The 14 secrets from Celeb's to improve your workouts

Hey there wake up! – to celebrate National Fitness Day my favourite day of the year, here are some of the top workout secrets our lovely celebrities and their personal trainers use on a daily basis. And no, it's not about having the budget for daily private sessions or a home gym that rivals an actual gym. In fact, it's generally about training smarter, not necessarily harder.

Once you've got your exercise and nutrition sorted you're basically on the home straight, right? Well almost. Taking care of your nervous system or otherwise controlling how stressed you are is a major key to getting results from your healthy efforts. Scarlett Johansson's trainer Eric Johnson showed, how to make it work for you.

Managing stress really is the key-factor, says Johnson. If we can incorporate a few strategies to edge our clients towards a more parasympathetic state also known as the rest and digest state, that’s a huge win and will help immensely. It might be going for a leisurely stroll, including some bodywork massage, breathwork, sauna or cold exposure. The importance of good rest and enough sleep can't be overlooked, as well. Making sure the quality of sleep they get is vital, as for many that maybe difficult to achieve.

Smart training is definitely something Brennand believes strongly in  – exercising in a way that provides intensity without causing undue stress or forcing your body further than it's able to recover from before your next session. His key area of smart training, HIIT (High-intensity interval training) workouts and how to do it in a clever way that supports your healthy journey.

Note: As you can tell from the name, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is challenging. It takes your cardio workout to another level, as you push your pace out of your comfort zone. You can use HIIT with any type of cardio workout, whether it's running, using a stair climbing machine, rowing, or jumping rope.

You don’t need to train for a full hour when you do HIIT properly, says Brennand. Anything from one to five minutes of HIIT, is more than enough because it’s such high intensity. Attempting anymore and it's over doing what the body can take and you may find the next day you can’t train or perform as well.

Recovery is as important as the workout itself and different styles of workouts have different recovery timelines. You have to remember that when you exercise you’re putting your body under stress. And when you put your body under too much stress – whether it’s stress from working out or from working out and normal life – you need to make sure you're recovering too, he states.

The warm-up is always an assessment, says Fisher. Every session we go through she tells me what feels tight or if any joints feel unstable. Then we do our checkpoints: how are her ankles, knees, hips and whole body feeling. From there I'll use that feedback to add in extra mobility and flexibility during our workouts.

No matter what the latest Reformer craze is, Kate Hudson's personal Pilates instructor, Gaby Noble, says anytime you approach the apparatus it should be for a Pilates workout that's steady and controlled – not jumping around without proper form or concern.

'Joe Joseph Pilates originally called the method Contrology,’ Noble explains. ‘It was to help people learn how to control the body and teach the body and mind to move from a strong centre. Classical Pilates is the truest form and is exactly how Pilates wanted his work to be carried out. He chose a series of exercises that took the body through every type of movement to not leave a muscle or joint unturned.’

It's easy to think that large compound exercises are always the way to go when it comes to building strength across your body but it's not always the case. Some of our muscles have a natural tendency to take over which can mean others don't get a look in and become weaker in comparison. Fortunately, this is remedied with some clever workout programming.

‘Unilateral training, or training one side independently of the other, is crucial,’ says Kira Stokes, Ashley Graham's personal trainer. Most people have a stronger side, and you learn a lot about your own strengths and weaknesses when you incorporate isolated stability or balance exercises.’

Try single-leg deadlifts, split squats and single-arm shoulder presses and lateral raises to get started on addressing any imbalances you might have. Celebs, they're just like us!

She's the star we all love to love and her workout routine keeps her ready for the many demands of working actor life. Jennifer and her trainer, Leyon Azubuike, co-owner of Gloveworx, use a technique called periodisation to keep her fit and flexible and involves adjusting workouts based on her schedule.

Depending on where we are in that cycle dictates the duration and intensity of Jen’s workout, he says. If I know Jen isn’t filming anything, it’s a different phase than if I know she has something coming up tomorrow. If she’s going to be walking up to receive an award, I’m not going to destroy her legs in the gym the day before.

Without sounding too lah-lah, understanding your why can be transformative in keeping your eyes set on the prize – something Rebel Wilson's PT and friend, Jono Castano, swears by.

Find the reason as to why you're implementing this structure or habit into your life, he says. This could be as simple as committing to living a healthier lifestyle or having a specific goal in mind. Once you find that reason, everything else is much easier to follow.

