Instagram/Khloe Kardashian/Lauren Schumacker
- Khloe Kardashian overhauled her lifestyle and transformed her entire body.
- I worked out like her for a week to see what it was like.
- Kardashian’s trainer, Gunnar Peterson, explained some of the keys to her success to INSIDER.
- The experience taught me the importance of mixing things up and how to get a great workout at home.
As any pop culture fan knows, Khloe Kardashian now looks entirely different than she did just a few years ago. She changed her lifestyle, transformed her body, dyed her hair, and landed a TV show, “Revenge Body,” the second season of which premieres on E! on January 7, 2018.
Kardashian has put a lot of work in to get where she is now, and a large component of that work was at the gym.
Kardashian started working out on a regular basis, training with Gunnar Peterson, heading to Soul Cycle classes, and generally being more active than she was before.
Her transformation has also been about lifestyle. Peterson told INSIDER that in addition to exercise, Kardashian incorporated better nutrition, improved her sleeping patterns, and reduced her stress levels.
“It was like she waited and picked her moment and she did it for the right reasons and with a goal and a purpose in mind — she was changing her lifestyle,” Peterson told INSIDER.
As someone who’s always looking for new workout routines that make me feel motivated and engaged, I was excited to tackle Kardashian’s. That being said, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit nervous beforehand — her end results (and reputation of perseverance and dedication) made me worried I wouldn’t be able to keep up. I grabbed my dumbbells and yoga mat and rested up for what I thought was sure to be a long week.
To workout like Kardashian for the week, I would have to adapt a bit. There are only so many Khloe Kardashian-inspired fitness routines floating around on the internet and, of course, I didn’t have Peterson by my side each day. But I was ready and willing to be up to the challenge.
Lauren Schumacker
Day One
On the first day of my week of working out like Kardashian, I was so ready to go. I’d done my research and felt like I could handle it.
Of the workouts I’d found that I wanted to try this week, I opted to begin with one from Women’s Health that Peterson created for LG.
It’s only 11 moves and it’s not super high in reps, so each circuit goes by relatively quickly, or, at least, it would if you don’t have to stop to rest (which I definitely did). It interspersed strength moves with cardio and left me feeling winded on more than one occasion.
I powered through three sets of the moves, taking my time so that I could make it through three sets. I planned on three sets on day one, thinking that I could work my way up to five by the end of the week. I had to do the push-ups on my knees, but hey, at least I did them, right? I finished the day feeling confident.
Lauren Schumacker
Day Two
I went to bed with so much energy the night before, but woke up really feeling the squats and deadlifts I did yesterday. I was sore and spent the day half-waddling around.
Since it was Halloween, I didn’t want to immediately hop into my workout gear after work — I saw some friends, handed out some candy, and then headed home to eat dinner, wrap up some work, and, yes, fit in my workout.
I decided that since yesterday had gone well, I’d repeat that same set of moves again. I was feeling stronger, but tired. I was still determined: no sleep until after my workout was done. I compromised with myself, however, and shortened it and told me a little bit of sleep was more important than a longer workout. As it turns out, that was probably a good idea.
“Sleep is the sleeper, that’s the one people miss, and instead of adding the extra workout with the trainer, or the extra mile on the treadmill, there are a lot of people who would probably benefit from an extra hour of sleep,” Peterson told me.
Lauren Schumacker
Day Three
I woke up on day three feeling good. Much better, actually, than I felt when I woke up the day before. I focused on drinking a lot of water, which some days is easy, but on other days is like my Everest. I was trying to emulate Kardashian and focus on more than just my workouts.
One and a half sets into my workout, I started to feel tired. Really tired. More tired than I’d been during a workout in a while. It was probably more mental than anything else, because I was getting more lift in my Supermans and felt like I could bicep curl all day long.
I spent part of the set negotiating with myself and ended up wrapping the workout up after two full sets. I was making myself get up early the next morning to workout, anyway, I reasoned, so it’d be OK.
Kardashian likes to work out early in the morning, and sometimes works out more than once in a day. I am not really a morning person and especially not a morning workout person, but it was going to happen, like it or not.
Lauren Schumacker
Day Four
It was not going to happen. When my alarm rang at 5:30am, I immediately regretted everything. I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that I did hit the snooze button, but I finally pulled myself out of bed just in time to do a whole 13 minutes on the stationary bike before I had to get ready for work.
I was tired when I got home from work and half-heartedly flirting with the idea of skipping my evening strength training, but after dinner I convinced myself that it’d be worth it (and remembered I’d only done 13 minutes of biking that morning).
I decided to switch things up today, choosing another full-body circuit workout designed by Peterson — this time from Women’s Health UK. Almost immediately I was faced with a dilemma. I was doing this particular workout at home, where I don’t have access to any medicine balls. Instead of skipping the move, I opted to use one of the heaviest dumbbells I had on hand, which seemed to work in a pinch.
This workout made me feel strong and capable — I loved it. I went through the entire routine twice and called it a day.
Day Five
As soon as I woke up, after planning on a nice long workout, I knew things wouldn’t go according to plan. I had an afternoon flight to Nashville and things just weren’t going smoothly.
Still, I was determined to do something, so I reused the routine from yesterday and again went through it twice. This time, though, I went as quickly as I could, not allowing myself to really take many breaks, so that I could fit it all in and still have time for a shower before I had to get to the airport. My second workout of the day was an unplanned brisk walk through Midway Airport to get to my gate with a bit of time to spare.
Day six’s workout was not meant to be. I was in Nashville with a group of friends from college and the day’s schedule was fully planned. Plus, the house we’d rented wasn’t as conducive to a Khloe Kardashian-style workout as the gym or even my house, so I hesitantly accepted that I’d have to skip that day.
Lauren Schumacker
Day Seven
I woke up in Nashville, my workout lingering in the back of my mind. I couldn’t completely skip working out at all two days in a row. I thought about what Khloe would do.
Again, though, I was faced with a bit of a conundrum: how do I make one of these workouts work without any equipment whatsoever? To add a bit more drama to that, we had check out of our house by 11 a.m., so it’d have to wait until the afternoon.
Luckily, my friends like to be somewhat active and we spent the rest of the day walking around, exploring the city. We even tossed in a few squats and lunges for good measure. It wasn’t the workout Khloe would’ve done, but it felt far better than taking the day off. Not only that, but I felt good about it.
Peterson said that change in a workout is important to coax your body to change rather than simply adapt.
“If you’re giving it nothing new to adapt to, why would it change? It’s gonna get through, it’s gonna fire as many fibers, it’s gonna elevate, heart rate’s gonna elevate as per the challenge,” Peterson explained. “Go up a set of stairs, go up two flights of stairs, go up five flights of stairs, you’re gonna see your body’s going, ‘wait a minute, this is different today.’”
I learned that this week. At the beginning of the week, I did the same workout a number of days in a row, not really challenging myself and you know what? I got bored. I felt energy coursing through my body and I felt capable and more confident, but I also started to feel myself wanting something different.
Switching up your workouts — if you don’t have a trainer like Peterson to help — can take a little bit of work, but, in the long-run, it’ll help make you stronger, happier, and healthier.
It’s difficult to fit even a quick workout into a super-busy day, but this week was proof that it can be done if you get creative and make it a priority. That sounds obvious or dismissive, but it’s really not. I learned that the key to fitting in workouts isn’t having loads of time you’re looking to fill (though that helps), it’s deciding that you’re fitting it into your day no matter what.
Not feeling inspired? Mix it up, try something new, there’s no need to be bored during your workout. A new class, YouTube channel, or sport can make all the difference in the world.
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