Emma Stone underwent an amazing transformation to become tennis legend Billie Jean King in Battle of The Sexes. She had to gain 15 pounds of muscle, and she endured hard-core workouts that included heavyweight lifting.
The actress is petite and svelte but to play the tennis pro her body needed to be transformed. Like most women, Stone was not all that thrilled with having to do heavyweight lifting. Her usual workouts are Yoga and Pilates.
Personal trainer Jason Walsh helped Stone made the transformation in the healthiest way, which turned out to be more amazing than she ever hoped. He spoke with Shape magazine about how he helped her make the transformation, and how she now feels about lifting heavy weights.
"When we started training it was like, Ugh I don't want to do this. Am I going to get bulky? It started with that 'I can't' mentality, those mental stigmas against lifting, and the lack of confidence," he revealed.
Walsh, who is the founder of the Rise Movement and Rise Nation, also shared that Stone had several muscle imbalances, aches and pains when they first trained. However, that did not stop the actress from doing five workouts a week with regular two-a-day workouts. Over an eight-week period her workouts decreased, so that during filming she had a three-day workout routine to maintain her new body.
Actress Emma Stone was not a fan of heavyweight lifting when she started training for her role as Billie Jean King. Walsh had her doing some hardcore moves like pushing and pulling weighted sleds, doing single-leg squats and farmer's carries, and push-ups with 50 pounds of chains on her back.
By the end of their training for the film, he reveals that Stone ended up loving the heaving lifting moves. Her two favorite moves are weighted hip thrusts, up to 300 lbs and dead lifts up to 185 lbs.
That is quite the amazing accomplishment for the actress, considering how against weight lifting she was in the beginning. These days she asks Walsh if they can do heavyweight exercises. The workouts changed more than just her body; they changed her mind, as well!
