Anne Hathaway's unique 4-step Pilates routine is the perfect alternative to a traditional workout

If you're not a fan of a traditional Pilates class and the thought of going to the gym fills you with dread, this unique Pilates-inspired workout designed by Anne Hathaway's personal trainer could be the one for you.

There are so many benefits to combining strength training and Pilates, whether in a weighted Pilates workout or gym setting - but you don't have to stick to traditional practices to reap the rewards. No one knows this more than Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt, and Stanley Tucci - A-list clients of personal trainer Monique Eastwood.

Eastwood, who hosts all her workouts on the Eastwood Fit app where you can follow along from home, told woman&home that her method focuses on "posture and alignment" with "flow" workouts and dynamic resistance training. "Both Emily and Anne do these moves each week in their sessions. I move both of them in multidirectional ways with challenging routines to activate more muscle and create a balanced and strong body," she says. Want to try a workout? This routine from Eastwood uses elements of Pilates, ballet, and strength training. All you need is a yoga mat to try it for yourself...

Anne Hathaway's workout routine

1. Squat with upper body rotation

• Standing on your yoga mat with your feet shoulder-width apart, come down into a squat. You can do this movement with or without dumbbells.
• Rising from the squat, take a step back into a curtsy lunge (as shown in the video above).
• At the bottom of the lunge, engage your core, and rotate to the same side as your front leg, adding a 'twist' to the movement.
• Come up towards a standing position and as you do, kick forward with your back leg from the curtsy lunge in a controlled way.
• Repeat the exercise 5 times on both sides.

"This exercise really challenges the core as there's constant movement and directional changes," Eastwood tells us. "The standing leg and buttocks in the curtsy into the kick are challenged a little more with the multi-directional movement and balance workout."

2. Side lunge

• Standing with your feet shoulder-width apart on your yoga mat, bring one leg out into a side lunge.
• At the same time, bring your arms up together bent by your forehead.
• With an engaged core and controlled movement, come up from the lunge. Bring your arms down to your sides, bring your feet together into a narrow stance (with feet less than shoulder-width apart).
• Put your weight onto the balls of your feet and squat down, while lifting your arms out to the sides.
• Come up from the squat and in one flowing movement, bring a foot back into a back lunge, and bring your arms over your head into a tricep extension.
• From here, lift your back leg up from behind you, forward into a 'high-knee' position. Try and stay balanced on the one leg for a moment, before bringing it down.
• Repeat 5 times on both sides of the body, making 10 repetitions in total.

3. Plié

• Stand on your mat with your feet wider than hip-width apart and toes pointed outwards to about 45-degrees.
• Bend your knees and float your arms straight out to the side.
• Make sure your knees are aligned over your feet, keep your upper body lifted with your spine straight. Ensure your tailbone is tucked under your pelvis. Come down to a comfortable position.
• Rising up onto the balls of your feet, bringing your arms out in front of your chest. Bring your legs together.
• Repeat the movement, extending your leg out into the wide plié again.

If you're doing Pilates for beginners or not used to these types of yoga mat workouts, this could be a real challenge - but it's worth the extra effort, says Eastwood. "This stimulates the brain to focus on body control. The pelvis, hips, glutes, inner thighs, and all the leg muscles are challenged by these movements, and the back muscles are working every time the arms move away from the core."

4. Plank combination

• Coming down onto your yoga mat, come into the plank position resting on your hands. Be sure to engage your core.
• Lift your right knee across to your left elbow.
• Rotate your body to one side, transitioning into a side plank.
• Extend the bent right knee out, with your leg straight, pointing away from your body.
• Hold the position for a moment, then rotate back into your side plank before coming back into a standard plank.
• Bend both your knees and come back onto your heels.
• Lift your knees off the floor.
• Return to the plank.
• Repeat the exercise 5 times on each side.

How to make this workout easier

If you're struggling with this workout, don't worry, you're not the only one. Anne Hathaway told The Independent that when she first started training with Eastwood, "there were so many of her signature moves I couldn't do properly - my knees wobbled terribly". Try a workout from the Eastwood Fit app or this ballet-inspired workout as an introduction to the method instead:

What are the benefits of this workout?

• Different from a standard Pilates or weights workout: As the sessions are different, the workout is "constantly stimulating and improving their [Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt's] body awareness, ability, and endurance," says Eastwood.
• A full-body workout: This workout is a full-body session, targeting all the lower and upper-body muscles, including the core, shoulders, back, and glutes.
• Builds core strength: Looking for a core exercise to strengthen your abdominal muscles? Eastwood's plank variations are ideal as "you hold the plank position while your leg does different movements," says Eastwood. The other leg builds strength at the same time as it has to keep your body weight stable.
• Versatile: It's also a very versatile workout that can be adjusted depending on what you need to focus on and how you're feeling that day. "Some days we use lighter weights and flow more like dancers, and other days we use heavier weights to add a different challenge," she says.
• Builds mobility and strength: This way of training also "really does stimulate more muscle with the way the body has to activate and fire to accomplish each directional change," Eastwood says, meaning the workout builds both mobility and strength at the same time.
• Improves balance: Many of the movements in Monique Eastwood's unique workout style challenge balance in a new way as you have to stabilise your entire body, which is "great for mind-body control and focus", she says.