If you’ve watched Danai Gurira kick some serious ass in Black Panther or The Walking Dead, then you already know calling her “fit” would be an understatement.
So it should come as no surprise that the actress works hard (like, really hard) to achieve her impressive strength. And she has her trainer, AJ Fisher, to thank for her rigorous workouts–the two of them met through one of Danai’s Walking Dead castmates three years ago and have been training together ever since.
A typical week includes three to four workout sessions (four to five when Danai is ramping up for a movie or event), which last 90 minutes. “That really gives us enough time to incorporate all the necessary mobility and injury prevention work, on top of cardio and strength training,” Fisher told WomensHealthMag.com. “We do a lot of interval training—sometimes high intensity, sometimes moderate.” Basically, they pack a whole lot into those hour and a half sessions.
“It’s so wonderful working with her, she works so hard,” says Fisher. “She really loves working on her posture, targeting her deep core, and doing our mobility strength work.”
And when Danai is traveling, they do remote sessions together, or Fisher will send Danai a workout via text, so she can always keep up with her training.
Here, Fisher shares some of those on-the-go moves that she often recommends to clients. The best part: They’re all exercises that you can do at home, too.
Half Kneeling
Half Kneeling is no Joke! ?? I sometimes use variations of half kneeling as my cardio endurance training for the day. It’s a great way to test imbalances and also work on joint flexibility as you do your intervals. Putting a weight on one side of your body will challenge your core including outer hip! Challenging your pelvis and upper body to stay stable as you kick in many different directions is a great way to work on pelvic stability and hip mobility. I put a little butt blast snippet at the end. This series is also a great dynamic warm up for leg strength! Today, alternated between half kneeling 2minutes, goblet squat with plyo 45 seconds, 30 seconds rest in between. Repeat 10x. Woot!! ???? #circuittraining #intervals #corectology #pelvicstability #hipmobility #halfkneeling #coretraining #unilateral #lunges #warmupdrills #ajfishertrainer #glutes
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“This is a good exercise to help improve your balance and posture,” says Fisher. “You get great hip mobility and high-intensity training at once. And it’s great for total leg strengthening; you’re toning your quads and your glutes.”
How to: Come down into a lunge, right knee on the ground, holding a five- to 10-pound dumbbell in your left hand, arm straight. Using your core strength to stabilize, press down with your left foot to bring your right leg up and kick forward. Return to start. Repeat this for one minute on each leg. Repeat 10 times, with 30 seconds rest in between each set.
Bent-Over Row And Deadlift With Wash Cloth
Clean up MidBack with Wash Cloth ?????? Holding tension on a wash cloth while practicing your bent over rows and deadlift form is a great way to get your midback working in a bent over row. Give it a try! Landing on one foot on the AIREX pad is a good way to challenge foot strength and train the strength and balance of one leg at a time as you work on the hip hinge mechanics. ?????? #correctiveexercise #bentoverrow #corectology #ajfishertrainer #balancetraining #hiphinge #glutesworkout
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Don’t underestimate this wash-cloth move. “It’s surprisingly hard to hold up a wash cloth,” says Fisher. This move is great for when you’re traveling, because even if you don’t have any other equipment, you always have a wash cloth or towel in your hotel room. “This one is great to challenge your back muscles, and activate them to help you perfect your form and get ready to lift heavier weights later on.”
How to: Grab a wash cloth and hold it in both hands. Pull it apart, arms straight, hands shoulder-width apart. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent. Bend over from the hips until your back is almost parallel to the floor. Row arms toward chest, keeping wash cloth taut, squeezing shoulder blades together. Pause, then lower back down. Squeeze your glutes to return to standing. Complete for a minute. Repeat three to five times, with 30 seconds of rest in between each set.
Up for more of a challenge? Try Fisher’s bonus move: Jump onto a pillow, and complete the moves on one leg.
