20 Fitness Tips From Female Athletes Popular Today

To remain at the top of professional female sports requires grit, determination and a comittment to health and wellness. For proof, look no further than these iconic athletes at the top of their game. Soccer star Alex Morgan values recovery and sleep after a training session, MMA fighter Paige VanZant hits the gym twice a day and WNBA star Sue Bird is gluten-free. Read on to see 20 amazing bodies of these superstars and how they stay so fit.

1. Alex Morgan

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Former soccer player Alex Morgan shared her wellness secrets with Buzzfeed. “For my daily wellness routine, I always make sure to take my vitamins, get some form of recovery in chronotherapy or infrared sauna, and sleep for 8 to 9½ hours, which is a lot more than a normal person, but I feel like that amount allows me to reach my full potential the next day. It's important for me to have some ‘me time,’ so I try to make sure every couple of days that I do something just for me, like getting a manicure or pedicure.”

2. Carli Lloyd

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Former soccer player, Carli Lloyd, talked about her diet to NJM. “I usually eat the same thing at breakfast and lunch, such as a salad, and switch up what I have for dinner each night. Some days, I make myself two eggs over-easy with a side of avocado, or oatmeal with strawberries, blackberries and blueberries. Otherwise, I'll keep things light and make myself a green smoothie. My go-to ingredients are water, ice, spinach, kale, pineapple, cinnamon, green grapes, juice squeezed from half a lemon, avocado, kiwi, ginger, and mint, which really make a smoothie good.”

3. Megan Rapinoe

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Former soccer player, Megan Rapinoe, shared her approach to wellness in an interview with Bustle. “It’s about figuring out what I need from a mental, emotional, and physical standpoint, and allowing it to change over time. Sometimes I feel like doing more yoga, or I feel like taking more baths or taking more walks. Instead of approaching it as, ‘Oh, I have to do this for my health and wellness,’ I’ll think, ‘Oh, I'm actually feeding my body and this is really all just for me.’ It frames it in a different way and allows me space to change and move with the different seasons as I get older.”

4. Julie Ertz

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Julie Ertz is a former soccer player. She shared what she eats when she trains to Forbes. “My go-to's are fruit, veggies and protein-packed snacks like almonds. I also like to plan ahead in terms of meals and snacks because it easy to make an unhealthy choice when you don't have a snack in your bag or meal pre-planned. My husband and I love to cook at home so we're very mindful about planning out our meals. We want to make sure we have the healthiest choices for us because we both train all day, every day.”

5. Simone Biles

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Simone Biles is one of the greatest athletes of all time. She shared her favorite beauty products with People. Biles says that she uses a facial essence from Pitera. "This Pitera essence is seriously like a miracle water for my skin: it hydrates, moisturizes, evens out my skin tone and leaves my skin glowing. I love that it's super powerful, yet really lightweight. When I heard the legendary story – that it was discovered in a Sake brewery in Japan where all the elderly brewers had soft hands with no wrinkles – I knew I needed to try it, and now I love it."

6. Aly Raisman

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Aly Raisman is a former gymnast, who competed at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. She tells Shape that after retiring, she does a lot of Pilates and stretching. "I'm not able to do [Pilates] every day, as much as I would like to, just because I don't physically have the stamina to do it," she says. "But Pilates has really helped me with my workouts and even mentally, too, because I like how I can focus on different parts of my body, and it helps me feel more strong and confident."

7. Paige VanZant

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Paige VanZant is a very successful MMA fighter. She shared her workout secrets in an interview with Women Fitness. “I of course have a very strict workout regimen. I’m in the gym every day twice a day. Since I have switched over to professional boxing my schedule comprises of boxing every day, sometimes twice a day. And strength and conditioning three days a week. I do all of my training at American top team, A world renowned MMA and combat academy.”

8. Sue Bird

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Sue Bird is a former WNBA player. She shared her diet secrets in an interview with GQ. “I don't eat dairy, and I've been gluten-free ever since I took a blood test that showed I have a mild allergy to gluten. I stick with all anti-inflammatory foods: tons of veggies, eggs, chicken and fish. I will have some red meat, but only every now and then. There’s very little sugar, if any, because I save that for my cheat days. I like rice bowls a lot. That's been my new thing this year—I’ll have some brown rice, sweet potatoes, chicken, and mixed veggies.”

9. Candace Parker

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Candace Parker is a very successful WNBA player. She tells New York Magazine that she loves to cook meals for her family. “I love grilling. I think it’s super-fast and efficient, and there’s not a lot of cleaning up, so I’m kind of the griller in the family. My dad is actually the grill master, and I’m learning from him. I can do all red meat and stuff like that, but I’m working on perfecting my barbecued chicken, my cedar-plank salmon, my beer-battered chicken. I love grilling Hawaiian rib eyes and lamb chops.”

