Gabby Douglas Shares Workout & Diet To Help You Get 6-Pack Abs & Toned Arms Like Her
Gabby Douglas revealed how to get abs with 'the perfect shape' using one simple move. The Olympic gymnast also shared what to eat to maintain these abs and even more fitness advice in an exclusive interview!
While Gabby Douglas may be an Olympic gold medalist, she promised that you don’t need to “do anything extravagant” to achieve fitness results like hers. “You can take a walk around your property or even walk [around] your house, take your dog on a walk, and just get those steps in…I didn’t find huge benefits in overworking your body,” Gabby said during an EXCLUSIVE interview on HollywoodLife TVTalk, filmed via Instagram Live on March 9. While Gabby has instead found benefits in doing thinks like taking supplements, stretching and “just going out in nature,” she did share a few workout and diet secrets for a toned physique and abs with the “perfect shape.”
Gabby Douglas also stays in shape by sipping Stretch & Flex™ smoothies, her new line of meal beverages available at Smoothie King. [Photo Courtesy of Smoothie King]Gabby joked that her six-pack “faded off like the sunset” when she stopped training for the Olympics (she clarified that she’s “not mad” about this, though). However, getting one to form doesn’t require Olympic-level training! “Honestly, if you want to get that perfect shape, if you want to get abs, I recommend crunches. Crunches and hollow rocks and lift your legs when you go down and touch [your toes]. You’ll have abs within 24 hours,” Gabby insisted, and recommended doing this “every single day” while eating “a lot of protein.”
Gabby stressed that you don’t want to go overboard with this ab regimen. “The thing is, you don’t want to overdo it because you could be really sore, right? So you just kind of want to take it into moderation and maybe 2 sets of 20, however many you can handle. You can do it every day or you can do it every other day,” she continued.
Getting toned arms may be even easier! “Honestly and here’s my secret — I don’t workout my arms as much as I workout my legs or as much as my body,” she admitted to HollywoodLife. “I love a long, toned arm and not too masculine, but that’s just my body. You love what you love and so I just do stretches with my arms to try to elongate everything.” While Gabby takes a relaxed approach to toning up her arms, she does work out her entire body nearly every day.
“I try to workout every single day, maybe one day off. Or I try to do every other day because we all need rest,” Gabby explained, who stressed the importance of taking mental and physical breaks. This is a change of pace for the artistic gymnast, who was used to a strict routine while training with the Fierce Five for the 2012 Summer Olympics and later, the 2016 Sumer Olympics.
“I’m used to doing the same thing every single day, whereas now I get to switch it up. Like, today we’ll do HIIT. Today we’ll do trampoline. Today we’ll do a dance workout. Today we’ll just dive in and it’s been fun even to be creative with myself, coming up with workouts that I find enjoyable because I believe you should be having fun when you workout,” she continued. “I love hard work and I love to sweat but at the same time though, you should love what you do.”
A healthy diet also helps the 2012 Olympic all-around champion stay in tip-top shape, which isn’t hard thanks to her partnership with Smoothie King. Gabby teamed up with the smoothie company to launch the Stretch & Flex™ meal smoothies, which are “carefully crafted using trending ingredient type II collagen to support joint health and flexibility and are the perfect addition to your daily fitness routine,” according to a statement from Smoothie King.
“I have been a health nut and I recently switched my diet around the last few years because I wasn’t getting the proper nutrition and even protein into my diet and just so many supplements that I was lacking,” Gabby admitted. Enter Smoothie King, which has given the decorated gymnast the nutrition and supplements that she needs.
“Smoothie King, now they have this new line of [Stretch & Flex] smoothies — Tart Cherry and Pineapple Kale — and honestly, I notice huge benefits with muscle recovery and even just skin health and hair health,” Gabby continued. “They have a type of collagen within the smoothie to build up muscle and you get that overall joint health and not only joint health but maintaining flexibility and even more limber.”
