You've been there before: You're scrolling through your Instagram feed when you see your favorite celeb post about their favorite new product — a face serum, vitamins that will make your skin brighter, or a specialty food service. You can't help but want to be like the stars, but are the products worth it? In Elite Daily's I Tried series, we put it all to the test. We're trying those products as well as celebrities' health and wellness tips, recipes, and life hacks. We'll do the leg work and tell you what living like your fave star is really like.
When it comes to being the queen of loving yourself, Lizzo reigns supreme. The singer, rapper, songwriter, and flutist is known for her bold personality, clever lyrics, and inspirational body-positive messages. She's also become something of a fitness influencer, posting videos of herself exercising alongside confidence-boosting captions on social media. In fact, her fitness tips are so empowering, I tried Lizzo's workout moves from TikTok to channel her good vibes and get my sweat on.
On June 9, Lizzo posted a TikTok of herself doing various exercises, along with an important voiceover message to fat-shamers. "It may come as a surprise to y’all that I’m not working out to have your ideal body type. I’m working out to have my ideal body type. And you know what type that is? None of your f*cking business, because I am beautiful, I am strong, I do my job, and I stay on my job,” she said.
As someone who's had a troubled relationship with food and physical activity, I felt seen by her message in a way that made me want to toss on a sports bra and emulate her. But it's not just Lizzo's words that were inspiring; seeing her pull off some badass exercises and celebrate her body made me want to work on my fitness as well. I scrolled through her feed, found a handful of videos of her doing different workouts, and picked out the moves I would be able to recreate at home for a full, DIY Lizzo-inspired workout.
Lizzo's stationary bike is a staple in her workouts, at least according to her TikToks. Sadly, I do not own a stationary bike; I know Peloton is all the rage these days, but a new piece of workout equipment isn't in my budget. Luckily, I happen to have a beach cruiser I got on sale for $100 from Target in 2016, so I used that as a substitution.
After dusting it off and filling the tires up with air, I rode around my neighborhood for about 10 minutes to get my blood pumping. Biking outside in the summer when you live in the South is not ideal, so by the time I got back to my house, I was already drenched in sweat and wishing I could just plop onto the couch.
Duration: 10 minutes
Confession: I also do not own a jump rope. Perhaps because of my harrowing memories of jumping rope in the Florida heat during elementary school PE, I have never purchased a jump rope, nor do I ever plan to. I do, however, have a very long iPhone cord, which allowed me to carry out another of Lizzo's workout moves in my own, ahem, unique way.
It turns out, jumping up and down for a while is actually really exhausting. I aimed to jump for five minutes, and I even set a timer on my phone to hold me to that goal. But, I have to admit, a portion of that time was spent doubled over trying to catch my breath and groaning.
Duration: 5-ish minutes
In a May 20 TikTok, Lizzo demonstrated a squat press — a combination move in which you press free weights up as you squat down — as part of her workout routine. As a former (like, very former) ballet dancer, squats (which are basically just pliés) used to be my jam. Unfortunately, after an injury, I lost a lot of mobility in my ankle, so squats are tricky for me nowadays. Still, I decided to stretch out and give the move my best shot.
I was exhausted from jumping, so the squat presses were a great change of pace, allowing me to catch my breath while also making me feel a deep burn in my butt, thighs, and arms. By the time I hit the tenth rep each time, all of my limbs were seriously shaking. I planned to use a 5-pound weight but quickly switched to a 1-pound weight after the first few reps, which still left my arms feelings well-worked.
Duration: 10 reps 3x
After the squat presses, I was sad to learn my Jell-O legs needed to do more squats, this time combined with jumping jacks. With every "out" jump, Lizzo reaches down to touch a dumbbell that she had placed upright on the ground. It makes sense that she does tons of squats and cardio, since her job involves running and dancing around on a stage while singing and playing a musical instrument. My job, on the other hand, involves sitting on the couch and telling my dogs to shut up during Zoom meetings, so I wasn't exactly prepared for this much physical activity.
After my first set of 10 reps, I collapsed to the ground because my muscles were extremely fatigued. Did I do the other two sets? Yes. Did I do them well? Absolutely not.
Duration: 10 reps 3x
Without the tools and machines Lizzo has, this move proved difficult. Basically, she lays on her back, hovers her legs slightly off the ground, and pulls two resistance bands from over her head to her side. For my attempt, I had to make do with a resistance band, a kitchen table, and my husband sitting on said kitchen table to help keep the band (and the table) in place.
While Lizzo does this exercise with her legs lifted to strengthen her core and legs, my core and legs were pretty weary, so I made the exercise slightly easier by keeping my legs on the ground. Originally, I was going to do three sets of 10 reps, but after the first set, my arms felt like noodles, so I modified the move completely by just skipping the last two sets altogether.
Duration: 10 reps 3x (but I did 1x)
For the last move I chose for this workout routine, Lizzo reaches down to touch her toes, walks her hands out so she's in a plank position, lowers herself to the ground, and holds a Superman pose with her back arched and arms held out away from her body.
By the time this exercise came around, I didn't exactly fulfill the whole "pushup" portion of the exercise as Lizzo does. More or less, I flopped to the ground, lay there for a full minute, then tried to hold a Superman pose for thirty seconds. The keyword there is "tried." Did I succeed? It depends on your definition of success, but, by most people's standards, I did not. I kind of held the pose for 10 seconds before giving up and just lying facedown on my mat.
Duration: 3 times hold 30 seconds each (but I did 10 seconds)
For someone who has a love-hate relationship with exercising, it was inspiring for me to see how Lizzo has made fitness a part of her life. Not only did it give me the confidence to work out, but it also reminded me that I can simply work out to meet my own goals, not to adhere to any harmful beauty standards.
Though I am still 100% not a fan of cardio, Lizzo's exercise routine made me feel like a total boss. Granted, I couldn't really move the next morning because I was so sore, but that's nothing a heating pad and some serious complaining couldn't fix. Moving forward, I plan to utilize Lizzo's moves and her seemingly endless confidence as a part of my everyday lifestyle, because as she said in her TikTok message to fat-shamers: "Health is not just determined by what you look like on the outside. Health is also what happens on the inside."
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