Kacey Musgraves just won the 2019 Album of the Year Grammy Award for Golden Hour. But her fitness trainer is calling the singer’s workout playlist into question!
Speaking exclusively to Us Weekly, Musgraves’ trainer Erin Oprea jokes that she doesn’t understand the more alternative music the ethereal country star chooses to listen to during their exercise sessions. “I would say the most interesting workout music is Kacey Musgraves. I don’t even know what the heck we’re listening to honestly,” says Oprea, who works with plenty of country stars, including Carrie Underwood, Kelsea Ballerini and Maren Morris.
“Sometimes it’s not even in our language,” the pro continues. “I’m like, ‘What is this? How is this motivating you?’ But it makes her happy and I’m like, ‘If it makes you happy, that’s all that matters.’” Adds the Nashville-based trainer of the 30-year-old crooner, “She looks incredible and has worked so hard.”
Indeed, besides Musgraves’ gratitude and awe when accepting the top honor of the night on Sunday, February 10, the thing that stood out most were her perfectly toned legs, highlighted by a a voluminous silk, red Valentino frock.
Part of the reason she has them: the method of Tabata-based, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) she does in her sweat sessions with Oprea. Tabata is typically made up of 20 seconds of intense exercise of six to eight rounds, followed by 10 seconds of rest, for approximately four minutes.
Among Oprea’s favorite quad- and butt-strengthening exercises is a compound move that begins with clients standing on their right leg, keeping all their weight on that leg, with your left toe next to the heel for balance. Next, you squat until your right leg is parallel to the ground. Then, standing up halfway, you move back into a lunge with your left foot behind, stand up halfway again and move back into the squat. “It’s two movements without fully standing,” explains the former Marine.
Another of her top booty moves involves small movements and a simple rubber resistance band. “There’s this little band that you put around your ankle and you sort of sit down into a half squat and you take your legs nice and wide, almost squat wide, and then you do tiny little steps in one direction,” she says. “Twenty one way and 20 back and then 10 one way and 10 back.” That’s one round, says Oprea: “When you can get two rounds out of it, and it’s your lucky day.”
Musgraves has also told Us that she enjoys Pure Barre classes and brings a DVD workout of the program with her on the road. “I can do the workouts everywhere.” she said.
As for nutrition, the pro recommends clients follow her 4 x 4 diet, which she describes as “a clean, healthy, balanced lifestyle so that they can still enjoy the foods they love, but in moderation.” Alcohol, for instance, is permitted — except in the week leading up to an awards show when she suggests clients cut booze entirely. As for the rest of the time, “I’m not saying you can drink as much alcohol as you want, but I try to limit them to two drinks a week, which a lot of people are like, ‘Oh jeez! I need wine every night, that’s bologna!’ But literally you can do that.”
Oprea has also started working with collagen protein powder brand, Vital Proteins — which many celebrities add to their healthy smoothies. “It’s a product I used way before I started working with them, so I have gotten all my clients on Vital Proteins,” she says. “My favorite [benefit] is joint health, that’s why I get all my clients on it. You don’t have to wait ’til your joints are hurting. Start it before they start hurting, and it is really a game changer.”
With reporting by Carly Sloane
