It turns out that Anne Hathaway\u2019s go-to workouts are far from conventional. Rather than running<\/a>, reformer Pilates<\/a> or regular gym<\/a> sessions, she (alongside Stanley Tucci<\/a>, Emily Blunt and other A-list names) turns to dance-inspired routines from trainer Monique Eastwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cMonique has been my teacher since February 2022, and our work together has changed my life,\u201d Hathaway tells The Independent, adding that the trainer has been \u201cgifted with innate body intelligence\u201d. High praise indeed.<\/p>\n Keen to experience this transformative effect for myself, I spoke with Eastwood, and she agreed to provide me with a month of workouts via her Eastwood Fit app<\/a>. Read on for how it went, and how you can try Hathaway\u2019s training style for yourself.<\/p>\n Anne Hathaway\u2019s workout routine<\/p>\n Hathaway trains with Eastwood five times per week via video call, often rising at 5am to squeeze a session in before work.<\/p>\n \u201cWe worked together [for The Idea of You] and Annie is also doing Mother Mary, which is her dance film,\u201d Eastwood tells me. \u201cI think that was the reason she wanted to start working with me, to get more of a performance level to her training, and we\u2019ve definitely done that. We\u2019ve been together for quite a long journey to get her that body awareness, and she\u2019s done amazingly. It\u2019s fantastic to find someone with her level of commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n Each Eastwood workout is different, but the average hour-long class contains a blend of ballet, dance, Pilates, yoga<\/a> and resistance training, all performed at an intensity sure to set the heart racing. This, Eastwood says, \u201cstimulates the body in many different ways\u201d to develop balance, body awareness, core stability and muscular endurance. She also reckons it will lead to \u201ca more profound understanding of how you move in the world,\u201d which is particularly appealing to me as a notoriously clumsy person. <\/p>\n Read more: Hugh Jackman\u2019s trainer reveals how the actor got fit for Deadpool & Wolverine<\/a><\/p>\n How to train like Anne Hathaway<\/p>\n If you want to train like Anne Hathaway, try the movement flows in the video below. The goal is to perform each sequence 10 times on either side of the body.<\/p>\n \u201cThis short routine is ideal for engaging the glutes and core muscles while encouraging you to focus on holding your balance,\u201d Eastwood says.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n What happened when I tried training like Anne Hathaway<\/p>\n Approaching my first Eastwood workout, I felt confident. Being a fitness writer, I\u2019ve experimented with all manner of exercise<\/a> styles, so I figured a blend of Pilates, dance and yoga<\/a> shouldn\u2019t present any problems. I was wrong.<\/p>\n Half-an-hour later, I found myself lying topless on a yoga mat<\/a>, breathing heavily and dripping with sweat. My thighs felt like I\u2019d just hit a heavy leg session at the gym, despite lifting nothing more than a light resistance band<\/a>, and my core was trembling. So how did this happen?<\/p>\n Eastwood\u2019s follow-along classes more closely resemble choreography than a classic workout. She walks me through a series of flowing sequences, such as opening my hips into a pli\u00e9, reaching overhead and bending to one side, then stepping from there into a deep curtsy squat. Then she applies Pilates principles by having me repeat these sequences a few times through.<\/p>\n Read more: Five race-day tips for getting a better Hyrox time, from someone who\u2019s done it in sub-60 minutes<\/a><\/p>\n A tough start<\/p>\n It\u2019s balletic, and Eastwood makes it look beautifully simple on screen. But I soon find my body, which is so comfortable squatting with a heavy barbell or sprinting, isn\u2019t used to moving in this way. As a result, I struggle to keep up.<\/p>\n There\u2019s one move in particular, shifting the hips from side to side, that refuses to compute with my brain or body. Eastwood looks like a dancer from the Taylor Swift<\/a> tour, fluid and graceful. I look like the Tin Man, stiff and awkward, despite giving it a lot of heart. I\u2019m somewhat relieved to learn that Hathaway\u2019s experience with Eastwood started in much the same way. <\/p>\n \u201cI will never forget my first session with Monique,\u201d she says. \u201cThere were so many of her signature moves I couldn\u2019t do properly \u2013 my knees wobbled terribly, I couldn\u2019t balance at all, and forget about doing a downward dog \u2013 but Monique was totally undeterred. Through the screen, Monique assessed where I was weak without making me feel flawed.