Watch Shay Mitchell use a treadmill like you've never seen before

Watch Shay Mitchell use a treadmill like you've never seen before

Shay Mitchell recently gave Vogue a glimpse into a typical day in her life. In addition to packing her daughter's lunch, taking business meetings, and dressing for a red carpet appearance, the Pretty Little Liars alum squeezed in a workout with celebrity trainer Kira Stokes.

In a video depicting Mitchell's day, Stokes leads Mitchell through three exercises. The first is a TRX suspension range. To complete the move, Mitchell stands in front of a TRX trainer attached to a cable machine, and while holding the handles in front of her chest, she leans her body back and stretches her arms. She then bends her elbows and squeezes her shoulder blades together to pull her torso forward to meet her hands. Finally, she extends her arms to lower her body back to the starting position. The exercise trains the upper back, arm and shoulder muscles. It also challenges your core to maintain proper form. (Psst: Jessica Alba is also a fan of this move.)

“We're always hunched over, especially me when I'm carrying a baby and a toddler,” says the mother of two as she does sets on the TRX machine. "It's nice to be able to focus on pushing your back muscles back," she continues, noting that it helps her posture as she walks across the carpet.

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“Exactly, to make you stand taller,” Stokes adds. “We call this your posterior chain – your whole back.” ICYDK, the posterior chain refers to all the muscles on the back of the body. Think: hamstrings, glutes, calves and lats. You use the muscles in your posterior chain for many everyday movements, such as walking. E.g., sitting down and picking something up from the floor, and keeping them strong will help prevent injury.

"You call it a posterior chain, I call it a better posture moment on the red carpet," Mitchell jokes in the Vogue video.

Next, the actress does one legging Deadlift with knee thrust and overhead press on a BOSU ball for a multitasking balance exercise. “This is another one of my favorite moves,” says Mitchell as she steps on a BOSU ball with her right foot while holding dumbbells in each hand. "It takes a lot of balance, a lot of coordination. Something Marvel might hire in an actor."

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Standing on her right foot, Mitchell lifts her left knee and holds it in front of her hips. She lowers the weights to her sides, then all the way down to the floor by swinging to her hips and lowering her torso to the floor. At the same time, she extends her left leg behind her body and lifts it until it is in line with her hips. She stands back on her balancing leg and presses the dumbbells above her head and in line with her shoulders to complete one rep.

The third exercise in the Vogue video is a bear crawl variation that uses the treadmill in an unusual way. Instead of standing on the belt to jog, Mitchell gets on all fours with her hands resting on a short plyo Box in front of the treadmill and her toes on the treadmill, her knees bent. While the treadmill remains off, Mitchell uses her strength to push the belt by taking small steps, using her arm, shoulder and core muscles to stabilize her upper body as her legs move. It's clearly a challenge for Mitchell as she and Stokes count down to the end.

Check out the video below for a closer look at Mitchell's fitness training.