TRAIN LIKE AN ILLYRIAN

If you, like me, read A Court of Silver Flames and was very motivated to work out, look no further! Here is every bit of exercise that SJM has Nesta doing as well as a few guesses.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or a personal trainer. My background is ballet and a bit of running and hiking. I cannot tell you whether these are safe to do together or whether they will effectively turn you into an Illyrian warrior.

The Exercises, in Chronological Order

Chapter 12

"Focusing on clencing her toes, finding her balance, and generally looking like a fool. At least no one was around to see her standing on one leg while hinging at the hip, the other leg rising behind her. Or using two wooden poles to steady herself while she swung her foot from pole to pole, working her way up each stick. Or doing a basic squat--that it turned out was all wrong, her weight misplaced and back too arched."

"Inhale. Exhale. Breaths accented by a deep lunge, or a squat, or balancing on one leg. All exercises she'd done in the first hour, but now revealed anew with the added layer of breathing."

Identified Exercises: one legged hip hinge, basic squat, deep lunge, balancing on one leg

Interpreted Exercises: toe exercises, pole taps, cooldown (not mentioned in quotes)

Toe Exercises

So if my interpretation is correct, these are for balance and strength. I used to have to do some for ballet! Here are some that I used to do and some I found online.

• Sit with your feet flat on the ground with a 90 degree bent. Place your feet on top of a newspaper or towel and use your feet to scrunch up the entire newspaper until it is a ball. For extra exercise, flatten it again with your feet only. Do not move your feet's positions, only scrunch them.
• Sit with your feet on the floor and grip the floor with every toe. Hold for 10, then release and do again.
• Toe lift and press: sit with your feet flat on the floor. Lift your toes to the same height, then press your big toe down 10 times. Repeat with pinky toe.

Pole Tap

None of my cursory research online revealed anything, so based on the passage I believe it goes like this. Hold 2 poles in front of you (I used a chair) and raise one leg. Tap your toe from side to side, going up the height of the chair in a zig zag motion and then back down. By crossing your centre line so often, you have to really have a strong sense of balance and doing the toe exercises first definitely helped.

And when you finish these exercises, don't forget to try and do them with breathing exercises! I believe she exhales when she does the lunge, squat, or balance. There is also a cooldown involved.

Chapter 14

In chapter 14, we get the leg stretch scene to reveal a little bit of cooldown. Cassian raises Nesta leg whilst she is lying prone and tells her to inhale as he pushes it down towards her head. If you are doing this alone, you can use a flexiband or a towel around your ankle and pull your leg towards yourself. Make sure to keep your leg straight!

Chapter 16

"He'd had her doing curls upward, then leg extensions while lying on her back, and then lifting a smooth five-pound rock over her head while she'd tried to raise herself from lying prone into a sitting position using only her stomach muscles"

Chapter 16 is the core exercise chapter! There is also a full body plank involved, but not quoted

Identified Exercises: Curls, leg extension, sit-ups with a 5 lb weight, plank

Other variations of these exercises exist, such as

• Flutter kicks (leg extension) (Lie on your back, elevate your legs about 30 degrees, and kick like a swimmer)
• Side plank (plank) (plank, but one armed and on one side)
• Mountain climbers (plank) (plank position, then raise alternating legs to your chest)
• Shoulder taps (plank) (plank postition, then tap your shoulders with opposite hands)

Chapter 17

"basic footwork and body positioning in hand-to-hand combat"

"Cassian added weights to her exercises, in order to build up her flimsy arms. Heavy stones with carved handles to carry while she did her lunges and squats"

Identified Exercises: Jabs (not quoted), weighted squats and lunges

I do not feel particularly comfortable interpreting the footwork or positioning in hand-to-hand combat as I know nothing about it! But if you want to train like Nesta, I highly encourage finding a class!

Chapter 45

In this chapter, we see Nesta hold a lunge. As Cassian tells her there is at least 20 seconds to go, I reckon that she was told to hold it for at least a minute.

In the next few chapters we also see Nesta start swordplay but as again, I know nothing about swords, I am not uncomfortable interpreting anything.

Chapter 59

ten seconds at a full sprint, thirty seconds trotting, another ten seconds sprinting...for fifteen minutes straight. Once they could get through it, they'd add their shields. Then swords. All of it designed to build their stamina and focus on controlling their breathing between bursts of attack and retreat

Other Exercises

10,000 steps

Nesta attempts the 10,000 steps quite a few times. If you would like to try your hand, just climb up and down the stairwell of your nearest skyscraper. I used to be able to do about 4,000-5,000 steps in 3 hours. When you climb down, make sure you are leading with your heel, not your toes, if you do not want terrible cramps for days after.

That Mountain

Nesta and Cassian obviously hike for about a week in the mountain ranges. Fantastic exercise.

Meditation (no I will not call it Mind-Stilling)

I am the rock against which the surf crashes.

And last but not least, fucking an Illyrian Warrior 2-3 x a day

That counts as exercise, right? It definitely burnt a few calories.

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