Camila Mendes' Full Workout, From Warm Up to Cool Down

I can't like feel complete in my workout

unless I end with sprints.

And Cami has amazing form when she runs.

Don't say that.

[Thoma] Hey, I gotta tell the people.

You keep hyping me up and I'm not.

[Thoma] I gotta tell the people, okay.

Hi self, I'm Camila Mendez and you're working out with me.

Come on.

[upbeat music]

Hey girl. Yes girl.

Here we go.

Let's do this. Let's do this.

This is my trainer,

LA Thoma Gustin.

And we met at Comic-Con in San Diego

like

eight years ago. Eight years.

I go to her garage. It's a great vibe.

My dog's there and-

Dogs kids. And your kids are there.

Ellie's like holding a baby and like telling me,

you know how many pushups to do.

I love it. It's therapy.

Yeah.

[serene music]

All right, we're gonna start up with a full body warmup,

which Cami knows by heart.

I don't even need to tell her.

She can actually lead me through it.

I do this everywhere and-

I think this is your favorite part.

Anywhere. I love the warmup.

Five minute timer. Let's go.

So first we start with squats

and overhead reach.

And a heel raise. And a heel raise.

Almost forgot.

But in all seriousness,

LA like I actually am outta shape right now.

I've been- I highly doubt.

In Mexico City filming

and I've had very early call times,

so I haven't really had time to be working out every day.

But I've been trying on the weekends

[Thoma] to do my best. Switch.

When I was training for Masters of the Universe,

it was a very different type of

training regimen.

And I was obviously like

really trying to get buff and strong and you know,

now I'm playing a character who's very different

from the character I just played

and like wouldn't be somebody who

works out at the gym all the time.

So we found the balance.

Back lunge rotation. Yep.

This works on a lot like hip mobility

and also lumbar thoracic mobility.

So you get that rotation

and I think one of the coolest parts with her

training for that movie was like,

you literally, it was a full-time job.

[Camila] Yeah. For her to train like that.

Working out that hard like

you still

don't get like huge, huge, you know what I mean?

Oh totally, yeah.

That was a really valuable lesson for me to learn

because I think there's this common misconception

and this fear with women that we're

gonna get too buff

and like a lot of women are scared of

strength training for that reason.

[Thoma] Switch.

But ultimately I think what really mattered is like

if you're strong, you're strong

and that looks different for everybody, you know.

Tricep goals that aren't

based on how you look because

like a strength goal,

like now you can do how many pushups or like-

Yeah, well I don't know about anymore.

I used to be able to do like 25 to 30.

Girl was wrapping them out.

Walkouts.

And I like to add a little shoulder tap.

She has a little shoulder tap

where you can add in a pushup if you want to.

I'll do the shoulder tap with you.

Come on.

We have pushups coming later.

I don't wanna do. That's true, that's true.

I don't wanna do too many pushups.

This is also nice little hammy stretch.

Hamstring stretch.

[serene music]

So Cammy's doing a serratus wall slide.

Basically we do this one

for her shoulder.

She has a lot of like shoulder tiredness

and weakness on this side.

We don't know what came first.

The tiredness or the weakness, like what came first?

Chicken of the eye. Probably the weakness.

It's mainly a strengthening exercise for the muscle

that's underneath your shoulder blade

but we kinda use it too as like a mobility

move for her.

[upbeat music]

All right, so this is our first circuit.

It is a tri-set

so it's three exercises we're gonna be doing

all one after another.

It keeps the ball rolling.

You don't need a ton of rest in between each exercise

because you're working a different muscle group.

Like the way she were training for masters,

you're really hammering out a muscle group.

So you need a longer of a break

between sets usually. Exactly

Because you have to fully recover to be ready

to go hard on that next set.

So it is definitely a different type of training

with a different goal.

Cam is doing a half knee shoulder press.

This is gonna be too hard.

I don't think I can do the fifteens anymore.

So she's working on shoulder

but also core and hip stability

being in this half kneel position,.

We really started working on shoulders,

especially when she was doing masters.

She did a lot of shoulder work and now she's super strong.

Even though you don't think you are.

This is really hard. This is hard.

Is it? Yes.

And we'll go through

usually three to four times,

you're trying to hit close to failure,

like three to four rep shy of failure

because that's how you build muscle.

You gotta take your muscles to that point.

Yeah, that's perfect.

That last rep, it should feel exactly like that.

Should be like, oh.

Like you should be making a face on the last rep.

All right. This is a tall plank rotation.

