Rayna Vallandingham is celebrating the final drop of this season’s Cobra Kai episodes in her workout gear. In a new social media post the actress, who plays the scene-stealing antagonist/influencer Zara Malik, shows off her amazing body in a two-piece martial arts set. “today is the dayyyy 🐉,” she captioned the Instagram snaps and video. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
1. Martial Arts
Rayna has been doing taekwondo since she was 2 years old and earned her first black belt at 6. "In the very beginning, my parents put me in the sport because I was just really shy, and I think they could tell that I needed something," says Vallandingham, who lives and trains in Los Angeles. "Immediately, I just loved it. I felt at home, and every single day, instead of watching Dora, I wanted to go to the dojo,” she told Well + Good.
2. Consistency
Rayna maintains that consistency – at the gym and the martial arts studio – is the key to success. "It is a way of life," she says. "It's not only teaching your body movements and being in synchronicity with your body, but also just like the mental aspect of it."
3. Strength and Flexibility
According to Rayna strength, flexibility, and power are key. "Of the three, I think strength and flexibility are the top two," Vallandingham says. "We used to have people stand on my legs and force my knees to come down in butterfly stretch," she says. "I have permanent damage to my body—I have tendonitis [because of this]."
4. Strength Training
Rayna Vallandingham/Instagram
Vallandingham strength trains, focusing on supersets, doing two moves back-to-back that target the same muscle groups in order to double down on their gains. One of her favorite exercises s is a goblet squat. She stands with her feet shoulder-width apart, fold forward until she can slide her palms underneath her soles (you could also hold your ankles or calves), then bends her knees, lowering her butt toward the floor while lifting her chest, coming into a deep squat. She'll bend and extend her legs several times in this position. Then, it's on to the main event, holding a weight in her hands while bending down into a deep squat. "I love utilizing a Bosu ball—they're pretty much in every single gym," she adds.
5. Stretching
Rayna also does a stretch, starting by lying on the floor with her legs up the wall and then allowing them to open out into a side split. "I let gravity do its work because that's my body telling me, okay, this is where we're at," she says. "My hips are opening on their own, and I'm not having to force anything."
Shutterstock
Shutterstock
Shutterstock
Shutterstock
