Sydney Sweeney is seemingly everywhere right now.
Movies. Fashion. Advertising. Social media. And most recently, sports, through a national campaign with Novig, where she also became a strategic partner and equity holder.
Which inevitably leads to one of the questions people ask whenever a celebrity is in phenomenal shape:
What does Sydney Sweeney actually do to work out?
The answer is more interesting than the typical celebrity “workout routine.”
Because if you look at what Sweeney has publicly said about her training over the years, there really isn't one Sydney Sweeney workout.
There are several.
And as a coach who has spent more than 30 years helping people transform their bodies, that's actually the part I find most interesting.
Sydney Sweeney Has Been Athletic Most of Her Life
The first thing that's easy to miss is that Sweeney didn't suddenly discover exercise after becoming famous.
She grew up doing things.
She has talked about slalom waterskiing from an extremely young age, snow skiing, hiking and spending hours outdoors. Women's Health reported that she also began mixed martial arts around age 12 and trained in the dojo two or three times per week for five or six years.
That's important.
Because sometimes we look at someone's body today and immediately ask:
“What workout is she doing?”
But bodies aren't built by one workout.
They're the accumulation of years of activity, training, muscle, habits, nutrition and genetics.
Sydney Sweeney appears to have accumulated a pretty substantial athletic base.
So What Is Sydney Sweeney's Normal Workout Routine?
In a 2023 interview with Women's Health, Sweeney described Solidcore—a high-intensity, low-impact Pilates-inspired workout—as one of her primary forms of exercise.
She said she was doing it approximately two or three times per week.
She also identified running as one of her main activities and said she did some strength training with weights.
Add in her history of MMA, hiking, waterskiing and snow skiing and you start seeing something I wish more people understood:
Fitness doesn't have to exist entirely inside a gym.
Waterskiing requires tremendous involvement from the legs, core and upper body while challenging balance and coordination. Sweeney has said that after summers spent skiing she notices visible changes in her arms and abs—and, importantly, that she doesn't really experience it as a miserable workout because she enjoys doing it.
That's a lesson worth stealing.
Not necessarily the waterskiing.
The principle.
Find physical things you genuinely enjoy doing.
Then build the rest of your training around what those activities don't provide.
Then Sydney Sweeney Became a Boxer
This is where her training gets much more interesting.
For her role as boxer Christy Martin, Sweeney didn't follow her normal routine.
She transformed it.
And her body changed with it.
Sweeney has said she had roughly three and a half months to prepare for the role. During that period, her schedule reportedly included an hour of weight training in the morning, roughly two to three hours of boxing or kickboxing during the day, and additional weight training later. She ultimately reported gaining about 35 pounds for the role.
Read that again.
Her goal changed.
So her training changed.
And then her body changed.
That's the part of Sydney Sweeney's workout routine I think is far more useful than trying to copy a list of exercises from the internet.
There Is No Magical “Sydney Sweeney Workout”
Search celebrity workouts long enough and eventually you'll find someone willing to give you the exact sets, reps and exercises supposedly responsible for a celebrity's body.
I wouldn't put much faith in that.
We can document the activities Sweeney herself has discussed publicly.
Solidcore.
Running.
MMA.
Waterskiing.
Hiking.
Weight training.
Boxing.
But unless Sydney or the professionals actually programming her training publish the complete program for a specific period, nobody outside that team can honestly tell you that a particular internet workout is the Sydney Sweeney workout.
And there's an even bigger problem.
Even if we had it, it wouldn't necessarily be the right workout for you.
Your Workout Should Match the Body and Life You're Trying to Build
This is one of the biggest mistakes I have watched people make during 31 years of coaching.
They ask:
“What's the best workout?”
There isn't one.
The better question is:
“What am I trying to make my body capable of doing?”
Sydney Sweeney preparing to portray a professional boxer required a very different training stimulus than Sydney Sweeney maintaining her normal physique while acting, traveling and living her regular life.
A 39-year-old woman preparing for a physique competition needs something different.
A 45-year-old executive who wants to lose 20 pounds, build muscle and look incredible in clothes needs something different.
A Brazilian jiu-jitsu athlete needs something different.
I need something different as I approach 50 and continue rebuilding a body that was once completely paralyzed.
The goal determines the prescription.
That's coaching.
But There Is Something I Would Copy From Sydney Sweeney
Not her exact workout.
Her range.
Look at the common thread running through the activities she has publicly discussed:
She lifts.
She runs.
She fights.
She hikes.
She skis.
She challenges her body in different environments.
And when a role required substantially more muscle and boxing ability, she changed her training and nutrition to meet that demand.
That's a much more useful model of fitness than spending your life trying to find the perfect exercise program.
Your body is adaptable.
Give it a reason to become stronger, and support that adaptation.
Give it a reason to develop endurance.
Challenge your balance.
Develop coordination.
Build muscle.
Go outside.
Learn a physical skill.
Do something occasionally simply because it's fun.
The Body Is the Receipt
This is something we say constantly with our clients:
The Body Is the Receipt.
Your body reflects what you've repeatedly asked it to adapt to.
Sydney Sweeney didn't build her athleticism from one celebrity workout.
Her publicly described history includes years of sports and physical activity, martial arts, Pilates-style training, running and strength work. And when she needed to physically become a boxer, she dramatically increased the specificity and volume of her training.
That's the lesson I'd take from her.
Don't ask:
“How do I get Sydney Sweeney's body?”
Ask:
“What do I want my body to be capable of—and what would I need to consistently do for my body to adapt in that direction?”
That's a much better question.
And unlike copying a celebrity workout from the internet, it's a question that can actually lead somewhere.
— Rafael Moret
Coach, Team NXT LVL
31 Years Coaching Bodies, Performance & Transformation