Head Posture And Abs
Head Posture and Abs are Great Friends! ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ If you get your head in line, the rest of your body will work more efficiently, be less injury prone and produce better results performance wise and aesthetically ? Most heads are 13-15lbs and are the part of the body furthest away from the ground…that’s a long lever! If I ask you to hold a 15lb weight, and you hold it incorrectly, especially if you hold it far away from your body, you are likely to have pain, be injured and not get maximum results! Here’s a deep core routine that includes BREATHOGRAPHY to hone in on #transversusabdominis And #pelvicfloor While working on neutral spine AND neutral head!! ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ #headposture #alignment #posturetherapy #forwardheadposture #pilates #deepabs #corectology #ajfishertrainer #breathography
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“I’m so strict about head posture,” says Fisher. “When your head is forward, you’re going to overuse your neck and your abs aren’t going to get the workout they deserve.” This move helps get your head and neck in a neutral position, so your abs are the focus. She also uses a towel under the heels in this series, “to challenge the lower abs even more—because they need to stabilize against the movement of the legs.”
How to: Get in a seated position, knees bent, and lean back against a small exercise ball placed directly under bra line. Retract head, almost giving yourself a double chin. Grab a washcloth with both hands over your head, elbows bent. Pull towel taut and bend elbows to pulse arms overhead four times. Place the towel behind head. Pull towel forward as head retracts for four more pulses, straightening legs as you pulse. Pull towel taut overhead, arms straight. Pulse arms back behind torso four more times, bending legs to pull them closer to the body. Do these three motions for one minute. Repeat three to five times, with 30 seconds of rest in between each set.
Wall Humerus Fix
Wall Humerus FIX ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ The shoulder is one of the most mobile joints in the whole body. Therefore, it needs to be stabilized! I find “setting” the scapula and humerus with some banded pulls into shoulder external rotation is a great primer for proper scapula and humerus placement in bent over rows and deadlifts. I perform a wall sit with the banded rotation not only because I’m a sick person who just loves conditioning, but I find it to be a really optimal position to feel your neutral spine with a tiny bit of space behind lumbar spine, the lower ribs pressing into the wall to activate obliques, the back of humerus pressing into the wall while getting that scapula flush against your ribs, activating all scapular stabilizers equally! It is hard to achieve this kind of placement, but if you can’t pass this “stability test” for multiple joints, you should think twice about lifting heavy or with speed on that particular day to prevent injury! ☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️ #humerus #scapula #neutralspine #injurypreventiontraining #posture #alignment #conditioning #shoulderhealth #deadlift #bentoverrow #ajfishertrainer #corectology
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“Wall sits are a great way to get leg work, while also working on posture,” says Fisher. “When you’re sitting against the wall, you can practice getting your lower back into a neutral position, along with pelvic floor contraction and pulling your lower abs in.” She also notes that this is a great way to practice getting your spine in the right position, before doing more weight-centric moves.
How to: Lean against a wall with your feet about two feet away from it, then bend your knees to 90 degrees and raise your arms in front of you. Make it harder by holding a resistance band in front of your body, and pulsing it outward. Hold for 60 seconds. Repeat three to five times, with 30 seconds of rest in between each set.
Couch Intervals
Couch Intervals Part 2 ______________________________ Here’s a way to work on 3 things using your couch: anaerobic tolerance, head posture, hip/knee/ankle strength. Working speed can be an important part of your program, especially if you are a runner! You need to add corrective, agility strategies into your program to “test” yourself to see if you are able to hold stability in the right places as you move your limbs into a split stance (this is the lunge…when you stand in a split stance, you are working in some semblance of a lunge! Runners need to strengthen their lunge to improve their running mechanics. A lot can strengthened by using your split stance (all variations of. The lunge) as an assessment, a warm up, a strength exercise and a mobility exercise as well! I like this version of the lunge…using it in a plyometric form to challenge foot, hip and knee strength! ______________________________ #lunges #corectology #headposture #alignment #ajfishertrainer #agility #runningdrills #runningmechanics #correctiveexercise
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“Most of us overuse our quads, and this move helps correct that,” says Fisher. “If you can keep your calf connected to the couch as you go side to side, this will set you up for great lower-leg stability, and it’ll allow you to engage your glutes so much more, rather than rely on your thighs.”
How to: Get in a standing position, facing a couch. Place a resistance band around your ankles, and hold a ball overhead. Jump up to tap the cushion your left foot, then your right. Move across the couch as you do this, until you reach the other side. Then move in the other direction. Continue for 30 seconds. Repeat three to five times with 30 second rest in between each.
And to read more about Danai, check out our cover story from the July/August 2018 issue, on newsstands now.
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