And just like that a sea of pink has washed over the world to celebrate the highly anticipated release of The Barbie Movie. From the stellar casting (hello Margot Robbie & Ryan Gosling without a shirt on) to the killer soundtrack (who else can’t stop listening to Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish) call us officially influenced because we want whatever Barbie and Ken are having… and that includes their workouts, which we were thrilled to know includes regular Pilates classes.
London based celebrity trainer, bestselling author and physical therapist David Higgins is a Personal Trainer and Pilates Instructor who has worked with a whole host of HUGE Hollywood names and on huge blockbuster films including the cast of Wonder Woman, The Avengers and most recently Barbie to get not only the leading lads and ladies in shape, but also the whole cast.
In a special request by Margot Robbie herself, who Higgins has been training since 2015, she requested that he train the whole cast together to create a fun sense of camaraderie – not only for the cast but also for the crew including director Greta Gerwig (truth that teams who workout together stay together).
Unlike Marvel movies, for which the cast generally have very specific aesthetic goals of superhero bodies, the objective for the cast of Barbie was to have fun, create a sense of camaraderie and team-building and to ultimately feel good. To do this, Higgins combined his signature style, which is a combination of Pilates workouts with traditional strength and conditioning training for a period of around 30-weeks… which included The Kens!
Higgins has long used Pilates (including Reformer Pilates) among his clients for its abundance of benefits including the focus on deep core activation, control and correct alignment and he’s passionate about busting the myth that Pilates is just for the gals. While ‘The Barbies’ completed 4 Pilates classes each week combined with 2 strength and conditioning sessions, The Kens also got their Pilates fix in with a minimum of 2 x Pilates classes per week (which explains Kens poppin’ abs) coupled with 4 strength and conditioning sessions.
“These days I find actors really do look after themselves and they like to try lots of different modalities and everybody had done reformer Pilates before, and they all loved it,” he says. “We had sessions with multiple reformers going at the same time, so everyone had their own reformer, just training together.”
This training split is proof that Pilates really is the perfect workout to incorporate in everyone’s weekly training routine, whether you’re a Barbie or a Ken.
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