{"id":4159,"date":"2025-02-23T10:42:17","date_gmt":"2025-02-22T23:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/celebrities-embracing-the-strongissexy-movement-bodi.html"},"modified":"2025-02-23T10:42:18","modified_gmt":"2025-02-22T23:42:18","slug":"celebrities-embracing-the-strongissexy-movement-bodi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movewithnicole.com.au\/blog\/celebrities-embracing-the-strongissexy-movement-bodi.html","title":{"rendered":"Celebrities Embracing the #StrongIsSexy Movement | BODi"},"content":{"rendered":"

With fashion magazines having long ago surrendered their status as the sole arbiters of style and trends to the more egalitarian Instagram, the culture at large has broadened its definitions of what\u2019s beautiful and sexy.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the old way of worshipping at the altar of \u201cthin\u201d has been mercifully tossed aside as fitness-as-lifestyle has made strong, muscular physiques the new goal.<\/p>\n

From actors to musicians to athletes, celebrities are wearing the benefits of exercise and a healthy diet on their sleeves (or rather, on their biceps), and inspiring people to aim for fit over gaunt.<\/p>\n

These are frames built for action and made for endurance, no matter what the challenge. So, please, feel free to flex along at home.<\/p>\n

1. Alicia Vikander<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0The movies\u00a0Ex Machina, Tomb Raider,\u00a0and\u00a0The Light Between Oceans.<\/p>\n

Alicia employed the\u00a0Magnus Method\u00a0of interval training while preparing to play iconic video game heroine Lara Croft in 2018\u2019s\u00a0Tomb Raider\u00a0reboot, putting on 16 pounds of muscle in the process.<\/p>\n

The Swedish-born actress has a dance background, which contributes to her small (she clocks in at 5\u20195\u2033) but muscular build.<\/p>\n

She also did a fair amount of\u00a0mixed martial arts training as Tomb Raider \u2014 her first major action role \u2014 would ask her to portray a woman fighting for survival in the harshest environments.<\/p>\n

2. Brie Larson<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0The movies\u00a0Captain Marvel, Avengers: Endgame, Room, and\u00a0Kong: Skull Island.<\/span><\/p>\n

When you\u2019re asked to play a superhero, you know you have to muscle up. When you\u2019re asked to play, literally, one of Marvel Comics\u2019\u00a0most powerful\u00a0superheroes, you\u00a0really\u00a0need to step things up.<\/p>\n

Larson, known more for quiet dramas like\u00a0Room\u00a0and\u00a0The Glass Castle\u00a0prior to donning Captain Marvel\u2019s flight suit, went all in \u2014 going so far as to\u00a0push a Jeep up hill.<\/p>\n

When you put in that work, you want to show off the results, naturally.<\/p>\n

3. Teyana Taylor<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0The VH-1 reality series\u00a0Teyana and Iman, Kanye West\u2019s\u00a0\u201cFade\u201d\u00a0video,\u00a0the TV series\u00a0Hit the Floor.<\/p>\n

This singer, dancer, and actress stopped everyone in their tracks when Kanye West released \u201cFade\u201d \u2014 an appropriately gym-set music video that showcased Taylor\u2019s gym-toned body so effectively\u00a0 she even released her own exercise program called Fade2Fit.<\/p>\n

Taylor told Women\u2019s Health she prefers dance- and movement-based exercise over straight weight lifting given her natural propensity for building muscle.<\/p>\n

4. Angela Bassett<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0Malcolm X, What\u2019s Love Got To Do With It?, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Waiting to Exhale, and most recently,\u00a0Black Panther\u00a0and\u00a0Mission Impossible: Fallout.<\/p>\n

If there were some kind of honorary Oscar or lifetime achievement award for making unabashedly toned and muscular arms a red carpet must, it would go to Ms. Bassett.<\/p>\n

While doing press for\u00a0Mission Impossible, she credited her fitness more to diet than exercise:\u00a0\u201cYou can outeat any exercise routine.\u201d<\/p>\n

