Sophie Turner Did the Three Staples of Superhero Workouts for X-Men

So, I know I’m a little late getting this out, with X-Men: Apocalypse having come out three months ago.  Still, Sophie Turner’s workout was awesome enough that I didn’t want you to miss it.

Her Trainer, James Farmer, told SELF Magazine that Sophie did three things:

1. Kettlebell Training
2. Sprinting
3. Boxing

If you’ve been following the celebrity workouts on this blog for any length of time, you’ll notice how consistently these three workout elements come up for women training for action roles.

22-35 Pound Kettlebells

*That’s 10-16kgs for my metric system friends.

So the first thing you’ll notice, is that Sophie didn’t use 3-5 pound Tracy Anderson weights.

A huge mistake many people fall into, is that they buy one kettlebell, and then never move up in weight.  Look, progressive resistance is the whole jam!  Working out is all about getting stronger.

Sophie used big, full body movements like kettlebell swings, plank rows (used to be called Renegade Rows, back in the day), and military presses.

Big, basic movements that are as old as dirt.  Or, at least, we’ve been talking about them on this blog since 2004.  And we have pictures of people swinging and pressing kettlebells from more than a hundred years ago.

We know that “getting toned” just means more muscle and less fat.  The trick, workout wise, is just to get stronger in basic movements[1, 2, 3, 4].

Sprinting

Sprinting is another one of those things that’s a huge staple for actresses getting in shape for action movie rolls.  It shows up all of the time because it works.

Sprinting is a phenomenal exercise for getting leaner and increasing VO2 Max [5, 6, 7, 8].

I’m sure some of it comes from that they have scenes where they need to sprint, and it’ll only look legit if they can really run!  If you want to feel like an action hero, sprints are one of the ways to build that action hero power and capability in real life.

Boxing

Again, creating actual strength, power, and skill in real life is a quick ticket to feeling like an action hero.

Sophie Turner didn’t do “cardio boxing”, she did skill work and sparring with her trainer.  They’d do mitt work and light sparring, she’d have to block and dodge punches as often as throw them.

There’s something really fun, empowering, and effective about doing skill based workouts.  It’s super engaging to work on skills, it’s fun, and we end up doing a lot more work than we would just counting reps.  Plus, you get to feel like an actual badass by building actual skill.

Jean Grey vs. Apocalypse 

SPOILER ALERT: Ok look, it’s been three months already.  I’m going to assume you’ve seen it by now, if you wanted to, so this isn’t a spoiler.  

Plus, if you know the character at all, you already know she’s one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel  Universe, and you were probably waiting for this payoff the whole movie:

SPOILER

For as powerful as Apocalypse is, and while Apocalypse was managing to crush all of the X-Men combined, simultaneously on the physical and the psychic front…

…Jean Grey finally lets lose and completely kicks his ass.

It’s glorious.

/SPOILER

Feeling Awesome in Her Body

Sophie Turner mentioned multiple times how much working out impacter her self image:

Exercise has made me feel more positive about my body, less self-conscious,” Sophie explained. “I don’t know if I look any different, but I feel stronger, and I can do more, which is such a good feeling. It’s so liberating.
— Belfast Times

Before I got [the trainer], I went through a bit of a dark place, I was not happy with myself. I think for me, and for every young girl out there, body image is such a big thing, especially if you are in the public eye. People comment on [your appearance] and… Eugh. So when I was forced to get into shape and eat healthily, my skin cleared up and I felt energetic all the time. It totally changed me.
—Net-A-Porter’s EDIT Magazine

This is another element of strength training that’s well documented: Strength training increases feelings of well being and body satisfaction [9, 10, 11, 12, 13].

Interestingly, strength training produces a positive impact on body satisfaction with or without aerobic training [10].  While both strength training and aerobic training have a positive effect, weight training produces a stronger positive response [12].

What You Can Learn

Sophie Turner’s workout was all old-school basics that have become action hero workout staples over the last decade.

