In the U.S., my whole life, I felt like I had to be the best and score more goals and run with more fitness so I could be the one in the limelight. I think that when I went to Sweden, I found the joy of being part of a team and contributing to everybody’s success.
Staying more controlled mentally stemmed from taking my fitness more seriously. When you’re doing track work, sprints and so on, it’s pretty painful, but that does make you feel better prepared and therefore mentally stronger when you’re going into a match. You know, without a doubt, that you are strong enough to last.
Fitness is getting creative as gym equipment is not available at home. I am making do with the resources I have. I’m being given a schedule I can follow by my trainer. Of course it is not close to the exercises I can do in the gym. But I am trying to do as much as I can to maintain my strength.
The typical response from people when I tell them I’m diabetic is, ‘Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.’ You know, I’m not. I’m a better athlete because of diabetes rather than despite it. I’m more aware of my training, my fitness and more aware of nutrition. I’m more proactive about my health.
I’ve had one very bad ankle injury but otherwise I’ve been incredibly lucky with my fitness. I’ve worked hard at it and I’ve always been fit even compared to other players. That sustains you through various parts of your career, but I am 36.
The meteoric rise of the ‘wellness’ industry online has launched an entire industry of fitness celebrities on social media. Millions of followers embrace their regimens for diet and exercise, but increasingly, the drive for ‘wellness’ and ‘clean eating’ has become stealthy cover for more dieting and deprivation.
When I was first introduced to CrossFit, I found it to be the hardest workout that I’d ever done. It wiped the floor with me, and I fell in love with it immediately. The results that I have seen in my strength and physicality have been unparalleled to any other things I have ever done in my more than 20 years in the fitness business.
As the issue of youth fitness – from obesity to proper exercise regimens – takes on more resonance in schools and communities across the country, CrossFit Kids and other preschool fitness programs are raising questions about when and how children should start playing organized sports or hitting the gym.
You need to put what you learn into practice and do it over and over again until it’s a habit. I always say, ‘Seeing is not believing. Doing is believing.’ There is a lot to learn about fitness, nutrition and emotions, but once you do, you can master them instead of them mastering you.
I’m quite into fitness, and I have a fantastic personal trainer who knows me, knows my body, knows when to push me, and knows when not to push me. She doesn’t make me do 20 burpees in a row and instead focuses on strengthening my core, telling me we need to focus on making me into ‘a tall giraffe’!
For a good workout, I go to At One Fitness in North Hollywood, where my trainer, Jon Allsop, puts me through it all. I like it because it’s a small gym and I’ve known the people for a long time. Jon will have me do cross-training where I’ll lift weights, jump rope, throw around a medicine ball and I never get to stop.
At around 20 years old, I started to educate myself on nutrition. I’m so grateful that I taught myself the importance of health and fitness in my early twenties. I created a lifestyle that I love, and because of that, I’ve never had to diet.
Fitness has always been a strength of mine. People seem to look at ages and think once you get over 30, you’re coming to the end. I’d like to think I’ve got a number of years left in me. I feel really good, and that’s down to the great work the staff at the club do looking after us and the facilities we have.
I always say fitness is the first step to greatness. And I try to encourage my fans to be on the same page as that. Because fitness is the first step to setting a habit that you necessarily don’t want to do but are still committed to doing every single day. And so I think that’s why I always, always try to get a workout in.
For a long time when I was working to get a job and in OVW to create an image to get hired by WWE, they kept saying, ‘we’re looking for the next Trish Stratus. We want that look – that beautiful, feminine fitness model that kicks butt, and you just don’t fit the mold.’ That was holding me back for so long.
We’ve all tried to bunk our gym session or dance class. A single routine can get monotonous. That’s why I have decided to make my fitness regime fun by incorporating different workouts into my schedule. From dancing to yoga, I plan to keep it as interesting as possible so I’m never bored of working out.
Ultimately, I’m in the fitness industry. But, I’ve branched out from there quite a bit. I began doing consulting on writing and getting published in magazines in about 2011. Right around that time, I started doing some angel investing and looking to grow my skills and general experience outside of that.
At times, you are mentally but not physically prepared; at times, you are physically but not mentally prepared. I would be lying if I said it doesn’t affect your performance. But the sooner you get over it, the better. So you discipline yourself. That is why fitness counts.
The value and utility of any experiment are determined by the fitness of the material to the purpose for which it is used, and thus in the case before us it cannot be immaterial what plants are subjected to experiment and in what manner such experiment is conducted.
I was a bit worried coming back to the Premiership from America, but I have been pleased with my form, and the interest I have received has been good for my ego. I have no worries about my fitness, and I am really looking forward to the season starting now.
There are different groups of people in your life that you behave slightly differently with. You behave one way with your family. You behave in a different way with your work colleagues. You behave differently with your friends from the movie club, your fitness instructor – all subtly different personas.
As Mick Jagger will tell you, performing is an aerobic work-out. I’ve got the bass guitar, which is the heaviest of all the instruments, and I’m a little girl, in boiling-hot leather under the lights. You have to keep the fitness level up if you want to look good up there.
I am not only an athlete and sports entertainer, but also have a huge passion for fitness, beauty and fashion, so I am open to many different types of brands. When it comes to brands approaching me, I just need them to be very specific, to the point of what they want and need from me.
I’d love to look like my mum when I am her age. She taught ballet for years, and my attitude to exercise and fitness has definitely been influenced by her. She’s 84 now, and I’ve watched how well she has aged, and a lot of that is to do with her fantastic posture.
Everything in moderation. I keep a healthy body, a healthy look. It’s important not to be obsessive about anything – fitness, training, eating – because then you end up focusing on only that. And you can’t obsess about anything when you’re on the road.
