Serena Williams Just Shared a "New Version of My Body"

Serena Williams is one of the greatest tennis players in history. She’s in great shape, and opened up about her relationship with her body in a recent Instagram post. In it, Williams held her younger daughter while wearing a swimsuit. She captioned the post, “Loving yourself is essential. I find that I have to remind myself of that self-love through all different stages in my life. Right now I love that my body is not picture perfect. I love that I smell like milk - that milk sustains @adiraohanian I love getting to know a new version of my body. It is a change, but it’s a change that has been well worth it. So start this week, knowing that you are loved, and that starts with you.” How does she stay so fit? Read on to see 5 ways Serena Williams stays in shape and the photos that prove they work.

1. She Makes Time For Herself

Shutterstock

From her career to her family, Williams has a busy schedule. However, she is learning to make time for herself. She shared her go-to self-care practice with Into The Gloss. “I really have to force myself to take time [for myself]. One of the ways I do it is with sheet masks—I love those. And then I love these undereye masks, too. I just do that and sit in my La-Z-Boy—that’s super relaxing for me. My favorite is a gold one I got in London, at Harrod’s.”

2. She Takes Care Of Her Skin

Williams has amazing skin, and she makes sure to take care of it. She shared a lot of her secrets in her Into The Gloss interview. “I also just started using products from this brand called Chenot—I got them in Italy when I was on that fabulous vacation. So, I do cleanser, toner, obviously SPF, moisturizer, and eye cream. Right now I’m wearing SPF 50 from Chenot—I want to look young! I never leave home without it, or a hat.”

3. She Meditates

Williams shared some of her wellness secrets in an interview with Vogue. “I'm working on practicing meditation. I feel like I need to do it regularly. Do I? No. But I'm getting there! I also understand that prayer is a form of meditation. My motto is: Any time, any day, we can pray. It’s not like I have to pray at a particular time; it's just any time I feel I’m feeling stressed or misguided, I just say a prayer.”

4. She’s Occasionally Vegan

Shutterstock

Williams tells Vogue that she goes back to a certain diet when she needs to be healthier. “I've been an on-and-off vegan for a while. I was vegan for about six years and it was great. Now, I’m trying it out again because I really want to be healthy. And to be healthy, I need to eat healthy. When I don't eat healthy, I just feel terrible–to be honest, I feel like I almost have pain. So now, I eat vegan about six days out of the week. And then if I want, like, some eggs or something, I do that on the seventh day.”

5. She Does A Lot Of Cardio

Williams shared her fitness routine in an interview with Vogue. “My at-home fitness routine right now is just a lot of cardio. I do HIIT workouts (high-intensity interval training), a little stretching, a little strength training, but mostly cardio training. I do the cardio exercises on Tonal, which is really helpful for me just to get my body back and used to calisthenics. I don't necessarily want a trainer in my room or in the gym with me, so just having the Tonal trainers is a relief. It's just something different from what I've been doing for the past 20-plus years, and it's refreshing.”