Actor Callina Liang plays a daughter out to avenge her father’s death in the new Street Fighter film (out now). The role of Chun-Li (played by Ming-Na Wen in the 1994 original, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme) required Callina to do something she’d never done before: strength train.
“Before [being cast], I was a Pilates and cardio girl,” she tells Women’s Health in the latest episode of Strong Like. Now, however, the 26-year-old takes pride in pushing herself in the gym—and building major strength. “It's really satisfying to see how much more I can lift as I progressively overload,” she says. “I can't stop. I just want more and more muscles.”
Callina walks us through the routine that helped her get those muscles and kick major butt in Street Fighter.
While training for the film, Callina lifted Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in addition to the two hours of stunt training she put in every day.
Her strength routine starts with hip thrusts, typically performed with a Smith or hip thrust machine for easy setup. She cycles through five sets: two at a lighter weight and three at her heaviest weight. “My hip thrust makes me feel the strongest,” she says. “I can do double my body weight.” She supersets hip thrusts with hip abductions. Both exercises, she says, made her kicks that much more controlled and powerful for her fight sequences.
Next comes sumo deadlifts, which she doesn’t superset with any other exercises. Depending on the weight she chooses, she usually aims for six to eight reps per set, for three sets.
Continuing with the leg theme, she finishes her session with cable step-ups, which she supersets with squats. (Alternately, she may also superset the step-ups with weighted back extensions.)
During Street Fighter training, Callina was also super-mindful about her nutrition, especially protein intake. In fact, she ate a dozen eggs each day! “I sneak them into everything,” she says. “If I'm making a protein shake, eggs in there. Oatmeal, eggs in there.” One of her egg favorites—which she still eats today—is scrambled with ground meat, onions, and spinach, on toast with sriracha. If you’re going to eat all those eggs, you might as well make ‘em tasty.
To see Callina’s routine in action, click play on the latest episode of Strong Like above.
What’s in Callina’s Gym Bag
Video Executive Producer Dorenna Newton
Video Producer Janie Booth
Video Director of Photography Derrick Saint Pierre
Video Editor Josh Archer
Amy Wilkinson is a contributing entertainment editor at Women's Health, where she edits the magazine's celebrity cover stories and writes health features. She has previously held editor titles at Entertainment Weekly and MTV News. In 2021, Amy completed her 600-hour teacher-training at Core Pilates NYC to become a comprehensively trained Pilates instructor.