Margot Robbie has long been one of Hollywood’s most admired figures, turning heads on every red carpet she graces. What makes her physique even more impressive is the fact that she welcomed her first child with husband Tom Ackerley in October 2024, yet her fitness level remains at an enviable high. Her personal trainer, David Higgins, has now pulled back the curtain on exactly what her training program looks like, as reported by Daily Mail. The results speak for themselves, and the routine is more accessible than most people might expect.
According to Higgins, Robbie’s workouts are built around a powerful combination of reformer Pilates and strength training. A typical session begins with a five-minute foam roller warmup, followed by 15 repetitions of each exercise in the lineup. The program includes chest presses, bent-over rows, bicep curls, shoulder presses, and lying tricep extensions. It is a well-rounded approach that targets the whole body without leaning too heavily on any single muscle group.
Robbie herself has spoken openly about her love of Pilates over the years. “If I’m being mindful about working out, I work with a reformer Pilates instructor. That suits me and my body the most,” she once told The Telegraph. Higgins also noted that on the reformer, the focus shifts away from counting reps and toward tracking time, with each exercise performed for roughly two minutes. This approach keeps the body under sustained tension, which is key for building lean muscle and improving endurance.
One of the more surprising elements of her regimen is the near-total absence of traditional cardio. Higgins argues that full-body strength work can serve as what he calls a kind of “hidden cardio.” “When you do full-body exercises, the heart has to work hard pumping blood from one region to another, like from the upper body to the lower body, which raises the heart rate,” he explained. Core work is also a massive priority, with sessions often wrapping up in a challenge of 100 situps that includes classic crunches, toe-touch variations on each side, and leg-together touches. Robbie reportedly repeats this five times in a single session, totaling 500 reps, and can hold a plank for four minutes and ten seconds.
Her diet follows what she describes as an all-or-nothing philosophy. “I’m not good at moderation. I get moody if I don’t eat what I want. I can’t eat just salads every day and have half a glass of wine every other day. It just doesn’t work for me,” she admitted to Emirates Woman. She has also been candid about her cravings: “I don’t have a perfect diet. I love beer, fries, and burgers. But if I need to get into a bikini, I’ll eat carrot sticks for three days. It’s one or the other for me.” When she does buckle down before a shoot, her meals center around oatmeal with blueberries or a green kale-and-apple smoothie for breakfast, lemon chicken with brown rice or mackerel salad for lunch, and tuna steak with sweet potato or vegetable soup with rice noodles for dinner.
The collaboration between Robbie and Higgins has been going on for years, with consistency being the cornerstone of their success. For the filming of ‘Barbie’, the two trained together for 12 to 15 weeks, five days a week, with sessions lasting between 45 and 60 minutes. Despite the results of that preparation, Robbie has made it clear that her primary goal has never been about being thin. Before filming ‘The Legend of Tarzan’ in 2016, she explained that her character Jane existed in the 19th century and should look natural and strong rather than gaunt. “I’m not going to lose weight just because it’s expected,” she said at the time, reinforcing that feeling capable and powerful matters far more to her than fitting any external standard.
Reformer Pilates, the style Robbie favors, was developed from the broader Pilates method created by Joseph Pilates in the early 20th century. The reformer machine uses a sliding carriage, springs, and straps to add resistance and support to movements, making it suitable for both rehabilitation and performance training. Unlike mat Pilates, reformer work engages stabilizing muscles more deeply due to the unstable surface and variable resistance. Strength training, on the other hand, is widely endorsed by health organizations including the American College of Sports Medicine as essential for maintaining muscle mass, bone density, and metabolic health at any age. The combination of the two, as Higgins employs with Robbie, is increasingly recognized in sports science as one of the most efficient paths to functional fitness.
If you have thoughts on Margot Robbie’s training and diet approach, or if you’ve tried reformer Pilates or a similar routine yourself, share your experience in the comments.
