IFBB Champ Shanique Grant in Two-Piece Workout Gear Says "Train Smarter"

Shanique Grant, a top-tier fitness expert and IFBB competitor, is known for her remarkable accomplishments in the world of bodybuilding. At a young age, she has already won Ms. Olympia twice, in 2018 and 2019, making her the youngest athlete to achieve such a feat. Recently, Grant took to Instagram to share some of her go-to exercises, captioning the post, “Train smarter.” Let’s dive into the workout techniques and healthy habits that help Grant stay at the top of her game.

1. She Strength Trains

Shanique Grant/Instagram

Grant is seen using weights in her Instagram post. Strength training is very beneficial. According to The Mayo Clinic, “By stressing your bones, strength training can increase bone density and reduce the risk of osteoporosis. Strength training can help you manage or lose weight, and it can increase your metabolism to help you burn more calories. Strength training may enhance your quality of life and improve your ability to do everyday activities.”

2. She Does Squats

Shanique Grant/Instagram

Grant is also seen doing squats in her Instagram post. The Cleveland Clinic reports that the exercise is very beneficial. “Here’s a quick look at the many benefits of squats, also known as bodyweight squats or air squats: Works major muscle groups. Burns calories. Strengthens your core. Improves lower body strength. Enhances stability and balance. Betters your posture.”

3. She Does Lunges

Shanique Grant/Instagram

Grant is seen doing lunges in her Instagram post. ACE Fitness states that the exercise is very beneficial. “Lunges work the biggest muscles in your lower body — mainly the quadriceps, gluteus maximus, and the adductor magnus (the muscle in your inner thigh). Other muscles that come into play are the hamstrings, gluteus medius, calves, and core stabilizers, says Susane Pata, content strategist for the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and NASM-certified personal trainer based in Miami.”

4. She Does Deadlifts

Shanique Grant/Instagram

Grant is also seen doing deadlifts in her Instagram post. LifeHack states that the exercise is very beneficial. “The Deadlift works more muscles than any other exercise, including the squat. The lift engages all of the major muscle groups, according to exercise physiologist Kevin Farley. If you need to do one exercise, this is the one to do. The Deadlift works your lower and upper body, including your back muscles.”

5. She Loves Strawberries

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Grant makes sure to eat healthy. She shared some of her favorite foods in this Instagram post. In it, Grant is seen enjoying oatmeal with strawberries. According to The Cleveland Clinic, strawberries are very beneficial. “Strawberries are loaded with vitamin C. Eight medium strawberries contain 160% of your daily recommended amount — the amount that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommends you eat every day. That’s more vitamin C than you get from an orange, the fruit famous for its vitamin C.”

Shanique Grant took a blast to the past this Halloween –in her exercise clothes. In a new social media post the bodybuilder flaunts her famously fit figure in a 1980s inspired workout costume. “80s tunes, 80s moves, 80s gains #Halloween was a HIT! 🪩💅🏾,” she captioned the Instagram photo. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.

1. High Protein Diet

Shanique Grant/Instagram

During a live Q&A with fans she dished on her diet. During the off season she keeps it clean and tries to eat less calories. She also eats between 350-500 grams of protein per day. According to clinical trials, consuming more protein than the recommended dietary allowance not only reduces body weight (BW), but also enhances body composition by decreasing fat mass while preserving fat-free mass (FFM) in both low-calorie and standard-calorie diets.

2. Tennis

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Grant picks up a racquet in her off time. “I love doing tennis, it’s a great form of cardio. You really get that stamina up, get that heart rate up, burn tons of calories, and you get your steps in…it's a great time overall,” she told Muscle & Fitness. “It’s very, very competitive too, so I love that part.” According to ACE Fitness it blends together cardio and aerobic exercise, as there is a lot of running around, and hand-eye coordination. "While tennis provides numerous health benefits—improved aerobic fitness and anaerobic endurance, muscular fitness (grip strength and endurance), flexibility, multiple skill parameters (balance, speed, agility and quickness), reactivity, and power—it also is psychologically demanding," they say.

3. Here Is Her Outdoor Workout

Shanique Grant/Instagram

Grant recently shared her outdoor workout.

