· (Abs 1)
· V-Ups (20 reps)
· Bicycle Crunches (20 reps)
· Twisting Plank (20 reps)
In addition to a 3-2-1 Workout like this performed three times per week, Anne also does:
- Dance Workouts
- Trail Running
- Stunt Training
- Martial Arts
- Bikram Yoga
Anne’s Biggest Workout Mistake:
Ultimately, Anne’s workouts are hitting most of her bases: the 3-2-1 workout for resistance training, steady cardio, and High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), and her other routines for mobility, coordination, explosiveness, and balance. There is one obvious hole in her routine: a lack of high weight, low rep exercise, which builds bone density and strength and can tone and add lean muscle much faster and more efficiently than 20 rep sets. One simple substitution Anne could make would be to simply increase weight and perform 8-10 reps for her 3-2-1 strength sets, rather than 20 reps.
Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson’s primary workout is Pilates, and she usually does a one mile run followed by a one hour Pilates workout, three times a week. The focus of most of her workouts is to tone the arms, abs, legs and butt, and her Pilates workouts include moves such as 100’s, Roll-Ups, Single Leg Pulls, Criss Cross Exercise, and Elevated Clams.
Kate’s trainer Nicole Stuart claims that Pilates is a great workout because you’ll “become tighter, more toned and stronger, it makes you stand taller, have more confidence and more grounded and you lose inches around your waist, and get that leaner, longer look.”
Kate’s Biggest Workout Mistake:
In the article “5 Pilates Myths Busted,” you learn that Pilates isn’t really going to help you lose weight. Because it does such a good job strengthening your core, reducing your risk of injury, and improving your flexibility, it may help you “stay in the game” longer when you’re working out, and keep you from getting sidelined with an injury. But when it comes to pure calorie burning and fat loss, running on a treadmill, riding a bike or lifting weights will be more effective than Pilates. In addition, because the average Pilates class primarily focuses on your core and low back muscles, you should not rely solely upon Pilates to improve your full body strength. In order to get a muscle, joint, or bone stronger, you must expose that area of your body to a stress, such as lifting an object overhead for stronger shoulders, pushing an object with your legs for stronger thighs, or extending and flexing against resistance for stronger arms. In many Pilates workouts that use machines, you may find yourself performing these activities and actually receive a full body workout. But the average Pilates class at a gym focuses only on your abdominal or low back muscular endurance and your flexibility—and not on full body strength. Kate is getting cardio from her running, and mobility and core training from Pilates, but she should also include full body weight training routine 2-3 times per week.
Madonna
Madonna’s workout is comprised of full body exercises followed by explosive, high intensity cardio work efforts. For example, with a pair of 3-5 lb dumbbells, she’ll do a series of squats, lunges, presses, pulls, and twists, performing each exercise seamlessly for 60 seconds, then jumping into explosive cardio such as treadmill, bicycling, burpees, rowing, elliptical, etc. for 60 seconds. She’ll repeat the circuit 2-3 times, resting for 60 seconds between each circuit.
Madonna’s biggest workout mistake:
In “Which Workout Burns The Most Fat?” you learn that the best way to simultaneously build muscle and burn fat is by combining back-to-back weight training sets with explosive bouts of cardio, which is something very similar to what Madonna does. So she’s onto something! However, just like Anne Hathway, she would get better results if she A) used heavier weights than 3-5 lb dumbbells, and B) completed just two back-to-back exercises (instead of an entire circuit) followed by a cardio burst, and progressed through an entire routine of back-to-back exercises until hitting every body part. Throw in a bit of yoga for stress relief and foam rolling for mobility and this is a solid routine!
Jennifer Lopez
Jennifer’s (“JLo’s”) workout combines Pilates, muscle toning, and dancing routines, often with up to four hours per day of dancing! Specifically, her workout split is: 30-60 minutes Pilates, 30 minutes weight training, and two to four hours dancing.
Jennifer’s biggest workout mistake:
Jennifer’s workout is hitting just about everything: strength, power, cardio, mobility, coordination, core and balance. But unfortunately, the average person doesn’t have four hours per day to commit to dancing. Because of this, if you decide to adopt Jennifer’s routine of Pilates with weights and dancing, you may need to opt for a few less hours of dancing, and a few more extremely high-intensity intervals that give you plenty of cardio bang for the buck. For the most potent form of HIIT, I’d recommend you look into Tabata sets, which are comprised of four minutes of 20 seconds very hard and 10 seconds very easy, which you can read more about here.
Gwyneth Paltrow
To get her long and lean body, Gwyneth Paltrow workout uses something called the “Tracy Anderson Method.” She works out for up to 2 hours a day, 6 days a week, and has been working out with her personal trainer Tracy Anderson since 2006. Tracy Anderson creates fitness routines for Gwyneth that she says “makes your muscles stronger and tinier.” She does this by using methods that work the smaller muscle groups in the body, instead of isolating the big muscle groups. Often performed in a hot room (similar to Bikram yoga), the routine is comprised of hundreds and sometimes thousands of repetitions of extremely light or body weight exercises targeting one specific muscle group, such as 5,000 leg lifts for the quads and abs.
Gwyneth’s biggest workout mistake:
Although it’s definitely a unique and head-turning workout that is unlike most fitness routines that exist, I can’t say that Gwyneth’s two hour high-rep, low-weight sessions are the most efficient way to exercise. Sure, she’s getting a cardiovascular stimulus from the heat, and anytime you work a muscle to pure fatigue, you’re going to get a bit of a muscle toning response, but she would likely achieve similar “long, lean body” results in ½ to ¼ the time by simply picking up some heavy weights and doing a full body routine. Contrary to popular belief, women will not bulk up from lifting heavy weights unless they are eating excessive calories and have hormonal imbalances related to estrogen dominance, a topic I tackle in this episode about women and weight training.
In summary, you probably noticed a few underlying themes in Part 1 and Part 2 of this celebrity workout series:
1) Variety is key, and sticking to just one form of exercise is never a good idea if your goal is fitness progression, avoiding plateaus, and getting a continual combination of fat loss and muscle gain.
2) You must lift heavy stuff and do intense cardio intervals if you want the most efficient and fast results.
3) Celebrities train a lot, with an average of around two hours per day, and often up to four hours per day, spent training. So if you want a Hollywood body, you may need to cut down on some other elements of life, such as family, hobbies, work, etc. and you may need to ask yourself if that’s worth it if you’re not getting paid to be on TV, on stage, or in magazines.
If you have more questions or comments about how celebrities exercise, then head over to Facebook GetFitGuy and join the conversation there! And click here if you’re interested in the top male celebrity workouts and the biggest male workout mistakes.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.