\u201d<\/p>\n I might not have had the benefit of a one-to-one lesson, but Eastwood\u2019s constant cues did help me improve my technique, and by the end of my first session I had loosened up a bit.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m so bossy,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI\u2019m always trying to talk during my HIIT classes, which is almost impossible, but I want to tell you what to do all the time because I\u2019ve seen so many things over 35 years of training like this.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: \u2018Badass\u2019 Friends star Courteney Cox can do a perfect chin-up at 60 \u2013 you can too with these three tips<\/a><\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n I enjoyed the ballet-inspired exercises, and Monique Eastwood\u2019s 3D approach to movement (Harry Bullmore)<\/p>\n 3D movement<\/p>\n For Eastwood, \u201ctraining like this\u201d can best be defined as \u201cmultidirectional movement\u201d; she has me squatting, bending, twisting, stretching, reaching and more during our class. This is in stark contrast to most modern workouts, which Eastwood playfully refers to as \u201cvery up, down, up, down\u201d. And she has a point.<\/p>\n The majority of popular strength training<\/a> exercises, like squats<\/a> and press\u2013ups, are effective at building muscle, but they occur largely in the sagittal plane \u2013 in layman\u2019s terms, they challenge you to move up, down, forwards and backwards. But our joints work in two further planes of motion: frontal (side to side movements) and transverse (rotational movements). The body also operates on a rough \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d basis, so ignoring these movements can cause your joints and muscles to tighten over time, restricting your freedom of movement and increasing your risk of injury.<\/p>\n Luckily, Eastwood\u2019s class covers all three planes of motion in abundance, and by the end I feel notably less stiff. Smaller supporting muscles around my shoulders and hips are also called into action far more than usual, and over the course of the month I notice this has a positive impact on my regular muscle-building staples in the gym like shoulder presses.<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t want your big superficial muscles always being the ones doing the work,\u201d Eastwood says. \u201cYou want other deep-lying muscles to be able to stabilise you. I want you to have a more balanced body; that\u2019s really my philosophy.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I see clients I\u2019ve taught for 10 or 15 years, I cannot tell you how amazing they look because they are like dancers. They have that dancer strength.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: I stopped drinking for six months \u2013 five reasons why it\u2019s one of the best things I\u2019ve ever done<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u2018Pilates can be a bit boring\u2019<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help wondering how Eastwood\u2019s humbling hybrid approach came about, so I quiz her on it.<\/p>\n \u201cI was on stage as a dancer and loved the discipline and focus,\u201d she says. \u201cThen I fell pregnant with my children, so I ended up teaching all the local mothers in village halls. I did a Pilates course which contained me a bit better, because dance is quite free, and it made me really start thinking about my anatomy and the reason behind each movement.\u201d<\/p>\n However, during classes, Eastwood noticed some of her clients entered something she calls \u201csleepy mode\u201d when they were doing certain lying down exercises. \u201cPilates can be a bit boring if you can\u2019t absorb all the information,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought, \u2018Right, I\u2019ve got to change this up and make them move a little bit more\u2019. I needed to make a difference to people\u2019s bodies, and pretty quickly, so I started to move them like a dancer with the Pilates philosophy; the lateral breath, the containment, the alignment.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd then I thought, \u2018You know what, I want to build a little bit more muscle and strength, so I\u2019m going to lift weights while I do it\u2019. I love yoga as well, so there was a little bit of yoga thrown in to give you that stretch between the power moves too.