When a big celebrity shares their fitness routine, I tend to approach it with a degree of skepticism. That's because most celebrities have more time and money than the average person to dedicate to working out—often it's part of their job! This means their workout routines can be pretty unrealistic.
But I was pleasantly surprised to see Riverdale and Masters Of The Universe star Camila Mendes' workout routine. Mendes' focus is strength and mobility, and her trainer LA Thoma Gustin has crafted a simple but effective routine that helps her reach both of those goals, which SELF Magazine recently shared.
The full workout takes one hour and it mostly consists of dumbbell and kettlebell exercises. The moves are all beginner-friendly, or can be scaled to be suitable for beginners, so anyone can try it.
I've been feeling bored by my workout routine recently, so I decided to give Mendes' workout a go to switch things up.
How to do Camila Mendes’ workout routine
This workout consists of a series of three-move circuits. Gustin recommends completing three rounds of each of three circuits, sandwiched between a warm-up and a cool-down.
What equipment do you need?
The main piece of equipment you’ll need for this routine is a dumbbell. If you don’t have access to a gym and are working out from home, adjustable dumbbells are ideal, so you can fine-tune how much weight you use, depending on how difficult you find the exercise.
But you could make do with a light dumbbell, or one light and one medium dumbbell. There is also one kettlebell exercise, but you can do that with a dumbbell or just using your bodyweight. Mendes shares that she did it with a wine bottle on a recent girls trip when she didn't have access to weights.
There’s one move that’s part of the warm-up that incorporates a foam roller, but you can always skip that if you don't have one. Mendes finishes the workout with treadmill sprints, but you can swap this out for any form of cardio if you don’t have access to a treadmill.
My experience trying Camila Mendes’ workout routine
I lift weights regularly and have been doing so for more than five years, but there are a few moves in Mendes’ workout that I’d never come across before, so I was excited to try it.
After following the warm-up, which felt great for my hips and shoulders, I got started with half-kneeling single-leg shoulder presses, tall plank rotations and hip thrusts (which I used a dumbbell for, instead of a barbell).
All of these moves not only challenged my strength, but my stability too. They involved balance, which meant that core strength was crucial, as well as isolating muscles like the shoulders, obliques and glutes.
The next set included push-ups, B-stance Romanian deadlifts with a rotation and bird dog rows, and those final two moves were new to me.
Adding a rotation to the RDL meant that it targeted the muscles on the outside of my leg, as well as my obliques. Again, they also required me to think about stabilising my body, and I think I would have found this exercise challenging even without weight.
I loved the bird dog rows, which challenged my balance while isolating my glutes and the muscles in my back. I’ll definitely be adding both of these moves into my future workouts.Next was a core circuit, which involved crunches and lateral V-ups. The V-ups were tough and engaged my entire core. If you’re a beginner, try starting with single-leg V-ups before moving attempting this version of the move.I didn’t have access to a treadmill, so I did 20-second sprint intervals on the assault bike instead, which was a fun way to get my heart rate up at the end of the session and gave me some good post-exercise endorphins.
My verdict on Camila Mendes’ workout
This is by far one of the best celebrity workouts I’ve come across. It’s a full-body workout that prioritises strength, mobility, stability and balance.
I often deal with shoulder pain, and Mendes has the same problem, so a lot of the moves in this routine are designed to stabilise the shoulder joints, which felt great.
I think this workout is ideal for anyone looking to build strength, injury-proof their body and train functionally. I’ll definitely be returning to it.
