If you've seen the trailer for the new Netflix series GLOW, you know it's one big-haired, shoulder-padded ode to lady wrestlers of the '80s. But to its star Alison Brie, the show also sends a deeper message. "It's a show about how women use their bodies, and how they feel in their bodies" she told Yahoo Style, adding, "It was an empowering set to be on." GLOW's producers worked hard to represent an array of female body types, but to Brie it was more about feeling strong than looking one certain way.
She worked hard with trainer Jason Walsh to get in fighting shape — to the extent that she could even perform her own stunts, Walsh told Self. The two had already been working together, but instead of creating a fitness plan for a Hollywood starlet, he started training a fighter.
Alison exercised twice as much.
Athletes don't have many days off, so Brie upped her training sessions from two or three times a week to four or five. Some days, she'd do cardio-based conditioning, like hiking on her own or taking a class at Walsh's fitness studio. Other days, they'd focus on targeting her abs or arms, with variations on basic moves: squats, pull-ups, hip thrusts, and lunges.
She didn't shy away from strength training.
The oldest rumor in the book is that lifting weights makes you bulk up and Hulk out. That's hardly the case, and it wasn't something Brie feared. "I love strength training," she said in an interview with Vulture. "I love being a strong woman and proving things to myself in the gym, physically." She impressed her trainer and even herself by what she could eventually do, including deadlifting 165 pounds, completing 11 full-body hanging pull-ups and pulling hundreds of pounds on a sled.
Complaining was not an option.
Walsh says that Brie didn't waste time whining about how hard her new routines were. "She'd say, 'That was really tough, let's do it again.'," Walsh told Self. That was, in part, because Brie had been waiting her whole career to tackle a role like that of professional female wrestler, Ruth in GLOW. "I'd really been looking for something different," Brie revealed to Yahoo Style. "I wanted to get my hands dirty, and I wanted to look different, and I wanted to do something physical."
Alison maintained a healthy mindset on dieting.
When you're working out so heavily, a light diet isn't really an option. "A lot of women, especially in my profession, feel like they have to starve themselves to lose weight," Brie said to Well + Good. According to Walsh, Brie already ate pretty healthfully, but he supplemented her meals with some protein shakes to replenish the actress after her workouts. Regularly, she'd mostly eat other sources of protein, veggies, and good fats. And most refreshingly, she's honest about her lack of splurging. "I'm mindful about what I'm eating, but I hate when people are like, 'My favorite food is pizza and cheeseburgers, and I look amazing!'," Brie has said.
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