People tend to way over-complicate this stuff.  Lets break it down really simply:

• The point of strength training is to get stronger.  In general, stronger = leaner.
• The point of sprinting is to get faster.  In general, faster = leaner.
• The point of skill work is to get more skillful.  People tend to do a lot of work working on skills because it’s fun.

Getting stronger with kettlebell training, doing sprint intervals, and boxing are all solid components you can build your workout program from.  And, not only will they have an impact on your body composition, but they might make you feel like an action hero as well.

by Josh Hillis
Author, Fat Loss Happens on Monday 
Food Habits Coaching Expert, Strength Matters Magazine

Scholarly citations:

1 — Mayhew, J. L., & Gross, P. M. (1974). Body composition changes in young women with high resistance weight training. Research Quarterly. American Alliance for Health, Physical Education and Recreation, 45(4), 433-440.

2 — Ferreira, F. C., Bertucci, D. R., Barbosa, M. R., Nunes, J. E., Botero, J. P., Rodrigues, M. F., … & Verzola, R. M. (2016). Circuit resistance training in women with normal weight obesity syndrome: body composition, cardiometabolic and echocardiographic parameters, and cardiovascular and skeletal muscle fitness. The Journal of sports medicine and physical fitness.

3 — Treuth, M. S., Hunter, G. R., Kekes-Szabo, T. A. M. A. S., Weinsier, R. L., Goran, M. I., & Berland, L. I. N. C. O. L. N. (1995). Reduction in intra-abdominal adipose tissue after strength training in older women. Journal of Applied Physiology, 78(4), 1425-1431.

4 — Cullinen, K., & Caldwell, M. (1998). Weight training increases fat-free mass and strength in untrained young women. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 98(4), 414-418.

5 — Boer, P. H., Meeus, M., Terblanche, E., Rombaut, L., De Wandele, I., Hermans, L., … & Calders, P. (2013). The influence of sprint interval training on body composition, physical and metabolic fitness in adolescents and young adults with intellectual disability: a randomized controlled trial. Clinical rehabilitation, 0269215513498609.

6 — Boutcher, S. H. (2010). High-intensity intermittent exercise and fat loss. Journal of obesity, 2011.

7 — Mazurek, K., Krawczyk, K., Zmijewski, P., Norkowski, H., & Czajkowska, A. (2014). Effects of aerobic interval training versus continuous moderate exercise programme on aerobic and anaerobic capacity, somatic features and blood lipid profile in collegate females. Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine, 21(4).

8 — Trapp, E. G., Chisholm, D. J., Freund, J., & Boutcher, S. H. (2008). The effects of high-intensity intermittent exercise training on fat loss and fasting insulin levels of young women.International journal of obesity, 32(4), 684-691.

9 — Tucker, L. A., & Maxwell, K. (1992). Effects of weight training on the emotional well-being and body image of females: Predictors of greatest benefit. American Journal of Health Promotion,6(5), 338-371.

10 — Goldfield, G. S., Kenny, G. P., Alberga, A. S., Prud’homme, D., Hadjiyannakis, S., Gougeon, R., … & Wells, G. A. (2015). Effects of aerobic training, resistance training, or both on psychological health in adolescents with obesity: The HEARTY randomized controlled trial. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 83(6), 1123.

11 — Seguin, R. A., Eldridge, G., Lynch, W., & Paul, L. C. (2013). Strength training improves body image and physical activity behaviors among midlife and older rural women. Journal of extension, 51(4).

12 — Reel, J. J., Greenleaf, C., Baker, W. K., Aragon, S., Bishop, D., Cachaper, C., … & Hattie, J. (2007). Relations of body concerns and exercise behavior: A meta-analysis. Psychological reports, 101(3), 927-942.

13 — Williams, P. A., & Cash, T. F. (2001). Effects of a circuit weight training program on the body images of college students. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 30(1), 75-82.