3 Celebrity Trainers on Their No. 1 Fitness Tips

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Just because beach season is over doesn’t mean your beach body should go into hibernation. In fact, for actors especially, it can’t.

“The reality is [actors] never really have any downtime,” says celebrity trainer David Kirsch. “There’s always a camera lurking, there’s always a press opportunity, there’s always something. They’re basically always on.”

Backstage speaks with three celebrity trainers with roots in Hollywood—Kirsch, Astrid Swan, and Mark Langowski—about their secret recipes and regimens to ensure a year-round camera- and spotlight-ready physique.

DAVID KIRSCH
Hollywood clientele: Kate Upton, Kerry Washington, Anne Hathaway

First step to better health: “I think the first, easiest step is looking at your diet before you walk into the gym, looking at what you’re eating [and] when you’re eating it. Is it alcohol that you need to revisit and change the relationship you have with it? Or is it sweets? Or carbs? Little changes like that will go a long way to maintaining a healthy wellness balance—nothing too extreme.”

What not to eat: “If there’s one thing that we need to avoid, all of us—young, old—it’s processed, refined sugar. There’s nothing good about it.”What every diet needs: “People often don’t hydrate enough—they don’t drink enough water. One will see marked improvement in their overall wellness, in their skin tone, even in their hair, if they hydrate enough.”

Quick workout tip: “One of the easiest things to incorporate into your everyday life is plank exercises: great for your core, great for your lower back. While you’re doing it, alternate between pushups and planks and throw in a little sumo lunge here and there. Mix it up.”

ASTRID SWAN
Hollywood clientele: Jessica Alba, Stacy Keibler, Julianne Hough

Set fitness goals: “No matter what size you are, health from the inside makes you glow from the outside. It is no longer about being a size 0 twig onscreen. You need to have strength to be up all night for a night shoot; you need to have a silhouette to look good whether you are doing a nude scene, a seminude scene, or are in a suit head to toe. When I work with actors especially, we assess the role. We assess what the goals are, what the character is.”

How to balance year-round: “I have a mentality of 80–20, meaning 80 percent [of the time] you are committed and you’re doing your workouts and you’re eating right. And then 20 percent [of the time] you have to live. And then when we need to step it up a notch, maybe when you’re doing press for your movie, we go 90–10. Never to the point of 100, because no one lasts like that.”

Beat gym anxiety: “Trust the people around you. They also once walked in not knowing what they were doing.”

MARK LANGOWSKI
Hollywood clientele: Ginger Zee, of “Good Morning America”

Set fitness goals: “The first step is deciding what your goals are. Write them down—short-term goals and long-term goals. Once you have them, you have to take action.”

Quick workout tip: “[Do] the walkout burpee. Start in standing position. Bend at the waist and knees, walking yourself out into a pushup position. Do a pushup and then walk back to starting position. Repeat this 10–12 times for three sets.”

Eat nuts: “I think nuts should be incorporated in everyone’s diet for many reasons: [they have] healthy fat, fiber, [they’re] portable, [and they’re] full of protein.”

Beat weight fluctuation: “My advice is to start slow. If you don’t exercise, start by walking around the block every day. Before you know it, you will be running around it. If you eat poorly, remove one bad thing per week. If you drink soda, just cut that out. The results will inspire you to do more!”

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