10. Allyson Felix

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Track and field athlete, Allyson Felix, shared her training routine with EatingWell. “I train about five hours a day. Three of those hours are on the track -- warming up, stretching, doing drills and then the actual workout, which may be anything from very technical work on the starting blocks to speed work. From there, I go to the gym and spend a couple of hours doing strength and conditioning.”

11. Suni Lee

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Suni Lee is a gymnast who competed in the 2020 Olympics. She opened up about training for the 2024 Olympics and moving past what people thought of her to NBC Olympics. "I still struggle with that daily. I mean, whenever I'm talking to my coaches, I always get really sad because I'm like, 'I'm never going to be the same. I'm not the same Suni; not the same athlete.' And they're like, 'Good! You don't want to be. You're doing everything and more right now. And you should be proud of the way that you've been able to come back from everything, because you never thought that you would be in this position.' And I was like, 'You're so right!' It's just hard mentally because I'm like, 'Wow, I was in a really good spot last year or last Olympics (when) getting ready.'"

12. Ashleigh Barty

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Tennis player Ashleigh Barty shared her diet secrets in an interview with Body & Soul. “Everything in moderation and listen to your body. If I’m feeling run-down, I make sure I’m eating well and looking after myself by having plenty of fresh fruit and veg. A steak or red meat usually helps when I’m run-down, too.”

13. Chloe Dygert

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Chloe Dygert is a professional cyclist. She shared with Velo that she is always trying to improve herself and her performance. “There’s not one thing that I would consider myself good at. Even if I won the stage at RideLondon, what could I have done better? I’m always looking to better myself, even when things are perfect. I never want to stop. That’s how I’m going to get better.”

14. Dina Asher-Smith

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Dina Asher-Smith is a sprinter. She revealed to Vogue that since she spends so much time outside, she has to wear sunscreen. “I’m a big skincare girl. The most important things for me in the day are a good cleanser and SPF, especially now I’m training in Texas, where it’s super hot and I want to make sure my skin is clean and happy. I love a double cleanse, with Estee Lauder’s Cleansing Balm followed by Sarah Chapman’s Rapid Radiance Cleanse. For keeping my skin hydrated I love the Noble Panacea serums, and then for sun protection, I’ll typically go in with Estée Lauder’s antioxidant sunscreen.”

15. Katie Ledecky

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Olympic swimmer, Katie Ledecky, opened up about her diet with E! News. “I keep it pretty consistent. The only day that I don't train is Sundays so even right now when I'm taking a little bit of time off, I'm trying to stick to a pretty regular routine. So oatmeal for breakfast, some sort of egg sandwich for lunch, or eggs with toast and then dinner is what varies the most but it is either carbs or some sort of protein: chicken, steak, salmon, something along those lines.”

16. Naomi Osaka

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Naomi Osaka is a very successful tennis player. She shared how she takes care of her body to Harper’s Bazaar. “I've actually gotten super into hot yoga lately. I had never tried it until a few months ago, and now I love it. I started out with 60-minute classes, and now I'm doing 90-minute classes—I feel amazing afterwards. I also usually get a post-training massage treatment a few times a week. But in between massages, I always use my Hyperice Hypervolt Go, because it's super lightweight and portable, which makes it easy to carry it wherever I go. It really helps keep my muscles loose and soothed after tough practices and matches.”

17. Chloe Kim

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Chloe Kim is a very successful snowboarder, and competed in the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics. She shared some of her skincare secrets in an interview with Allure. "I have pretty dry skin, so I like to just slather my face with thick moisturizer,” Kim explains. “The important thing is I have to wear sunscreen because I get really bad goggle tan. I still do, but sunscreen makes it much better."

18. Mikaela Shiffrin

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Olympic skier, Mikaela Shiffrin, revealed to Sports Illustrated that her coaches record her practice sessions. She says that this helps her figure out what she needs to improve on. “We can objectively rate what my energy levels should be, across a period of time, given this data,” Shiffrin says. “There’s a graph showing the peaks and valleys of my training, and the highest intensity blocks versus the lowest intensity blocks. The last couple of years we’ve collected enough data to see when I get tired in a really intense training block.”

19. Madison Keys

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Madison Keys is a very successful tennis player. She talked about what she focuses on when she trains to Thorne.com. “I think the most important areas to me are energy, recovery, and sleep. If I’m training or in a tournament with matches on back-to-back days, then I focus on those things that make sure I’m physically at my best. I do really long training sessions outside when it’s hot in Florida, where I’m based, so I have to be on top of putting the right things into my body to stay hydrated and energized. Depending on where I’m playing a tournament, it could be just as hot as Florida and a match could go a few hours. If my body is feeling good physically, then it allows me to play more freely and focus on my tennis.”

20. Katarina Johnson-Thompson

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Track and field star, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, talked about her training routine to Bulk.com. “What I eat and how you fuel your body is such an important part of the program. It literally gives me the energy I need to train and compete. Having the right nutrition helps with allowing my body to rest and recover correctly, repairing muscle fatigue after a tough session or competition. You are dealing with such small margins in elite sport that not paying attention to your nutrition would be like not having a training plan.”