• Dumbbell bent-over rows: 4×12-15
• TRX Rows (neutral grip into pronated grip): 4×15
• Biceps curl: 3×12
• Banded triceps pushdown: 3×10
• TRX bodyweight curls: 4×12
• Bench dips: 3×10-12
• Ankle weighted walking lunges with kickbacks: 4×10-15

4. Discipline and Consistency

Shanique Grant/Instagram

Consistency is key, per Grant. She captioned a video of herself doing some lower body workouts, "THE WEEKEND DOESN'T MEAN PUT YOUR GOALS ON HOLD. Learn to rest, not stop!" She also posted this photo of herself in workout gear, and captioned it, "Nobody wants to tell you why discipline is so important. Discipline is the strongest form of self-love. It is ignoring current pleasures for bigger rewards to come. It's loving yourself enough to give yourself everything you've ever wanted."

5. What She Eats in a Day

Shanique Grant/Instagram

In a recent Instagram she reveals what she eats on an average day. For breakfast she eats scrambled eggs with spinach and oatmeal with strawberries, a total of 755 calories. Lunch is salmon with rice and steamed broccoli, 658 calories. Dinner is potatoes, collard greens, and steak or chicken or a small fried chicken sandwich, around 568 calories.

Janet Layug is modeling exercise clothes and driving her followers wild. In a new social media post the Ms Olympia champion shows off her trophy winning body in a pink workout set. She shared the video via Instagram. “Super cute,” commented one of her followers. “Pretty in pink😍💓🌸,” added another. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.

1. How She Got Into Bodybuilding

In an interview with Goss, Janet explained how she got into bodybuilding. “I’ve always been very active since a young age. When I first started [training] I didn’t know much about training. I had the mindset that you had to look skinny, and to achieve it do intense cardio and eat light is how to lose weight and to stay fit. I think we all know that that’s far from the truth. I also went to school for nursing. I was definitely intrigued by nutrition, the body, and things related to physiology. Beginning to learn how to train and be on a healthier diet was already something along the lines of what I was interested in in my career,” she explained. However, one day on social media she saw this division within bodybuilding called Bikini, “and I looked at their bodies and they had muscle,” she said. “They were tone and lean. I really admired that look and thought to myself, “I want to set a goal and train like a bikini athlete.” I got a trainer and I started doing research on my own about training and learning about dieting. I didn’t know any of it. It was a lot of work to learn all that.”

2. She Takes the “Holistic” Approach

“I believe the holistic approach is everything. You will not be successful if you don’t have a mental balance along with that physical training. If you don’t have a support system with you. It’s a process to teach people what you’re doing. Not everyone will get it at first, but you give people the chance and be like, ‘Hey, this is what I’m doing.’ Not everyone will support it or your goals. Sometimes you have to just focus on yourself and do what you have to do to get there,” she says.

3. She Educated Herself

“I think it’s important that everyone educates themselves on health and wellness and training and eating better. That’s what began my journey. I learned so much about myself and about my health during my prep along the way. Beyond that, I learned so much about my work ethic and staying persistent and resilient. When people talk about competing at bikini or any other division, you learn so much more than anything physical. There’s so much mental that you can apply in your daily life as well,” she says.

4. She Recommends Working with a Trainer

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Janet recommends working with a professional to achieve your goals in the gym. “I didn’t know anything about training or about nutrition but I took it upon myself to do research to educate myself. If you really want to take it to the next level, you want to take it to someone who has the certified training and knowledge to teach you the proper ways because sometimes you can end up teaching yourself bad habits that aren’t good for you and you wouldn’t even know it. That’s why it’s important to get someone who is certified. Sometimes you don’t see exactly what you’re doing and you teach yourself wrong moves. When you have a pair of eyes on you to help you do things properly, that’s the way to go,” she says.

5. Strength Training

Janet is a big advocate of strength training. “I never lifted a weight. I only ran on the treadmill and I had to learn and teach myself how important it is to do weight training. You burn more fat that way. Your metabolism goes up. You need resistance training. It’s good for your bones and your muscles. It’s hard for some people to understand that it does increase the fat burning process as opposed to just cardio,” she says. “Sometimes there’s this misconception that if you train hard then you’re going to gain all of this muscle. Honestly, it’s so far from the truth. There’s so much that’s involved with building muscles. You’d have to eat a lot of protein and a lot of calories, and that’s not really in our frame in our daily lives. Lifting is how we get that nice sculpted body. It’s how we shred the pounds. I really advocate that you have to do both cardio and weight training in order to reach your fitness goals optimally.”