Blake Lively is always stunning, but to play a surfer in her latest film, "The Shallows," the actress had to work hard to get into killer shape.
Lively had just given birth to her daughter, James, ten months before filming was set to begin — and she was going to be spending the entire movie in a wet suit and bikini, battling against a great white shark and brutal ocean waves.
The actress didn't just need to look good, she also needed to be really strong to conquer the physical demands of the film. And so, she turned to her trainer, Don Saladino of DriveClubs gyms in New York City, for help.
"I was fortunate to have Don Saladino help me out and he just kicked my butt in the best way, in the most healthy way," Lively told Entertainment Tonight.
The actress worked with her trainer five or six days a week for two months before filming began, Saladino told People.
They'd focus on upper body workouts on Mondays, lower body on Tuesdays, swimming laps in a pool on Wednesday, back to upper body on Thursdays, lower body on Fridays and on Saturdays the two focused on her arms and shoulders.
Saladino told INSIDER that a key component to Lively's workout was kettlebell sumo deadlifts, a full-body exercise she'd do once a week.
"It is a deadlift, but it's a wide stance deadlift, with a kettlebell between your legs," Saladino said. "It's great for the muscles of the posterior chain, which is everything that makes up the backside of your body."
Lively told ET that her strict training regimen transformed her body by the time filming began — and helped her tackle the role of a badass surfer.
"Being in waves like that, swimming like that, doing such long takes like that all the time— I became so much stronger and more fit by the end of production. I was working out 13 hours a day because shooting was working out," she said.
"It was neat to be able to do that, and it was neat to have that challenge after having a baby, because you think your body is so different— you think no matter what, it's never [going to be] totally be the same."