5. Hilary Knight<\/h2>\n
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You Know Her From:\u00a0A seven-time Olympic and IIHF gold medalist with the US National Women\u2019s Hockey Team, inaugural Isobel Cup champion with the NWHL\u2019s Boston Pride, member of the former CWHL\u2019s Les Canadiennes de Montreal.<\/p>\n

Quite simply one of the greatest hockey players in the world, Knight has done a lot to promote the sport in her home country and internationally.<\/p>\n

In 2014, she was featured in\u00a0ESPN The Magazine\u2018s \u201cBody\u201d issue, and discussed the issue of body type: \u201cThere is this image of athletic women as small and petite \u2014 the yoga body type.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen in general, we tend to shrink ourselves and not have as much confidence as we should in presenting ourselves and our body types. It\u2019s OK to be fit and healthy and comfortable within your body, whatever frame you have.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSince gaining 15 pounds to be at the top of my sport [for the Olympics], I\u2019ve tried to shatter the body image that muscular isn\u2019t feminine.\u201d<\/p>\n

6. Beyonc\u00e9<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0Really?<\/p>\n

A quintuple threat icon \u2014 singer, dancer, actress, producer, walking event \u2014 Beyonc\u00e9 Knowles mixes weights, yoga, and running (in addition to legendarily high-energy stage performances like her appearance during halftime of Super Bowl XLVII) to enhance her body\u2019s natural shape and musculature.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s experimented with different diets, too (at one point going vegan), and has sometimes come under fire for being a little extreme.<\/p>\n

But she and trainer\u00a0Marco Borges\u00a0try to mix\u00a0interval\u00a0and circuit training\u00a0into her routine to maintain her fitness and energy.<\/p>\n

7. Emily Blunt<\/h2>\n
\"emilyWarner Bros<\/figure>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0The films\u00a0Edge of Tomorrow, Mary Poppins Returns,\u00a0The Devil Wears Prada, and A Quiet Place.<\/p>\n

The English actress \u2014 who made a name for herself playing a perpetually dour fashionista in\u00a0The Devil Wears Prada\u00a0\u2014 surprised everyone when she got jacked for her role opposite Tom Cruise in the sci-fi action flick\u00a0Edge of Tomorrow.<\/p>\n

The actress underwent three months of intense training, which included martial arts as well as weapon and wire work. The actress wore a weighted vest to simulate the battle armor she\u2019d be wearing in the film.<\/p>\n

She told\u00a0USA Today\u00a0at the time: \u201cThis was six days a week, two and a half hours a day. It was brutal at first and then became addictive. I wanted her to look lethal and I wanted to go all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

8. Lindsey Vonn<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0An Olympic gold medal-winning downhill skier (2010 Winter Games), she won a record eight World Cup season titles, and was one of only two female skiers to win four World Cup overall championships.<\/p>\n

For an Olympian and world-class athlete like Vonn, being in the gym, according to her trainer Alex Bunt, \u201cfive to six days a week, year-round\u201d isn\u2019t really all that shocking an admission.<\/p>\n

Vonn and Bunt split her training, according to an interview with Bunt for Women\u2019s Health, between strength and agility training.<\/p>\n

Vonn\u2019s Instagram\u00a0account is essentially a tutorial on building muscle, and her modeling work has helped push strong, healthy, muscular physiques into the spotlight.<\/p>\n

9. Evangeline Lilly<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0The TV series\u00a0Lost and the epic action adventures The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug,\u00a0Ant-Man,\u00a0Ant-Man and the Wasp,\u00a0and\u00a0Avengers: Endgame.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a unique moment in the Marvel Studios film\u00a0Ant-Man where it\u2019s Lilly\u2019s Hope Pym who has to train the protagonist Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) how to fight like a superhero.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s something Lilly took seriously and trained for intensely, often taking to Twitter and Instagram to show off her\u00a0impressive gains<\/a>.<\/p>\n

