Sania Mirza is ready to sweat in her exercise clothes. In a new social media post the former Indian tennis player shows off her strong body in a mirror selfie taken at the gym, wearing two-piece exercise attire. “The week that was ✌🏽,” she captioned the series of Instagram snaps. “Looking extremely beautiful and gorgeous in all poses especially in ur cheerful natural look,” one of her followers commented. “Class 🔥,” added another. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
After her pregnancy, Sania was devoted to getting back into shape. “Ladies, I just wanna say … if I can do it then anyone else can too .. believe me that one hour or 2 hours a day to yourself will do wonders to you physically but sooo much mentally as well,” she wrote in an Instagram post, revealing that she put on “23 kilos when I was pregnant and have managed to lose 26 in span of 4 months or so .. with a lot of hard work ,discipline and dedication,” she said.
Part of her post pregnancy routine was running and doing “a bit of cardio since I still needed to drop weight but also needed to be strong for my sport,” she said. This consisted of a “2 km warm up on tread mill,” and then “20 mins of running cool down on 9 km.” According to the Mayo Clinic, running is great for cardiovascular health, muscle building, and weight loss. “For every mile run, the average person will burn approximately 100 calories,” they say.
She also did “a lot of stretches and exercises to loosen my lower back and hips,” she revealed. Since her “body was adapting to so much exercise after a while needed to make sure I stay injury free,” she wrote. “Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, strong, and healthy, and we need that flexibility to maintain a range of motion in the joints,” says Harvard Health. “Without it, the muscles shorten and become tight. Then, when you call on the muscles for activity, they are weak and unable to extend all the way. That puts you at risk for joint pain, strains, and muscle damage.”
Here is an example of her strength training routine:
- Bench press – 4 sets of 10: “Try and increase weight with every set and decrease reps,” she says.
- Lat pull downs – 4 sets x 12 reps
- Forward moving jumps 4 sets x 12 reps
- Glute kickbacks – 4 sets x12 reps
- Deadlifts – I started with 15 kilos 4 sets
- Assisted push up – 4 sets of 12
- Body weight squats – 4 sets of 20
- Ski abs – 4 sets of 24
- Burpees – 4 sets of 8
- Leg press – 4 sets x 6
Tennis is Sania’s main form of fitness. According to ACE Fitness it blends together cardio and aerobic exercise, as there is a lot of running around, and hand-eye coordination. “While tennis provides numerous health benefits—improved aerobic fitness and anaerobic endurance, muscular fitness (grip strength and endurance), flexibility, multiple skill parameters (balance, speed, agility and quickness), reactivity, and power—it also is psychologically demanding,” they say.