WWE star Carmella (real name Leah Van Dale) is asking her 3.4 million Instagram followers for fashion advice with some workout outfits. The 36-year-old wrestler shared a reel of herself wearing white shorts and a matching crop top, posing in her walk-in closet. “Help me decide…are we feeling the sneakers or boots? comment below your fav look! 👀” she captioned the post. Here’s how the new mom stays fit, happy, and healthy.
Carmella has a solid background in fitness, dance, and athletics. “I grew up in a really healthy, fit household,” she told Athletech News. “My parents were very healthy. I was the only girl bringing carrot sticks to recess instead of chips. Don’t get me wrong, I like my sour cream and onion chips [from] back in the day. Still do. But, I just grew up really healthy and I think that just was instilled in me from a very young age, especially throughout my years with the Patriots and the Lakers. I was always very healthy.”
Carmella refuses to lift super-heavy weights ever again. “I take [a high-intensity, low-impact exercise class] called Solidcore,” she told Athletech News. “[The machine used in Solidcore classes] they call it ‘Sweatlana.’ It’s kind of like a reformer, but not exactly the same. It’s their version of it. I am obsessed. It is the only workout I do besides yoga. I feel like Solidcore has afforded me the opportunity to get my body exactly where I want it to be, physically, and how I look and how I feel. It’s so easy on my joints. I will never, ever go back to anything else.”
Carmella makes sure to fuel her body properly. “I’ve finally gotten to a point where I don’t want to restrict my diet. I don’t want to tell myself I can’t have something,” she told Yahoo! Life. “And I feel like now this is the best I’ve ever looked and the best I’ve ever felt because I just am doing what’s right for me and eating intuitively.”
Carmella switches up her workouts when she’s on the road. “If I had a hard match the night before I’m probably just gonna walk it out on the treadmill for a little bit or do the stationary bike, and then maybe do some stretching,” she told Athletech News. “But if I’m feeling good, I probably will do a nice little circuit workout with some dumbbells, a kettlebell. A lot of times I just have to do [with] what’s there with me or bring [resistance] bands with me on the road. I keep them in my carry-on. If they happen to have a cable machine [I’ll use it]. I like a good cable workout as well.”
Carmella is careful not to let herself burn out through diet and exercise. “When I started out, I had so much pressure like ‘I have to be fit, I want to have a six-pack, I need to keep this up.’ I mean as a wrestler, you need to have a specific physique and look a certain way,” she told Yahoo! Life. “And that’s kind of what set me apart too is I always had a defined body and things like that. And I tried to keep that up.”