10. Carrie Underwood<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0The singer-songwriter won\u00a0American Idol\u00a0in 2005 and quickly became a country music superstar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been pretty consistent with exercise for the past several years,\u201d Underwood told\u00a0Self magazine\u00a0in 2012. \u201cGrowing up, I was semi-sporty but didn\u2019t really do much. If I\u2019d kept on that path, it wouldn\u2019t have ended well! I\u2019m from the South, where there\u2019s a lot of fried food, and that\u2019s bound to show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Underwood follows a vegetarian diet and, alongside her former NHL star husband Mike Fisher, has embraced an active, athletic lifestyle that shows.<\/p>\n

11. Zoe Saldana<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From: The films\u00a0Avatar,\u00a0Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and\u00a0Star Trek.<\/p>\n

Between traveling, 16-hour shoot days, and raising three boys at home, Zoe Saldana has had to make fitness fit into her schedule.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to work out three times a week, but\u2026 I really don\u2019t like to be strict with my workout,\u201d she told\u00a0Shape\u00a0magazine.<\/p>\n

Saldana also swears off diets and \u201ccheat\u201d meals so that she worries less about food and more about the things that matter to her.<\/p>\n

12. Julianne Hough<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0A dancer, singer, and actress, she\u2019s appeared on\u00a0Dancing with the Stars,\u00a0America\u2019s Got Talent, and the 2011\u00a0Footloose\u00a0remake.<\/p>\n

Hough has always been a dancer first and foremost, and her training reveals itself in her slim but muscular build.<\/p>\n

Dancing has helped her forge tremendous core strength, and she uses it as the basis of her own\u00a0dance\/workout tips. She also mixes weight training with yoga, which she treats as a form of\u00a0active recovery.<\/p>\n

13. Gabrielle Union<\/h2>\n
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You Know Her From:\u00a0The actress has appeared in the films\u00a0Bring It On\u00a0\u200band\u00a0Breaking In<\/span>, and will be headlining the upcoming\u00a0Bad Boys\u00a0spinoff TV series\u00a0L.A.\u2019s Finest.<\/p>\n

Union\u2019s strong arms and shoulders have made her something of a fitness icon, an idea she readily leans into on her\u00a0Instagram account, showing her intense (and sometimes competitive) workouts alongside her\u00a0husband, former NBA star Dwyane Wade.<\/p>\n

She does\u00a0plyometrics, and mixes in plenty of\u00a0cardio like running, biking, and stair climbing.<\/p>\n

14. Aly Raisman<\/h2>\n
\n<\/blockquote>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0This Olympic gymnast competed in the 2012 and 2016 Summer Games, winning gold and silver, respectively.<\/p>\n

In 2016, Raisman was the oldest member of the U.S. gymnastics team\u2026 at age 21. Still, the intensity of her workouts had her\u00a0talking to ESPN\u00a0like a seasoned veteran.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019m smarter now and wiser, so I\u2019m able to understand the importance of staying hydrated and nutrition and the\u00a0recovery\u00a0process. But definitely my body is a little bit more achy than it was before.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also details how important diet is as a complement to many, many hours at the gym \u2014 downing lemon water for her metabolism, eating lots of fish, and avoiding processed food and snacking instead on lots of fruit.<\/p>\n

15. Michelle Obama<\/h2>\n
\"michellePete Souza\/White House<\/figure>\n

You Know Her From:\u00a0The former First Lady of the United States.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not unusual for first ladies to become style icons, but for Mrs. Obama, it was more about her toned and strong body type than what she draped over it.<\/p>\n

Her arms became a mini national obsession,\u00a0and\u00a0she\u00a0combined\u00a0her personal interest in fitness and her platform to lobby for health education\u00a0on behalf of\u00a0children with her\u00a0Let\u2019s Move!\u00a0Initiative.<\/p>\n

As for the arms, she\u2019s been seen\u00a0pushing 35s\u00a0in the incline press.<\/p>\n

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