Beyoncé’s name might sound very unusual to many; but not many know, according to her, Tina Knowles-Lawson, that the famous name of Beyoncé is actually a family heirloom.
But anyway, it might even be that name that made Beyoncé the famous woman she is today!
This American singer and songwriter, as well as actress, became famous way back in the 1990s when she was the lead singer of the R&B group, Destiny’s Child.
But her solo career after that was equally just as phenomenal.
Can you believe that Beyoncé was only 9 when she formed Destiny’s Child with her childhood friends?
One album The Writing’s on the Wall earned Destiny’s Child two Grammy Awards, selling more than eight million copies in the United States.
Survivor which was their third album reached the number one spot on the Billboard 200 charts.
Beyoncé penned her solo album called Dangerously in Love which received rave reviews, topping the charts.
In 2004, she won five Grammy awards!
By 2005, the group disbanded and Beyoncé continued literally churning out the hits, becoming world-famous with her golden voice.
In 2008 she married Jay-Z making them a top-earning couple in Entertainment.
They are ranked as one of the most stylish couples for 2022.
She had also become an actress and in 2001 made her acting debut in the movie, Carmen: A Hip Hopera.
More movies followed; The Pink Panther, Dreamgirls, Cadillac Records, and more! And for the remake of Disney’s The Lion King, Beyoncé lent her voice to that of Nala, performing several songs on the “Spirit” soundtrack.
Fast track to 2021, Beyoncé the Grammy for best R&B performance for the single “Black Parade.”
She has set the record for most Grammys to be won by a female artist – all 28 of them.
She and Jay-Z celebrated 13 years of marriage in 2021, and they have 3 kids. Just look at the beautiful homes they have lived in! Currently, they live in a mega-mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles.
Current Stats
- Weight: ± 130 pounds/± 58 kg.
- Birthday: 4 September 1981
- Birthplace: Houston, Texas, USA
- Accolades/accomplishments: There are just too many accolades and awards that Beyoncé has won; it would take an article on its own. Look at the incredible wins and awards that she has collected over the years!
Workout Principles of Beyoncé
There’s no doubt that Beyoncé has made history with the awards that she has won.
And to dress up for receiving these awards, she has had to work very, very hard.
Her iconic physique needs to be maintained. During Covid-19, she had to adapt to changes to her routine and principles. These are her workout principles:
1) Interval Training
Beyoncé ensures she never misses her upper body and core work regimen – to build her strength. She’s also a Lagree Fitness fan as well!
And she has a nutritionist and trainer, Marco Borges, who ensures that she achieves optimal results with her workouts.
2) Diet tries
Clean eating is very important for Beyoncé.
She has tried quite a few types of diets such as the Master Cleanse, plant-based eating, and others. She treats her body well to match her workouts.
3) Calisthenics
This gal loves incorporating easy, double exercises into her routine, ones that she can do anytime, anywhere.
That’s why with her being on the move such a lot, calisthenics is crucial.
4) Weight Lifting
According to Beyoncé’s trainer, she exercises 5x a week.
Then she has 45 minutes of weight training. She will do push-ups, bench presses, weighted lunges, military presses, and squats to keep everything right and tight.
Beyoncé’s Training Methods
1) Unmute
“After the birth of my first child, I believed in the things society said about how my body should look” – that’s what she told Vogue. “I put pressure on myself to lose all the baby weight in three months, and scheduled a small tour to assure I would do it”
And she still goes pretty hard, according to her trainer, Marco Borges, tackling battle ropes, cardio, boxing, cardio, and dancing. These are the training methods that she and her trainer swear by them for staying in shape – and healthy.
2) Legs are very important
Beyoncé’s legs didn’t get sculpted on their own.
She has a four-move leg workout that she uses to keep her legs toned and in shape.
The circuit she follows for legs includes pelvic lifts, jumping lunges, plié jumps, and reverse-squat kicks.
3) Stretching and flexibility
Stretching improves better range of motion, flexibility, and stronger muscles. Marco Borges told Glamour that for Beyoncé, he incorporates stretching into all her sweat sessions.
4) Rope training
Battle ropes are really good for burning the calories and getting in a full-body strength workout as well as some cardio.
5) She likes quick workouts
Whenever Beyoncé has a few minutes to spare whether it’s in-between shoots or rehearsals, she will squeeze in some bodyweight exercises like lunges, squats, and planks.