For Rebel the method has worked wonders, elevating her Year of Health into a totally new outlook in which she works out regularly, overcame her issues with emotional eating and found a new lease for life. We love to see it.

Melissa Alcantara has trained Kim Kardashian for what feels like aeons now but she wasn t always the fitness queen she is now. To achieve her own goals which is also how she approaches her clients, she asks them to set realistic outcomes that, when achieved, help you feel good and stick to the process more.

Instead of saying, I want to lose weight, say I'm going to work out three times per week, she explains. Don't try to be an over-achiever and just stick to simple, attainable goals. As you achieve them, you're going to feel so damn good about yourself and motivated to keep going.

Glutes, glutes, glutes. It can feel that's all fitness is about now, right? For celebrity personal trainer Harley Pasternak who also trains Lady Gaga, Hilary Duff, Rihanna and Jessica Simpson as well as a bevvy of other stars, most people aren't training their bottom in the right way to see results.

Squats aren’t a great glute exercise at all, so I don’t do squats with my clients, says Pasternak. Loading your spine with all that weight, putting your shoulder girdle back to hold the bar, that’s all really tough on your body.

The stronger side will continue to get stronger, the weaker side will continue to get neglected, says Pasternak, and your glutes aren’t getting what they need.

Instead, Pasternak recommends doubling down on unilateral exercises – when you work one side of your body at a time. Here are some ideas to get you going with improving your lower body workouts:

The other thing he suggests is pulling up your glutes e.g. making them perkier by strengthening the hamstrings and lower back. Supermans are about to become your trusted friend.

Resigned for holidays and when you just can't be bothered to make it to the gym, bodyweight training can sometimes feel like the short straw when it comes to your workouts. For Drew Barrymore and trainer Marnie Alton, however, it's the cornerstone of their entire fitness ethos.

I come from a place where I think we have everything we need, Alton says. You don’t even need weights, you don’t need shoes, you don’t need machines. You need properly sequenced bodyweight movements and then you need to connect with them mentally.

We basically work barefoot... because the foot is the beginning of what’s called the kinetic chain in your body, Alton explains. We'll let you wear your gym trainers if you want but make sure to consider throwing in some bodyweight exercises to the mix. At the very least, they' re fun!

For someone as flexible and hypermobile as Shakira, it's important to strengthen every part of your body to make sure your joints are supported. Her long time personal trainer Anna Kaiser shared in an interview that foam rolling was one of the key ways they address this:

Foam rolling is really important and making sure we are rolling out her fascia, her feet, her legs, and upper body to make sure she stays nice and healthy.

Try these foam roller exercises to strengthen and soothe your muscles and fascia post-workout.

It's all well and good to do something that looks good but is it actually having the desired effect when it comes to your progress? Here's what fittie Gemma Atkinson's trainer has to say about why the mind-muscle connection is so important.

The main goal with glute work and the leg exercises Gemma did was for her to be actually feeling the muscles that she is supposed to be working, as opposed to just going through the movement and it looking okay. We needed to ensure that she’s putting tension through the muscle in the right places, her Ultimate Performance trainer, Steve Chambers explains.

Tracy Anderson has one of the longest celebrity client lists in the business – from Gwyneth Paltrow and her daughter to Kate Hudson and Tracee Ellis Ross.

One of her best bits of advice is not to punish yourself during your workouts but also with your nutrition:

I try not to cut anything out of my diet. I focus on eating organic, whole foods as much as possible, but, if I want a treat, I'm going to have a treat. And none of this 'don t keep bad foods in your house' nonsense.

Foods aren't bad or good, and you're not bad for wanting to eat. I think demonising a certain food only makes you want it more. But if you know that it s always available, it makes your brain realise it's not an emergency, making you less likely to binge. 

One for the new mums and mums-to-be out there, waiting for your pelvic floor to heal post-baby is of the utmost importance before getting back into your fitness routine. Remember, nothing happens until your doctor gives you the green light, ok?

Garner's long time trainer Simone de la Rue is a big advocate for engaging and strengthening the entire core – which absolutely includes the pelvic floor.

Waiting for your pelvic floor to heal before restarting exercise is the wisest thing to do, and then doing pelvic floor exercises, she says. Even then, you may still leak a little bit and that's ok. It’s so common and women shouldn’t be embarrassed,

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