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Alison Brie Credits a Single Move With Helping Her Get Into the Best Shape of Her Life

Zoe Weiner

May 12, 2021

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Photo: W+G Creative

When Alison Brie was cast to play a professional wrestler on GLOW, her workouts took on an entirely new meaning. Not only did she have to get strong enough to look like a believable competitor, but she also had to get strong enough to prevent herself from getting injured in the wrestling ring. The one move that she relied on to get the job done? The good, old-fashioned push-up.

"With my experience on GLOW, the type of strength training I started doing to be able to execute those wrestling moves was a real game-changer," says Brie. "I'd been casually training with Jason Walsh at Rise Nation for 10 years, but when I got GLOW, we were really like, 'Okay—this is about not getting injured and really building strength so that I could lift other women's bodies.' It was really practical."

Though her run as a gorgeous lady of wrestling ended in 2019, she says that the lessons she learned while training to be Ruth Wilder have carried through every single one of her at-home workouts during the pandemic. "I've been able to use my strength-training knowledge to put together my own workouts," says Brie. "It's nice to have this as a part of my life, and to not have to feel like it's something I have to get 'back' to, because it's really become a routine of mine."

"What's really great about strength training is that it's not a fad." —Alison Brie

Just like the rest of us, over the past year Brie has moved her workouts from the gym to her home—which has meant relying heavily on bodyweight training in the form of whole lot of push-ups. "With push-ups, your whole body is engaged, and there are so many different variations—you can do them slowly, you can do them quickly, you can do a slow count and hold them at the bottom," she says. "There are endless ways to do such a simple exercise, and you can do it anywhere without any equipment aside from your body." Remember the early-pandemic push-up challenge? Well, for Brie, that's just another day in the life.

Not only has this type of training kept her in tip-top shape, but it's also helped to change her relationship with her body. "I was at odds with my body my whole life and grew up seeing unhealthy patterns of yo-yo dieting and workout fads," she says. "But what's really great about strength training is that it's not a fad."

To stay fueled for all of these bodyweight workouts, Brie has been whipping up nightly batches of chia seed pudding. "It's one of my favorite things because chia seeds are a superfood," she says. To try her recipe for herself, all you have to do is mix a third of a cup of chia seeds with one cup of Planet Oat Vanilla Oat Milk, plus a dash of cinnamon and a half of a teaspoon of maple syrup. Let it sit in the fridge over night, and the next morning, your body will be ready to drop down and do 20 of your own.

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