Sophie Cunningham is heating up social media – in her swimsuit. In a new social media post the WNBA star shows off her amazing body in a bikini while soaking up the sun. “hot and funny it is🌶️,” she captioned the Instagram photos. How does she approach diet, fitness, and self-care? Here is everything you need to know about her lifestyle habits.
Sophie’s main workout is basketball. “Basketball promotes speed, agility, strength, power and endurance. It [has] also been shown to increase flexibility and motor coordination. As a result, basketball is uniquely oriented to improve fundamental motor skills that are shown to be beneficial in promoting general health,” Koco Eaton, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, founder of Eaton Orthopaedics and a former basketball player, tells Nike.
Sophie allows herself the occasional cheat meal. “What you put in your body is very important, so my message is I’ve been there. I’ve kind of grown and matured. . .I still like to have my cheat days and what not but making sure you put your body in a good position, what you’re putting into it is just as important as working out and the mental side of everything as well.”
“Your body is a machine and you have to treat it like that at an elite level. For me that’s a lot of protein,” she said, revealing that she loves Quest bars because they are sweets. “I still kind of like my junk food. . .you have to have a great balance and Quest allowed you have those products but in a healthier way,” Cunningham told ClutchPoints. She keeps Quest bars in her bag, car, and “wherever you’re going to be the majority of the time where if you get hungry, you need to eat something,” Cunningham said. “I want to stay away from the fast food. I want to stay away from just going into the gas station and getting chips or a bag of candy. So for me, just specifically having these bars in my bag and in my care have been absolutely changing because I’m able to just kind of get that meal replacement or just a quick snack until I can get to my next meal.”
She also spent a lot of time “in the weight room,” she told the outlet. “I was doing a different type of recovery and mobility this year. . .when you are going through the rehab process or you’re going through physical therapy and unable to play, it can be very frustrating because you just want to be out there with the team helping them try to get the W,” Cunningham said. “It’s really easy to just kind of take a step back and be like, ‘oh well I’m not going to be out there for a couple of weeks, I can be a little bit relaxed and do what I want,’ and honestly it’s the opposite. When you’re hurt you got to focus more on your diet and you got to focus more on your physical therapy or your rehab getting in the weight room. . .it does give you a better perspective, when you’re able to play you’re just more grateful that your body is able to be healthy and out there with your team.”
Sophie explained to Clutch Points that her diet used to consist of McDonalds, Taco Bell and a whole bunch of sweets. When she went pro she decided to make some changes. “We got to tighten up our stuff, we got to cross our T’s, dot our I’s. For me, my two focus points are definitely my nutrition, cleaning up my diet even more, and just getting better on the court. I’m super excited, I’m super motivated for this offseason,” she says.