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Kim Kardashian’s trainer Melissa Alcantara solves 'one of the biggest issues that you come across' with at-home workouts

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Melissa Alcantara knows that working out at home during quarantine can be a huge struggle.

The health and fitness guru, whose viral post-baby transformation photo from several years ago ultimately landed her the dream gig of becoming Kim Kardashian’s personal trainer, has found that it’s tough to motivate oneself when working out solo.

“For the most part, that’s what people ask me. It’s like, ‘How do you get motivated?’ And it’s like, OK, well, again, if I call my friend and I’m like, ‘Hey, let’s do this workout right now,’ I mean, it’s more probable that we are going to do that workout together,” Alcantara told In The Know’s Gibson Johns during a recent interview. “You don’t want to let your other person down. You know what I mean? I think that that’s one of the biggest issues that you come across, not having somebody to work out with.”

In order to fight the demotivating reality of working out by yourself in your apartment, Alcantara partnered with Facebook’s Messenger app on its collaborative new feature, Watch Together, which enables users to watch and experience content with their friends in real time, including workout videos. The fitness expert put together a variety of fitness videos for Watch Together, which she hopes will help people find a workout buddy for themselves.

“They did a poll, and 75 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 24 had issues working out at home because they don’t have somebody to work out with,” Alcantara told ITK. “It’s [about] having a partner and somebody in real-time and not just being like, ‘Oh, just do this workout video.’ But, like, ‘Do this with me. Do this with me now.'”

“You don’t want to work out by yourself. I mean, you spend most of the time by yourself all the time, especially now,” she went on. “You’re like, ‘Hey,’ and then they’re like, ‘Oh, thank God you called me so that I can do it now that you put the pressure on me.'”

The alternative to a frictionless feature like Watch Together would be something more clunky, like picking out a workout on YouTube, sending it to a friend, FaceTiming one another and starting the guided workout at the exact same time on your iPad, or something. Even if you found a system simpler than that, it would still require two screens.

“You’re not sending them a video. This is not like YouTube where you just press play, you know? It’s actually happening right then and there, and you’re watching each other sweat,” Alcantara said of Watch Together. “You’re pushing each other to keep on going or you’re giving each other tips.”

“You’re keeping each other motivated, inspiring each other [and] keeping that connection,” she added.

As for any equipment you might need for her at-home workouts, Alcantara is a massive proponent of one particular kind of gear: bands!

“I actually have a set of my own bands,” she told us. “I love them. I’ve tried so many bands — you can just imagine — in my fitness career, but I do love bands [in] any form. You can create your own tension. I would say just get yourself a set of short and long bands so that you can do different things. Learn, watch, try them out, do stuff that — be creative, you know? And don’t just wait for somebody to give you the answer.”

And, if you’re looking for even more inspo, just check our her recently released book, “Fit Gurl,” where she told us she’s “literally answering the questions that you have not even thought to ask yourself.”

Shop: “Fit Gurl” by Melissa Alcantara, $10.50

Credit: Amazon

Listen to our full interview with Melissa Alcantara below.

If you enjoyed this article, check out In The Know’s recent interview with Patrick Starrr and Olivia Culpo here.

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