Try This Romantasy-Inspired Workout

Workout Overview  ⋅  The Parapet Workout

After giving birth to her second child, Darcie Biard sought ways to reconnect to her body and herself. She says she’s “not a gym person,” so she tried at-home workouts in a variety of formats. But they felt like a chore, Biard recalls. She wasn’t seeing results — or having fun.

“I was extremely depressed,” she says. “I didn’t feel good about my body. I didn’t feel good about myself.”

While her fitness pursuits were stalling, Biard found a different path that sparked a new passion: reading romantasy, a genre that blends romance and fantasy fiction. She devoured Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) and Rebecca Yarros’s Fourth Wing, the first books in two popular series.

These and other romantasy books brim with romantic tension, fantastical worlds, and, yes, some steamy scenes. But what inspired Biard most were the strong female protagonists undergoing epic personal transformations.

In the pages of Fourth Wing, Biard met Violet Sorrengail, a student at the Basgiath War College whose connective-tissue disorder makes her seem weak and fragile. Yet Sorrengail defies expectations by training in weightlifting, combat, and dragon riding.

In A Court of Silver Flames, from the ACOTAR series, Biard connects with Nesta Archeron, a young woman initially mired in depression, anger, and resentment. Then Nesta rediscovers her power through physical training, breathwork, and building a community of heroines — Valkyries — healing together.

For legions of avid romantasy readers like Biard, even more gripping than the romance is the journey of the heroines from self-doubt to strength. These body-and-mind transformations offered more than an escape from real life. They sparked a fire within Biard — one that made her think, I want to do that.

A Confluence of Passions

Biard got her chance when she discovered personal trainer Cara Palermo. Inspired by requests from clients who “wanted to do the workouts Nesta was doing,” Palermo launched Valkyrie Training, a beginner-friendly workout program based on fantasy reads.

In 2021, Palermo formed the Valkyrie Training group on Facebook for book-club folks who were interested in training like their favorite characters. She began by sharing the group’s first training challenge, “Reaching Ramiel,” inspired by the warriors’ rite of scaling the sacred mountain Ramiel in ACOTAR.

This inaugural workout was a simple and spicy routine of 100 squats, 100 pushups, and a 60-second plank. Participants were challenged to repeat the workout daily for 30 days. They were also encouraged to modify as needed: Palermo wanted everyone who embarked on the challenge to have a chance to succeed and “earn their Valkyrie wings.”

“Everyone” included Biard — and many, many others. The program struck a chord on BookTok, and it wasn’t long before thousands of readers were discovering the same powerful connection between story and movement.

The group grew by word of mouth and through members sharing social media videos of workouts. The Facebook group is now more than 23,000 strong.

Even as its popularity has grown, the program’s ethos of making the workouts inclusive and scalable has remained strict; they require just a mat and a couple pairs of dumbbells. “You can do these workouts in your living room, in your yoga pants, while your kids are off playing in another room,” says Palermo.

For Biard, it wasn’t just the accessible workout structure she found appealing. It was the compelling value of the storytelling.

“You’re not just doing squats,” she says. “You’re training for something. You’re climbing Ramiel.” In Biard’s mind, she wasn’t only improving her fitness. She was becoming a Valkyrie.

Her first attempt to complete “Reaching Ramiel” took her almost an hour. “I had to stop every 10 squats,” she recalls.

When she repeated the workout 30 days later, “I only needed to stop twice.”

While Biard’s new personal best marked a huge achievement, the real magic took place between days two and 29. Like her favorite character, Nesta, Biard refused to give up. She showed up daily for the workout, and herself. Now, four years later, working out is more than a challenge on the path to healing — it’s a way of life.

From To-Do List to Quest List

Romantasy fitness taps into something that exercise psychologists and mindset coaches have long hailed as critical to fitness transformation: a sense of deep, personal meaning.

