Personal Trainers Break Down the Moves in Miley Cyrus' Music Video, 'Flowers'

If you've been listening to Miley Cyrus' latest single "Flowers" non-stop since it dropped, same. It's a catchy self-love anthem filled with disco beats that has fans speculating about the meaning of its lyrics. The accompanying music video also has viewers wanting to know Cyrus' workout routine, as she demonstrates a handful of exercises in a black bra and matching underwear poolside in a prominent scene.

First, Cyrus stands with bent knees while whipping battle ropes held in both of her hands. "Battle ropes have so many benefits, and they’re a fun way to switch up your cardio routine," says Julia Stern, certified functional strength coach and instructor at Fiture. It's "a versatile piece of workout equipment that can hit virtually every muscle group, depending on how you use it," adds Anna Victoria, NASM-certified trainer and creator of Vitalura Labs.

Battle rope exercises build strength and muscular endurance while working your entire body: arms, shoulders, core, back, and glutes. The exercise also strengthens your grip, which is important for functional fitness and helps you progress to lifting heavier weights or doing more pull-ups and chin-ups over time. Not to mention, having battle ropes in hand will probably make you feel pretty powerful and badass, a key theme in Cyrus' latest "revenge song," as some people are calling it.

In the next clip, the 30-year-old former Disney star does a combination of a bear crawl and Spiderman push-up with a resistance band around her hips that's anchored to a column behind her. While she makes the move look easy, this push-up variation is no joke. It involves drawing one knee towards your armpit on the same side while lowering down into a push-up. This requires your core to work that much harder to stabilize the body throughout the movement, especially if you take notes from Cyrus and crawl forward in between each push-up.

That's why Stern calls the exercise "the ultimate combo of core and upper body strength," pointing out that "the resistance band pulls her momentum backward here, so she has to work a bit harder to [perform the] push up and use core control to release the push-up slowly."

After that, she's on the ground for her own unique version of a glute bridge. Keeping her shoulders and feet on the ground, she lifts her hips and lower back off the ground with a bend in her knees. While most gym-goers would maintain a static hold here, Cyrus adds a bit of hip swaying into the mix (it's a music video, after all!). However, that hip rotation really isn't doing anything beneficial for your body, according to Victoria.

"Glute bridges are one of the best moves you can do to strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and even work your core, but you want to keep both your hips stacked side by side throughout the movement," she explains.

The next shot shows Cyrus standing up with a resistance band around her hips once again. This time, she's doing a staggered knee drive, pushing against the tension of the band to lift her right knee into her chest before placing it back down in a staggered position. "This move can be helpful for explosiveness, especially for athletes that perform a lot of jumping moves," says Victoria.

The placement of the resistance band anchor point is also key here, according to Susane Pata, a NASM-certified personal trainer. "Because the band is anchored at a low point, it challenges the lower body in a unique way," she explains. "Because of the position of the body relative to the anchor point of the band, she is getting a lot of front body work. This move will burn out the legs and glutes more than without the added resistance. Her core is also working harder than it would without the band."

Then, Cyrus does a few burpees. She lowers down to the ground for a push-up, then jumps up to stand with the resistance band around her hips. Effective and challenging, burpees are a staple in bootcamp style and HIIT classes because they work the shoulders, chest, abs, quads, inner thighs, glutes, and triceps all while increasing your heart rate.

"Doing a burpee with a resistance band can help your overall speed and explosiveness," says Victoria. "However, it depends on how far away you are from the anchor point." When you're closer to the anchor point, the resistance band can offer assistance, helping you bounce back, but if you're further away, the band can make the move more difficult, as you'll have to push against greater resistance, explains Victoria.

Lastly, the singer does a quadruped exercise called a bird dog, extending her right arm forward and her left leg back while balancing on her right knee and left palm. The core move "is a great way to strengthen the muscles around the spine, helping with posture and potentially helping alleviate any lower back pain," says Pata.

"The full movement would be an extension of the arm and legs, like she’s doing in the video, and then bringing your knee and elbow in and doing a slight crunch, then back to extension," adds Victoria.

"This is a great move regardless of your fitness level," says Stern. It builds core strength, stability, and mobility, she explains. "I love to include this one at the beginning of my workouts to activate my core and prep my body to lift weights."

While it's unclear if this sequence in her latest music video actually mimics Cyrus' regular fitness routine, you can certainly add any of the moves she demonstrates into your next gym session. "All of these moves together [when done properly] make a great full-body workout, especially if you’re short on time and want to get a good sweat in," says Stern.

"If you want to get started with moves like this, your first step is to master basic patterns [such as] a squat and hinge, as well as work on core activation," continues Stern. "As you get stronger, you can add in equipment and challenge yourself."

Watch the full music video below to get inspired.