\u201d<\/p>\n The result, I found, was exhausting. My muscles were challenged in a way they hadn\u2019t been before, despite the absence of heavy weights \u2013 I never lifted more than a 5kg dumbbell in each hand during one of Eastwood\u2019s sessions. I also had to consider my balance and coordination throughout. However, this full-on approach banished boredom to the back of my mind, with the varied elements keeping my brain switched on for the entire class.<\/p>\n Read more: Add this five-minute habit into your day to build full-body strength and boost your fitness<\/a><\/p>\n How to use Eastwood\u2019s training<\/p>\n Eastwood\u2019s classes cover a lot of bases, and if you want to use it as your primary form of exercise like Hathaway, you can. But for me, she recommends a different approach.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople love what they love, and I just want you to train and stay strong,\u201d she tells me. \u201cI want you to train forever. I\u2019m 57-and-a-half and I\u2019m still training hard, the same way I\u2019ve trained for the last 35 years.\u201d<\/p>\n In line with this, Eastwood instructs me to keep lifting weights and running (as I love to do), then add a few of her technique and HIIT classes into each week. If all goes as planned, the activities should share a mutualistic relationship.<\/p>\n \u201cI always say to people, use me as a technique person, then go back to your other stuff,\u201d Eastwood says. \u201cIf you\u2019re a tennis player, your tennis will be incredible because you can now take more power from your deep core. Your golf swing will be better, and you\u2019ll be more agile for skiing. You\u2019ll also find you\u2019re able to lift heavier weights and do it more efficiently because you\u2019re really using all your back and core muscles.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just how you feel and perform that Eastwood promises to improve either. She also says her style of training can help build a lean, strong body. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been doing this a long time, and I know what people want to achieve,\u201d she says. \u201cI love to get the best out of my clients, and I do get the best out of them. Then they start to trust you and believe in you. They\u2019re always amazed, because when I look at them now, they\u2019re so strong. It\u2019s such a blessing to see that achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more: A walking expert says you don\u2019t need to walk 10,000 steps a day for most health benefits \u2013 here\u2019s why<\/a><\/p>\n open image in gallery<\/p>\n There were a lot of plank variations in Monique Eastwood\u2019s workouts (Harry Bullmore)<\/p>\n The Verdict: Training like Anne Hathaway for a month<\/p>\n Change takes time, and in the grand scheme of things one month isn\u2019t very long at all, so don\u2019t expect a dramatic before and after photo at the end of this feature. But I did notice some differences during my time training with Eastwood.<\/p>\n Firstly, I was able to move more freely by the end of the four weeks. Regularly accessing unfamiliar positions during her classes (including shifting my hips from side to side) sent a clear message to my body that I didn\u2019t want to lose these movements. The body, amazing as it is, adapted accordingly and gradually relearned how to recruit a wider range of motion around the joints in question.<\/p>\n I also noticed how the effects of Eastwood\u2019s exercises carried over into my regular training. By developing my mobility and paying more attention to smaller supporting muscles around the shoulder and hip joints, I felt stronger squatting and pressing a barbell overhead, even hitting a new split jerk PB a few weeks in.<\/p>\n However, more importantly than any of this, I had a lot of fun. I firmly believe the best workouts<\/a> will boost your health, fitness and mood, and Eastwood\u2019s classes delivered on all three fronts by providing me with something new, challenging and enjoyable. That\u2019s why, for those bored by classic workouts and looking for a different way to stay in shape, I think Eastwood\u2019s approach could be worth looking into. <\/p>\n Hathaway certainly thinks so, listing her introduction to Eastwood as a key moment from the last few years in her inaugural post on Tiktok<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cAs I have become physically stronger and more flexible, my outlook on life has improved,” Hathaway says. And that, for me, is worth more than any transformation photo going.<\/p>\n Read more: Five stretches you should be doing every day, according to a flexibility expert<\/a><\/p>\n![\"I](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/IMG_2253.jpg\")
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