7 Fitness Tips From Serena Williams to Serve Up a Winning Body

Serena Williams is one of the best tennis players out there. She has the record for the most Grand Slam titles in the Open Era, with 23. She also won all four major singles titles in 2002 to 2003. In 2012, she received a gold medal at the Olympics. How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 7 ways Serena Williams stays in shape and the photos that prove they work—and to get beach-ready yourself, don't miss these essential 30 Best-Ever Celebrity Bathing Suit Photos!

1. She Eats Healthy

Shutterstock

Williams makes sure to eat healthy. She makes sure to eat a little bit of each food group. Williams shared some of her favorite meals with Women’s Health. "I usually like to have lots of greens before my match and then fruit actually, and a little carbs and some sort of a protein. So I try to knock them [her food groups] all out in one."

2. She Eats a Plant-Based Diet

Shutterstock

Williams tells Women’s Health that she has started to eat more of a plant based diet. "I want to have a healthy lifestyle,” she explains. “And, so you know, a lot of greens and mostly plant-based lately, just super healthy stuff.” A study in the National Library of Medicine states, “Research shows that plant-based diets are cost-effective, low-risk interventions that may lower body mass index, blood pressure, HbA1C, and cholesterol levels. They may also reduce the number of medications needed to treat chronic diseases and lower ischemic heart disease mortality rates.”

3. She’s Motivated

Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images

Williams opened up about her approach to eating to Women’s Health. She says that she stays motivated to eat healthy."My philosophy is eat to live. Don't live to eat…You need it to survive. And [that's] very hard to live by, cause I definitely love to snack, but this is what I want. These are my goals."

4. She’s Grateful

Daniel Boczarski/Getty Images

Williams opened up about a health crisis she suffered in an interview with Fitness Magazine. She says that the experience made her a lot more grateful. “I realized that I'm really fortunate to be alive and to be playing, and that it's not the end of the world if I don't win,” she said. “I was able to relax. It was the first time I've ever had so much fun on the court. I would play matches and enjoy myself. That brought a whole new perspective to my game. Now I know I don't have to play again if I don't want to. I play because I love it.”

5. She Mixes It Up

Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic

Williams makes sure to stay in shape. “For me, it's so important to mix it up,” she told Fitness Magazine. “I ran, and then I biked. Then I did elliptical. That didn't work out so well, because it was boring, so I tried yoga. I started dancing because I couldn't train when I was sick. We started making up moves, and it was fun. Now I run for 10 minutes, and then I dance.”

6. She Runs

Stephane Cardinale/Getty Images

Williams’ coach, Patrick Mouratoglou opened up about the exercises he does with her in an interview with Shape. "I'll have her do technical runs side to side, and randomly determine where she's going to run… We can make an exercise where she has to run right, right, left, right, left, left, right, left. Something like that, but she'll go when I signal and they're not in the same time intervals so she doesn't know when it's going to happen."

7. She Uses Coconut Oil

Shutterstock

Williams shared some of her skincare secrets in a video for Harper’s Bazaar. One thing she likes using at night is coconut oil. “When I’m taking off my makeup and coming undone, is I actually do something totally different. I use coconut oil because it’s amazing. I use it for everything you can think of. This I actually got in Australia. It’s super raw, super organic.”