Celebrity trainer and fitness expert Anna Kaiser tries to infuse a bit of mindfulness into her work with clients and in her work with the More for MBC (Metastatic Breast Cancer). As part of the movement’s Thriver challenge, to help raise awareness and funds for patients living with MBC, she and other members of the community are calling for 30 days of mindfulness activities and life hacks created by and for the community. These are small activities, meditations, thought exercises that are meant to help patients with their diverse experiences living with their cancer.
Kaiser, whose clients include Kelly Ripa and Shakira, shared the first bit of advice she intended to share with the community — which just so happens to also be the advice she gave to Shakira in Miami as the performer prepared for her Super Bowl halftime show performance. And, trust us, it’s sound advice for you to incorporate into your every day life too.
“I was down in Miami training Shakira for the Super Bowl… and she was having a tough time, she felt very overwhelmed,” Kaiser tells SheKnows. “So I offered her a mindfulness trick, which is: Do not pick up your phone before you take care of what you need to start the day off on the right foot. So for her that’s spending time with her kids and getting in a good workout.”
In addition to being seconded by experts in multiple fields concerning brain health and tech, knowing when to unplug so you can prioritize being present isn’t only helpful if you’re a celebrity about to do a huge, widely-viewed performance.
“The goal was to keep the phone off until after both of those two things were finished and that she could really focus and be present in that moment and not be distracted and worried about the other 1500 things that need to happen that day,” Kaiser adds. “And then you can go into your day more focused, more energized without the guilt that you didn’t get to do those things that you really need.”
As for the performance, Kaiser says that Shakira has been balancing training, dance rehearsals, philanthropy and writing and recording new music all while getting ready to put on an unforgettable, exciting show. So it was her job to make sure the workouts were something that kept her feeling strong and not tuckered out.
“She is working out six days a week, taking Sundays off. And the goal is to constantly, consistently vary workouts because she’s also in dance rehearsals and I need to make sure she can do both and continue to get stronger, feel her best self, but not get exhausted at the same time,” Kaiser said. “So one day we’re do dance intervals, next day we’ll do just pure strength, the next we’ll do a HIIT workout, just shorter. So it just depends on the rest of her day.”
However, Kaiser notes that this performance and the training ahead of it are all part of a longer fitness journey — where being consistent and giving the bits of time you can to love on your body makes all the difference.
“We’ve been working together for nine years and this is not a short-term fix — we really have been training consistently. She is the best example of consistency and how important it is,” she said. “Sometimes she can only do 15 minutes but, you know what, she showed up for that 15 minutes. So many of us put so much pressure on ourselves that if we can’t fit in that hour it’s not worth doing. But it absolutely is worth doing. Being able to allow yourself to focus on that workout and not have any distractions is huge.”
Originally published on SheKnows.
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