With a compelling backstory, there is an inherent why behind each action. Lunges become steps up a sacred mountain. Pushups strengthen the upper body to draw an arrow back from a bow. A plank is a mental test to fortify the mind for battle and strengthen the core to maintain balance while riding a dragon.

For many, this approach is the first time exercise has felt emotionally resonant — building strength that is more than physical.

“Lore is what we call the story you’re building. What you do when you’re faced with an obstacle. Who you choose to become,” says Ariana Scalfo, director and coach at Complete Human Performance and the cocreator of Heroine Training Camp, an online training platform that blends a book club with fantasy-inspired fitness.

While this fitness approach harnesses the imagination, it isn’t make-believe. Participants are channeling the energy of the hero’s journey — an archetypal literary template.

Like the heroines in their favorite books, participants heed a call to adventure, overcome obstacles, and return transformed. By mirroring a foundational and familiar narrative pattern, romantasy-inspired fitness frames each task as a quest, transforming workouts from chores into adventures.

“A to-do list? I’ll ignore it,” quips Palermo. “But a quest list? Done.”

Scalfo, who lives with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and feels a strong personal connection to Violet Sorrengail’s character arc, created Heroine Training Camp with the intention of blending high-performance coaching with immersive storytelling. Her goal was to make elite-level programming feel accessible and fun — for advanced clients looking to shake up their routines as well as for beginners or those returning from injury.

“Everyone deserves to be treated as if they are an elite athlete,” she says. “No matter their experience level, they deserve that level of intention and care.”

At Heroine Training Camp, members choose from four romantasy-inspired archetypes: Palace Princess (Pilates), War Core (powerlifting and metabolic conditioning), Dark Muse (bodybuilding), and Assassin’s Training (running and calisthenics). Each month, participants read a book together and weave fitness themes from the story into their training.

For Scalfo, the diversity in workout styles is intentional. “You don’t have to be motivated by battles,” she says. “Maybe your archetype is a healer. Maybe you’re a scribe.”

Each program follows its own path, but they all share a common goal: helping people see themselves in the characters they love while discovering their own strength along the way.

For Biard, the transformation was profound. Since that first workout, she has completed every Valkyrie Training challenge and has lost 85 pounds. Obstacles that, in the past, seemed overwhelming are now reframed as plot points of her own story.

“I decided what I was and wasn’t going to allow into my life,” she says. “I was able to decide who I was going to be, because I can do things that are hard for me. I found my voice again. I took control of my story.”

The Parapet Workout

The following workout, designed by Scalfo, is named Parapet, after the long, narrow stone bridge at the Basgiath War College in the Fourth Wing series.

In the books, Violet Sorrengail and other acolytes must climb 250 steps through a dark turret before attempting to cross the bridge, 18 inches wide and 200 feet high, over a river valley. (The length of the bridge is not disclosed in the series.) The stones are uneven, and strong winds threaten to knock down anyone who tries to pass. The Parapet workout echoes the story by challenging full-body strength, balance, and inner calm.

To perform this workout, you’ll need a 12- to 20-inch box, two matching dumbbells (or kettlebells), about 15 feet of space to walk down and back, and a timer set to eight minutes.

Scalfo recommends that “initiates” (beginners) start by performing the move with no added weight. She advises “cadets” (intermediate athletes) to use 25- to 35-pound weights and “warriors” (advanced athletes) to use 35- to 45-pound weights.

Complete as many rounds of this three-exercise circuit as you can in eight minutes, resting as needed. (If you can wait, rest between rounds.)

Step-Up

Perform 8 reps/side.

Kickstand Deadlift

Perform 8 reps/side.

Farmer’s Carry

Walk about 30 feet (15 feet out and back to return to your station).

Optional Finisher

Then, after eight minutes are up, an optional finisher:

• Perform a continuous farmer’s carry as far as you can in two minutes.
• Set the weights down and reset as many times as you need to.

Can you complete the challenge without pausing to set down the weights? If so, level up your weight selection the next time you decide to cross the parapet.