This is one of my favorite full body moves

because she's getting

a ton, a ton and ton of shoulder stability on this side

while she's working back, shoulder,

tricep, bicep

and then obviously core

'cause she's in this tall side plank position.

So I love this as like a good combo move

and Cami just crushes this.

I love these.

I don't know why they just, they feel good.

It's like you're getting arm and core at the same time.

The bottom arm is the sneaky hard one.

Yeah.

For sure.

Especially with like she has that little bit of that

tight weak shoulder.

This is really great for that.

This is really hard to stay like in this position

and do this is super hard and she just crushes it.

Glute thrust is also a fave.

Give it a one two beat at the top.

People kind of hit the top and come down really fast.

So really challenge yourself to pause

a little bit longer at the top.

You gonna feel it makes like a really big difference.

[upbeat music]

You are so much better at these than me.

No I'm not.

I'm like trying to keep up with you so,

my ankles fast.

[upbeat music]

During masters I was like I can't.

I need to get stronger and stronger.

Yeah.

What you now know

is that

to really get bulky,

it literally is a full time job.

It really is. It is really hard.

We had like a, a performance chef who was like

making our meals specifically for the goal

of putting on muscle.

I was like having to force myself to finish meals

'cause I was just not used to eating that much.

And I started to notice

I had like cellulite in my shoulders.

I was like, whoa, like I've never noticed.

I have fat in my shoulders now,

but in in my mind, like I was like really excited about it.

I'm like, oh that means like-

Your muscle- It's working.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

All of a sudden it went from being like,

oh, like I wanna be super lean

to being like, I wanna be strong.

[Thoma] Yeah. And that was a really cool

empowering feeling to be like chasing muscle.

It's kind of addicting.

Like when you start to see those muscle lines,

you start to really love being strong.

[upbeat music]

Trying to get heated. It's getting hot in here.

It's getting spicy.

You ready for circuit two? Yes.

All right circuit two.

We still have upper body, lower body

and a core upper body combo.

So we're doing straight up pushups.

You have always had the most perfect pushup form.

Stop it. From day one.

That is one thing with Cami.

I've barely ever have to correct her form.

If I do, it's like a little tweak here or there.

But your like body awareness and her form

has always been like she's so easy to train.

Like sometimes I'll forego doing something really quick

and powerful 'cause I'm like no, but I need to do it.

Yeah, Perfectly.

It also has to be very even on both sides.

Yeah, I'm all about being even.

I make like tiny little adjustments we go.

I'm not perfectly aligned. Yeah, yeah.

[upbeat music]

I mean

solid as a board.

Stop it.

Don't make me laugh.

[Thoma] Textbook pushup video is right there.

[Thoma] I don't think so. It's right there.

Okay, b-stance rdl

but we're adding a little bit of rotation so

we add, we kind of aim towards the outside of the foot

because it gets deeper into the-

[Camila] I love this one.

This is a Cami fave.

This is also my favorite exercise

because anybody can do it wherever you are.

Like it's a single leg exercise.

If you have lighter weights at home,

you can still get enough resistance.

I was at a bachelorette party this past weekend

and I was doing these with a wine bottle

'cause that's all that I had nearby

and I was just going like this.

I love that. Still wasn't heavy enough

but it was something, you know.

Yeah. You make do.

You gotta do what you gotta do.

Try it with a little less knee bend

and see if you feel different. Less knee bend?

Yeah. Yeah, there you go, yeah.

Camy's very intuitive with how her body feels,

which is really helpful

'cause you can really tweak the exercise

to have her feel it in the right spots.

How's that weight feel? That's good.

If you're doing less reps,

you want the weight to be a little bit heavier.

If you're doing more reps,

you can go a little lighter with weight.

But I always try to keep the weight heavy enough

so they're not doing more than 15.

Honestly but just 'cause it's so many reps.

No one wants to be doing more than 15 reps.

Yeah, it gets boring after a while.

Yeah. So if you wanna be efficient with your time

lift heavier weights.

[upbeat music]

And then we have bird dog row,

so this is our core upper combo.

A upper back row,

but you're still getting bicep tricep always with that row.

And then corn hip stability as well.

Good.

Again, this one hits so many points.

Stability arm, stability shoulder,

stability back of this side,

stability of this side.

Obviously her core is having to engage to not let her,

you know, fall either direction.

And then we're getting bicep tricep as well.

[upbeat music]

Need some bar our OG music.

I know. Cami's on the the DJ.

