Netflix
At 5’3″, Alison Brie seems like the last person who could play a convincing professional wrestler, but her trainer is here to tell you she’s the real deal.
For Brie’s new show, Netflix’s “GLOW” (available June 23), the funny actress busted her butt for months with trainer Jason Walsh to not just look the part, but also to actually withstand the rigors of playing one of the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.
“Alison did all her stunts,” Walsh recently told Business Insider. “I’ll tell you right now, I’ve worked with a lot of people and she’s a little bad a–.”
In “GLOW,” Brie stars as Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress who gets invited to audition along with 12 other women for the professional wrestling promotion Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (G.L.O.W.), which was indeed a real promotion started in the ’80s.
Walsh, who’s worked with everyone from Emily Blunt on “Edge of Tomorrow” to Matt Damon for “Jason Bourne,” put together a workout plan for Brie that was a mix of cardio and strength training four days a week (often with a workout in the morning and afternoon each day) so her body could take the abuse.
“Alison would be jumping off ropes and landing on people and flipping. I wanted to get her resilient so she didn’t run the risk of injury,” Walsh said. “The science of training has really shifted the past decade to that more than glamour muscles.”
Walsh did this through two different workout methods of his creation: Rise Movement, which is one-on-one strength training, and Rise Nation, a cardio class in which clients use a VersaClimber.
Here’s a glimpse at the exercises Walsh put Brie through:
Heavy bag slams
Here’s Brie (center) with Molly McQueen (left) and Mika Kelly (right) doing this insane workout.
“This is a full-body, explosive workout for conditioning,” Walsh said.
They would do 6 sets of 5 reps.
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Deadlifts
Another full-body workout. Walsh said Brie was deadlifting 165 pounds and did 6 sets of 3-5 reps.
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Farmer walks
“Great way to get the body warmed up,” Walsh said. Brie held onto 65-pound dumbbells and did 45-second walks for 3-4 sets.
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See the rest of the story at Business Insider
