When it comes to her love of fitness, Lola Consuelos gets it from her mama, Kelly Ripa—with a healthy assist from the morning show host's longtime trainer Anna Kaiser.
"I've know Lola since she was 7," Anna told E! News of the 22-year-old in an exclusive interview. "And it's been fun to see her journey with fitness."
A decade-and-a-half into her mom's fitness journey with the founder of Anna Kaiser Studios, Consuelos has also made Anna's unique brand of high intensity dance interval training a six-day-a-week practice.
"Now she really loves it and understands how different she feels after she has a good workout," explained Anna. "And how it's so integral to her life."
Because much like her devoted mom, who never uses a packed schedule of LIVE with Kelly and Mark tapings, podcasting and other work commitments as a reason to skip a session, the "Divine Timing" singer understands the value of staying ready so you never have to get ready.
"When you are as busy as many of the women that I work with, if you stay consistent in your workout, you never feel like you have to double down or you have to diet before an event or experience extreme fitness or dieting, because it's a part of your life," Anna noted of their sessions, which has them working up an intense sweat as they shift from strength training to dance choreography. (Think: high-intensity interval training, but swap the dreaded burpees and mountain climbers for dance moves.) "And you're always ready for whatever comes your way."
Not to mention that Anna's sessions with the mother-daughter duo sound every bit as entertaining as Kelly's morning show.
"They'll pick on each other and joke around and laugh," Anna described. "It's really fun." With just a dash of playful ribbing.
"Sometimes Lola will go, 'Mom! Really?'" added Anna. "And Kelly's like, 'Come on, let's go a little harder!' And, you know, Lola's just starting out in her fitness journey. So the dynamic between the two of them is very cute."
And possibly just a wee bit competitive? "They have very different tastes in music and different dance styles," noted Anna. "So we have a minute for each of them to shine and the other one will jump in with whatever style that person's focused on."
Even when it's just Kelly grooving in her New York City studio, Anna said their time together is more enjoyable than the average workout.
"Because we've known each other for so long, we can really be ourselves together," explained Anna. "I think that's rare for many women, to be in a space where you feel comfortable enough with someone to get angry, to get excited, to scream, to cry, to sing."
So, yes, the trainer has been known to "break out singing along with a song," she admitted. "Or you can say, 'I hate this playlist.' It should be the space where you can just let it all go. And that's your hour where you can do that. And it's wonderful to be in a place with someone where that's possible."
And while Kelly's journey with Anna is 14-plus years in the making, those that are curious about the routines she's used with her and other clients like Shakira and Alicia Keys can try it at home.
With her Anna Kaiser Studios Virtual program, users get all the dance-based workout fun without any of the guesswork. "I was finding that all virtual programs that I went on were just a library of workouts," explained Anna, "and they all kind of felt the same, and no one knew where to start."
So instead, she offers users 10 workouts—five are pre-recorded, five they can join live and actually Zoom into her space—and has them pick four each week: a high-intensity interval training workout, dance intervals, power up and sculpt. "I wanted to create a curated weekly workout series to know exactly what to do and it changes every week," Anna noted. "I'm not asking the consumer to guess and put workouts together."
And for those looking for a bit of extra credit, the pro laid out her go-to moves for achieving your best body ever.
Start Small
If the doctor-recommended 30 minutes of heart-pumping daily movement feels daunting, "I would start with 15 minutes," shared Anna Kaiser. "And it doesn't need to be intense, it can just be going for a walk for 15 minutes, or tapping into a strength training video or going to class for 15 minutes. Just do as much as you can. But the important thing is that you get into a rhythm where it becomes a consistent part of your week. And then if you have to miss a day, every here and there, it's fine."
Nor do you need to go hard AF each time you suit up for your sweat session. "You can do as much as you can do that day," noted Kaiser. "If you're only at 30 percent one day, you do 100 percent of that 30 percent. And then the next day, you're 80 percent and we work with that."
Phone a Friend
Enlisting a workout buddy is an easy way to inject a dose of fun into your fitness. "Surrounding yourself with people who are also interested in maintaining a healthy lifestyle will help you do that," noted Kaiser, who recommends scheduling three sweat sessions each week with a pal, plus an additional three more on your own.
For longtime client Kelly Ripa, that plus-one is often daughter Lola Consuelos. "They'll pick on each other and joke around and laugh," says Kaiser. "It's really fun."
Refuel Post Workout
Getting your sweat on is just step one in the process of building muscle. Your recovery meal is just as crucial, said Kaiser.
"We have to eat to allow our bodies to perform," she explained, noting that "the most important time to eat is right after you exercise to feed your muscles, allow them to recover and give yourself enough protein to build lean muscle."
Power Up With Protein
Speaking of that all-important nutrient, while the official recommendation is a gram per each pound of body weight, aiming for 70 grams a day is "a good start," said Kaiser. "That's a protein shake after you work out, a piece of chicken or salmon at lunch and then a piece of fish or meat at dinner or, if you're vegetarian, tofu and beans."
The key to healthy eating, she continued, isn't restriction: "It's not about cutting back on calories, it's about eating more protein and then supplementing it with healthy, nutrient-dense carbohydrates." (Read: fiber-rich fruits and vegetables.)
Act Your Age
As your body changes over time, so should your fitness routine.
"In your 20s, specifically, push your level of intensity, push the weight, develop as much muscle as possible, push your cardio and really strengthen your heart," advised Kaiser, "because it gets exponentially more difficult as you get older."
Once you hit the big 3-0, "cut back a bit on the intensity and focus more on maintaining and developing muscle and using cardio to boost that," she continued, "which is where I started with Kelly."
At 40, it becomes more challenging for women to develop muscle, she noted, "So you have to eat a lot of protein, you have to really focus on strength training, you have to cut back on the cardio. And that's why dance is great because you can have fun doing it and you don't have to feel like you're pushing yourself sprinting or doing standing mountain climbers or burpees."
By your 50s, "we really should be focusing on just maintaining that muscle and thinking about sitting in a more moderate place with cardio, like 65 to 70 percent of your heart rate," added Kaiser. "And then in your 60s, it's really strength training and balance, in addition to recovery."
Don't Forget Cardio
You definitely do want to sweat it when it comes to working out. "You really should be training your heart for the rest of your life," Kaiser said of the importance of cardiovascular activity. "Especially with the rise in heart disease, it's still important to elevate your heart rate. I know, that's one of the hardest things to ask someone to do. So finding something fun, like dance, and doing it with friends is a great place to start."
With an increased focus on strength training, it can be easy to let the sweatier stuff go, continued Kaiser, "but we need to find the happy medium and have a balance of both."