She's always teaching me new songs that I've never heard of.

I feel like she keeps me young.

Showing me TikTok dances.

Sometimes that's our warmup, you know,

Except Cami is extremely good at dancing and I'm like,

I would not say extremely good.

Girl. Camy busts out.

I'm very like psychological when it comes to fitness.

Like a lot of it has to do with how I feel.

And if I haven't worked out in a week,

I'll wick really feel like, oh I feel like stagnant

and like I don't feel like my blood's flowing.

If I get into a good rhythm

and a good routine, I'm like,

Oh, I'm already feeling better.

I could see definition

and I just like feel firm and strong

and I think that's the feeling I strive for

more than aesthetics or anything like that.

So after we do our circuits,

we do a little bit of core work.

Usually it's a direct core,

so like when I say direct core I mean

we're actually doing like a crunch motion,

which is actually working that big muscle

that rectus in the middle.

Right, it's actually crunching it up.

So this is some of the hardest core work you'll do.

It's actually make the muscle expand and contract.

We call this one extension to neutral.

So it's just a crunch but we're going from

extended position to a neutral position

of the core.

So we're really lengthening that rectus muscle here.

But one of the biggest keys here is connecting your breath.

So she's really exhaling

and tucking in her ribs at the end

as she kind of pulls everything together.

Your core is your back,

your pelvic floor, it wraps all around.

It's like a canister.

So it's a muscle like any other muscle.

So you also wanna take it

close to failure if you wanna see growth.

People just don't really think about your core

as a muscle like that but it's the same idea.

Nice.

These are hard.

There's a lot of hip flexor involved.

Less so being on your side than if you're just

lifting from the back.

Okay, well God, I'm already tired.

Do you really wanna do ball slams?

Do you? Do you wanna do it?

Ball slams are your therapy.

That's true.

A lot of people when they do this,

they'll like not bend their knees

and do a back throw like this

versus

coming down with your legs.

The strength is really gonna come from your legs as well.

This is where I express my feminine rage.

Is this the one that bounces back at me?

[Thoma] This shouldn't.

Oh! Yeah.

[upbeat music]

All right. We're gonna do some interval sprints now.

Four rounds.

I think we start at 75%.

Slowly go up until your last one is your fastest.

This is the big finale.

I can't like feel complete in my workout

unless I end with sprints.

And Cami has amazing form when she runs.

Don't say that.

[Thoma] Hey, I gotta tell the people.

You keep hyping me up and I'm not.

[Thoma] I gotta tell the people, okay.

LA taught me how to do good runner hands.

The hands?

You don't wanna have a really firm grip

'cause then you're really tense.

You wanna be loose in the upper arms-

But you also don't wanna be like this.

Yeah. So actually my dad taught me this.

He was an elite track coach.

He always told me to pinch thumb and forefinger

so that if you need to clench

you can push those two together

but then the rest is relaxed.

[upbeat music]

How are my hands?

They look good.

Whatever feels good. You got it.

So this treadmill,

I call the hamster wheel treadmill

because it goes by your own pace.

So that's why it's sloped up like this.

If you go faster, the treadmill goes faster.

So there's no set speed.

[upbeat music]

Get it Cami.

Nice job.

So now we're gonna do our cool down.

Cool down.

Which is LA's signature cool down.

It's my signature but honestly it's your-

It's mine now. Your signature now.

It's the Cami version of the cool down

because Cami like- Yeah, I added a ittle

Added a few twists and turns.

My body literally cannot do.

I'm gonna let you lead this cool down.

Okay.

Do a little ankle crack.

[Thoma] Little pedal of the feet.

Little pedaling of the feet.

Bring that up.

Move that hip around.

This is a Cami flare that you don't get in my video.

And then I do this, which LA does not do.

I'm not even gonna like attempt to do that.

Like what?

It feels so good.

My back could never.

I mean that's insane.

[upbeat music]

How? How?

[upbeat music]

That's good though.

I feel like you're not,

you're like the same as me.

Mine's a Y. Yours the T.

So tight.

I got you. Thank you.

I have to end with the slow roll up.

[Thoma] Little hang.

Ah!

A new woman.

Stronger. Yeah.

Yes.

Today they can't use this in edit.

It's not a workout unless a dog is there.

She loves LA. Hi Truffle.

Thanks for working out with me Self Magazine.

I'm Camille Mendez.

And I'm LA Thoma.

And we're signing off.

And this is Truffle.

Bye. Bye.

[Everyone laughing]

[Camila] You have to use that.