Anne Hathaway Goes Strong Over Skinny

So girl-next-door Anne Hathaway and Catwoman: The big concern that most people had when it was announced that she’d play Catwoman was that she wasn’t physical enough for the part.  Would the girl from The Princess Diaries really be believable kicking ass next to Batman?

So what’s cool is that that actually dictated her training.  She was completely devoted to “being able to do what Catwoman would be able to do” and then her body would just look like that looked:

Anne said: “At no point was I ever told how to look. Chris didn’t tell me, the producers didn’t tell me, the studio. It was never about, ‘How do you look,” it was, ‘What can you do?’” she said of the character’s onscreen fighting style “So, I had to learn how to fight… properly fight and then once I was in fighting shape, then we decided that is the shape that [Catwoman] gets.”

Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman Workout:

1.) Strength training circuits (’cause obviously)

2.) Fight practice

3.) Dance practice

I think the idea with the dance practice was that Catwoman would be graceful (dare I say – cat-like) in her movement.

And the combination of grace and power (where the strength training and fight training comes in) is a really awesome combination.

And of course 10 months of five days per week of training to fight like Catwoman leads to looking hot.

Standard Hollywood Superhero Fat Loss

While none of Anne’s interviews go into much detail about her workouts, we can probably get away with making some assumptions about her workout based on what *every other female super hero* actress has done this year:

High intensity circuits and intervals done with bodyweight, dumbbells, and kettlebells.

Again, she never specifically said that.  But every other super hero actress is doing it, so it’s a safe bet.

And since Christopher Nolan said it was more important for her to be able to *do* what Catwoman can do than look like Catwoman, we can assume that it was essentially a sports performance routine, with an emphasis on grace and style.

If I were training Catwoman, I’d have her do:

1.) Pushups in multiple angles and hand positions, focusing on style – they would have to look cool.

2.) Lunges in different directions, with and without trunk rotation, hip rotation (front and back leg) and pivoting on to the back foot in to a lunge.  I’d also have dragon twisting and dragon lunges.  Again, we’d focus on style, grace, power, and springy-ness.

3.) Pullups, pullups, pullups.  Maybe even going to a climbing wall.

4.) Kettlebell swings.  Different variations.  Snatches.  Lots of kettlebell juggling.  Making it look cool.

Anne Hathway’s Catwoman Diet –
from her Nutrition Coach

Here we actually do have some solid details.  Anne worked with famous nutriton coach Jackie Keller.

Jackie had her eating lots of vegetables and psuedo-grains like quinoa, brown rice and oatmeal.  Jackie is a big fan of protein, and made sure that Anne could get as much protein as she could being a vegetarian.

Jackie told Fitness Magazine: “Anne ate three meals and three snacks, adding up to about 1500-1800 calories per day. She had about a cup of protein like legumes or pan-fried tofu at every meal.”

It’s a pretty safe bet that Jackie would have had Anne Hathaway eat wild caught fish like salmon if Anne wasn’t a vegetarian.  Jackie has recommended eating fish often both on her blog and in magazines.

by Josh Hillis

Josh is the Chief People Officer and Fitness Content Lead for One by One Nutrition,
the author of Fat Loss Happens on Monday,
and writes the Habit Coaching System column for Strength Matters Magazine