Alison Brie was already in good shape when she landed her role as "Zoya the Destroyer" on GLOW. But to truly get into character, she didn't just have to be fit—she wanted to be strong. Brie turned to trainer Jason Walsh, C.S.C.S., NSCA-certified personal trainer and founder of Rise Movement and Rise Nation in Los Angeles, to help get her body into beast mode. Now, she's landed the cover of Women's Health and has taken to walking around her gym encouraging women to pick up a barbell. She doesn't just love the feeling she gets from lifting—she wants you to feel it too.
Even those of us who already love to hit the gym can learn something from Brie's Zoya-inspired workout regimen. Ahead, our takeaways from Brie's fitness journey.
Brie has been working with Walsh on "mostly circuits and light weights" for six years. But when the time came to train for her role in GLOW, Brie and Walsh upped her routine to include strength training, pull-ups, and the generally "hardcore" workouts she had avoided. "I feel like I was building strength outside and in at the same time," Brie told Women's Health.
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Brie initially believed strength training wasn't for her. At 5'3", with her history of playing conventionally attractive roles, Brie doesn't fit the (outdated!) stereotype of a power lifter. But after training with Walsh, Brie was deadlifting way more than her body weight—no easy feat. “She was deadlifting I think over 165 pounds for reps. She could have been doing more but that’s the last number I can remember off the top of my head,” Walsh tells SELF.
When she learned that Emily Blunt could do three pull-ups, Brie used her pal's strength as inspiration. "I was so in awe—and jealous. She became my template," says Brie. She started out never having done a pull-up, and twelve weeks later, she could do eleven in a row. She can now cycle through 40(!). "Setting a goal like that and reaching it... I'm walking tall all day," says Brie. "People don't need to know why, but I know why. It's so exciting to realize what our bodies are capable of, and to tap into that."
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As much as we love our dance cardio and aqua yoga, you don't need anything special to get results. Walsh tells Women's Health that he coached Brie through basic strength exercises. “Some of the key elements were lots and lots and lots of heavy sleds, pushing and pulling," he says. "Lots of deadlifts, variations of squats, hip thrusts, pull-ups, lots of work with medicine balls, throwing and jumping and lunging. You can’t go wrong with these, there’s a reason why they’ve been around for years."
Once you've gotten comfortable on the weight bench, encourage your gym buddies to meet you outside the cardio room. Brie has taken to cheering on beginners. "She's a very encouraging person. Someone new would come in to the gym, and Alison would be the first to go over to them and tell them it pays off," says Walsh.
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