Getting a toned figure takes a lot of hard work and dedication; just ask celebrity trainer Autumn Calabrese.
The fitness guru, known for her time on season 3 of E!’s Revenge Body, has worked with Kendall Jenner, Brooke Burke, Rachel Zoe and more, hopes to inspire all of her clients by showing them that they can achieve their goals by putting in effort.
“My motto is ‘You can do hard things.’ It’s simple, but it’s important to remember. A workout is meant to be hard and it’s meant to challenge you. If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you,” Calabrese tells Us Weekly exclusively.
Beyond repeating this message to yourself in the gym, Calabrese believes you should keep it in mind when facing any tough situation.
“We often give up on ourselves when things get hard, be it in a workout or life. If you remember that you can do hard things and prove it to yourself in your workouts, you can take that in to the rest of your life.” the BeachBody trainer states.
“Often your mental well-being can hold back your physical progress, so it’s important to work on self-love, self-confidence, and being kind and patient with oneself. … I show my clients compassion and support when they can’t show it to themselves.”
When working out with the Keeping Up With the Kardashians star, they focused a lot on body weight and light weight exercises including squats, lunges, step-ups and different ab moves likes planks and crunches.
“When I was training Kendall, she looked to me to develop the approach. … My fitness programs are anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour in length,” she says. “There is a modifier in every program, so no matter what your fitness level is, you can push to your max.”
Once they figured out their routine, the 23-year-old model and Calabrese trained three to four times a week for an hour at time using cardio strength training to tone the body and bring the heart rate into a cardio zone for total calorie torching.
As far as diet, Calabrese says Jenner eats very healthy to maintain her figure, but recommends her clients follow her Ultimate Portion Fix program, which concentrates on portion control, balanced macro nutrients and significantly reducing highly processed foods if they need some guidance.
“I don’t believe in extreme restrictions or eliminating food groups because it has to be something that can be sustainable for life.” the trainer says.
“It’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle, so you can still have pizza, burgers, fries, cocktails and dessert on my program and get fantastic results.”
But to get abs like Jenner, you may have to ease up on the carbs a bit. “Abs are made in the kitchen, you’ll never out-train a bad diet. … In addition to that, pay attention to holding your stomach in throughout the day. Believe it or not we walk around with are abdominals disengaged a lot. You can also focus on planks, plank knee tucks, side planks and leg raises,” she suggests.
