Milly Alcock's Supergirl Workout: What It Takes to Become the Girl of Steel

If you've been anywhere near the internet lately, you've probably seen the buzz around Milly Alcock stepping into the cape as Kara Zor-El in the new Supergirl film. And if you're anything like us, your first thought wasn't about the costume it was "right, what's her training looking like?Well, we've had a dig into her physical prep blueprint, and honestly? There's a lot here for anyone in the calisthenics world to get genuinely excited about.

This Isn't Your 2000s Superhero Training

Let's set the scene. The brief for this version of Supergirl is described as "much more hardcore" Kara is going to be fighting pirates in space, getting launched into the void of the cosmos, and carrying the whole thing on her back across what sounds like a brutal shoot. This isn't about looking good in a suit. This is about being able to perform in one.

That shift in mindset from aesthetic to function is something we talk about constantly in the calisthenics community. Your body should be able to do things. Milly's prep leans right into that.

The Weekly Schedule: Six Days, Zero Fluff

Her programme runs across six days with a genuine purpose behind each session:

• Monday — Lower body strength: lunges, Bulgarian split squats, lateral stability work
• Tuesday — Explosive upper body: jump lunges, medicine ball push-ups, tricep kickbacks
• Wednesday — Full-body integration: squats, dumbbell rows, overhead press, reverse lunges
• Thursday — Low-impact cardio and agility: squat-to-jabs, knee smashes, star jumps, reverse lunge front kicks
• Friday — Core day (and not in the way you might expect — more on this in a second)
• Saturday — Yoga: spinal decompression, bridge pose, neuromuscular flexibility
• Sunday — Full rest

Sound familiar? It should. The logic here is almost identical to what we'd structure for someone training calisthenics seriously.

The Core Work That'll Raise an Eyebrow (In a Good Way)

Friday is dedicated entirely to core — but here's the bit that'll get you thinking. The rep range for core work is 6 to 8 reps.

Not 20. Not 50. Not "keep going until it burns."

Six to eight.

The idea is myofibrillar hypertrophy, actually building thicker, stronger abdominal muscle rather than just grinding out endurance. If you've ever wondered why your high-rep core work isn't giving you the results you want, this is worth sitting with. Treat your abs the same way you'd treat any other muscle group you're trying to develop. Load them, challenge them, let them recover.

The Agility Day Is Basically a Calisthenics Circuit

Thursday's session deserves its own mention. Squat-to-jabs, knee smashes, star jumps, and reverse lunge front kicks. No barbell in sight. Just bodyweight, explosive movement, and coordination, the kind of session that builds the reactive, multi-directional athleticism that makes stunt work actually look real.

This is exactly why we're always going on about the transferability of calisthenics training. You don't need a loaded barbell to build an athlete. You need movement that challenges your whole body to work together.

The Yoga Saturday Isn't a Day Off

One thing we really respect about this programme: Saturday's yoga session is treated as seriously as any other day. 

In calisthenics, we know this already, flexibility and mobility aren't optional extras, they're what keep you training consistently over time. If your hips and spine aren't maintained, your squat depth disappears, your overhead press breaks down, and injury becomes a matter of when, not if.

How to Level This Up With a Weighted Vest

Here's where it gets interesting from a calisthenics perspective. Look at Milly's programme and you'll notice a huge chunk of it is bodyweight-based or lightly loaded, lunges, split squats, agility circuits, core work. That's the good news. It means a weighted vest slots in almost seamlessly, without overhauling anything.

The principle is simple: a vest adds load without changing the movement pattern. You're not altering your mechanics, you're just making your body work harder to execute the same thing. Done right, that's one of the most efficient ways to progress.

Here's how we'd apply it across the week:

Monday and Wednesday (Strength Days) — lunges, split squats, squats, reverse lunges. Add the vest here and you're turning bodyweight lower body work into genuine strength training without touching a barbell.

Thursday (Agility Circuit) — star jumps, squat-to-jabs, reverse lunge front kicks. This is where it gets spicy. Wearing a vest during explosive, multi-directional work trains your body to generate and absorb force under load. Just keep the weight sensible here. You want to be fast and reactive, not grinding through reps. 5–10kg is plenty for this kind of session.

Friday (Core Day) — this is the big one. Remember the 6–8 rep principle? A weighted vest is one of the cleanest ways to load movements like hollow body holds, L-sits, or plank variations to actually hit that lower rep range. Your abs have to work much harder to maintain position under the added load, which is exactly the stimulus you need for genuine hypertrophy rather than endurance. If you've been stuck doing endless crunches and not seeing the results you want, this is worth trying.

What to leave alone: the yoga session. Seriously. A vest on your mobility and decompression day is counterproductive, you're there to unload the spine and restore range of motion, not add resistance.

A word on progression: don't go straight to your heaviest vest and try to do the whole programme with it. Pick one session, one movement, and get comfortable there first. Once the movement quality stays sharp and you're recovering well, expand from there. 

What You Can Take Away From This

You don't need to be preparing to fight space pirates to apply this thinking. A few things stand out:

Weekly structure matters. Alternating intensity through the week isn't just about recovery it's how you make consistent progress without breaking down.

Treat your core like a muscle, not a warm-up. If you want a stronger midsection for aesthetics or for performance on the bar start working it with real load and lower reps. A weighted vest on Friday is a great place to start.

Mobility is training. That yoga Saturday isn't a soft option. It's load management, and it's what keeps the rest of the week sustainable.

Bodyweight explosive work is genuinely athletic. Thursday's agility circuit is essentially a calisthenics conditioning session. Throw a vest on it once you're ready and you've got a serious piece of conditioning work.

Milly's got a big role ahead of her. From what we can see of her prep, she's going into it properly built for it. We'll be watching.