Olivia Munn sword-trained to get sexy Psylocke body in ‘X-Men’

My youngest child has been nagging me to watch X-Men Apocalypse in the Ayala 4D theater. After watching the workout videos of Olivia Munn, I signed up for the next available seats. The 36-year-old half-Asian actress has posted videos of her rapid flying kicks and expert sword handling in gym practices. Needless to say, she reportedly did 90% of all her action scenes.

Who exactly does Olivia portray in this latest X-Men movie? She is one of the four horsemen of Apocalypse, the first mutant on earth. He has become immortal and immune to physical attacks. He is known for his strict enforcement of the survival of the fittest. He recruited a team of strong mutants Magneto, Storm, Psylocke and Angel to help him weed out the undesirable.

Olivia plays Psylocke. In the comic book version, she has telepathic powers at par with Professor X. A highly skilled martial arts expert, she can hide herself telepathically.

It’s not difficult to stay abreast of what the sultry actress does because she generously shares info in her Instagram account. For instance, you can see a difference in how she looked before her rigorous workouts. She explained: “Ask anyone who knows me and they’ll tell you I love research. Convinced that there’s got to be natural, healthy ways (that is, not only the rich and connected can do it) to keep your skin from aging, I do lots of research. Who says guys are the only ones who can get better with age? We’re gonna turn that myth around if we share what we learn with each other. So here are four skin tips I’ve learned just over this past year that really helped the texture and shape of my face.”

“1. I lost 12 pounds this past year while training for X-Men. I kept it off by coming up with an hour workout I do a few times a week. The weight loss leaned out my cheeks and jawline. Working out is also great for your skin because it increases blood flow to your face, which helps rejuvenate.
“2. Reshaped my brows. I do my own brows and always thought they were supposed to have a high arch. Then a facialist pointed out to me that I was shaping my brows into a frown. So I let the top of my brows grow in (which is never fun because it looks spotty for a few weeks) and then I plucked the bottom. That gave my brows a more horizontal angle and instantly brightened my eyes.”

She added that she got rid of her sunspots by wiping her face every night with Proactive Mark Fading Pads. She also ate Japanese potatoes. According to her research, they’re high in hyaluronic acid that helps keep wrinkles away.

 “Who says guys are the only ones who can get better with age? We’re gonna turn that myth around if we share what we learn with each other,” she concluded.

Her costume is a risqué latex body suit, and to fit in it, she hired husband-and-wife team Karine Lemieux and Ken Tran of DAX Gym in Montreal. They revealed to Elle.com five things she did in five months to lose 12 pounds and transform her body.

First, she was so committed to training that it was her full-time job. “If she wasn’t shooting, she was at the gym. No question,” Lemieux said, adding that Olivia trained for six or seven hours daily. In training Olivia, who has a black belt in tae kwon do she earned as a teen, Lemieux used mainly body-weight exercises: punching, kicking, and other techniques from boxing and tae kwon do. “I tried to make it fun every day — she doesn’t like a typical workout,” the trainer quipped.

She also took sword fighting very seriously. Two hours of the daily training were spent perfecting sword work with Tran, who pointed out that Olivia did 95 percent of her own stunts in the movie. Her arms got toned with the striking, chopping, stabbing, blocking, and twirling drills. Tran was impressed with her investment in learning not only necessary choreography, but also the whole art of sword fighting. “She picks up really fast and she works really hard, so we went up levels very fast,” Tran said.

Olivia hated basic butt exercises. You will never see Olivia doing “boring” exercises like squats in the gym. Lemieux emphasized more creative methods like working on kicking techniques. “One move they did almost daily to work the the butt, quads, and hips: Stand facing outward from a wall, point your toe to the wall and do 10 kicks in the air with one leg, hold it midair for 10 seconds, do 10 kicks with the same leg, repeat two or three times.”

Olivia’s diet consisted of 80% raw food. To make it easy, Lemieux made her eat 80-percent raw and 20-percent anything else. Before training in the morning, Olivia would eat only fruit, either on its own or in smoothie form. “She tried to eat as many fruits and veggies as possible. She cut down on complex carbs, and I told her to eat more quinoa, roasted sweet potatoes, and wild rice instead of white rice,” Lemieux said. She also cut down on bread and limited her meat intake, focusing more on getting protein in seeds and nuts.

As for core work, she did running and boxing combinations. Lemieux also made her do a plank position with her feet on a ball, and then she’d have to use her abs to bring them in as well as sideways. Another abs move was wrapping her feet around a punching bag while in plank position and holding it. If ever there were sit-ups, she wore boxing gloves and punched as she came up.

Stretching was also a main focus. “She was pretty flexible already, but we really focused on a lot of deep stretching to get those high kicks,” the trainer explained. They did a lot of yoga-inspired stretches. “One move she did was to have her back against the floor, her legs up on the wall and splitting the legs apart for one minute, continually pushing down further.”

 Now that the movie is done, Olivia told E! that she shifted to a dance studio. “I’ve been back in LA doing Body by Simone. You go in there and it’s crazy,” alluding to the intensity of the dance classes. “Going in there isn’t like a regular frilly ... they’re like ballerinas who are hard core.”

 Olivia also told WebMD, “I keep blister peanuts for that crunch. Also jelly beans, with only four calories each. I don’t just grab a handful — I’m picky about which ones I eat!”

Asked about her favorite workout routine, she answered: “I like having that trainer, because I get very bored very easily. I told my trainer: ‘I hate cardio and I won’t run, won’t hike, or cycle.’ But I want to keep working out, and I know there are other ways to do it, like circuit training — when we train three muscle groups at once.”

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Post me a note at mylene@goldsgym.com.ph or mylenedayrit@gmail.com.