6) She relies on cardio for her tours
Beyoncé works the entire stage which takes energy.
But her endurance is thanks to her boxing and running workings.
Borges says, “Sprints are ideal for building stamina and explosiveness, which B needs to move across the stage. Her boxing workouts are all about building up her tolerance. You run out of gas fast; by pushing through, you develop a ton of endurance.”
7) Core work and strength training
She strengthens her core by doing a series of standing side crunches, alternating dumbbell punches, full-body sit-ups with a medicine ball, lateral bench hops, and forward lunges.
8) She will do double workouts if necessary
Bey has been known to increase her workouts to two in a day so she can get back into shape. “Eventually I want to be able to do SoulCycle, the stairs, and rehearsal in a day,” she says.
9) She loves outdoor exercising
Beyoncé has called her active-wear clothing line Ivy Park.
It’s the name of the park where she used to train in her younger days. “I ran and trained in the park, and that state of mind has stayed with me all these years later. It’s the first place where I learned to listen to my body.”
Beyoncé’s Workout Routine
Beyoncé has done lots of different workouts in order to meet her body goals and needs, but the activities below form part of her workout routine:
1) Dancing
Beyoncé loves dancing so it makes sense that she would incorporate it into her workout routine. Even when she is preparing for a tour she will spend hours a day dancing.
She loves putting on her favorite song and doing workout moves like bicep curls.
Remember, she needs to be moving across the stage whilst singing at the same time and she does intense cardio to achieve this.
Her personal trainer alternates her doing a minute of sprinting and then 2 minutes of power walking for 30 minutes. Beyoncé herself posted this circuit workout routine on her Instagram:
- Full body sit-ups using a medicine ball – 20 reps
- Standing side crunches – 10 reps on each side
- Weighted alternating dumbbell punches – 10 on each side
- Forward-Lunges – Do 10 on each side
- Explosive lateral bench hops – 10 on each side
Beyoncé will use low weights and increase the weights for different moves. She does this all for the sake of looking good and for allowing her to be on stage for hours on end.
4) Stretching
Stretching is a top priority for Beyoncé.
She does this at the end of her workouts.
Stretching helps her to keep her body flexible for she can dance and do all her special moves! Stretching also helps the muscles to repair faster, and to reduce post-workout pains.
Marco Borges says there are four main categories that they focus their attention on – strength, endurance, flexibility, and balance.
- To improve her strength they do dedicated strength training. He recommends that Beyoncé does kettlebell squats-and-presses. She will also target all her major muscles.
- To improve her endurance, they will focus on boxing and sprinting.
- Stretching is for flexibility.
- For balance, Beyoncé will focus a lot on single-leg step-ups.
Beyoncé’s Diet Plan
Beyoncé doesn’t really follow any particular diet – well, on a regular basis anyway.
She might follow a plant-based diet in preparedness for a show – but overall, she is very fussy about what she eats. She enjoys eating whole, unprocessed food.
Her diet will include lean protein, eggs, veggies, and some whole grains.
When she is on tour, it is her right to eat and ask for what she wants, but still, she won’t just wolf down junk food backstage. She eats things like oatcakes, almonds, and greens.
This is more or less what she eats in a day:
Breakfast
- Scrambled whites of an egg
- A veggie smoothie
- Whole-grain cereal with whole milk
Lunch and also dinner
- She likes much the same food for both lunch and dinner
- She will enjoy something like fish or lean meat and vegetables. She actually avoids red meat most of the time as well as a lot of rice and pasta. If she feels like grain, she will have quinoa which also has plenty of protein in as well.
A post-workout snack
When she has finished working out, Beyoncé will need something to fuel her body again. Usually, she will go for a plant-based smoothie that is full of pea protein powder, frozen fruit, almond milk, and spinach.
Cheats
It would all be so boring if she had to work so hard to look so good. Fortunately every now and then she will break her eating habits by eating something she loves.
People have heard her say that she will get “chocolate wasted” after a diet she has been on.
On Sundays, when she spends time with her family, she likes to eat pizza with them, and loves the saucy ones with plenty of jalapenos on them!
What about her Coachella performance diet?
That was in 2018 when Beyoncé announced that she was going to eat vegan for 44 days for her concert, Coachella. Her fitness coat created the 22-Day Revolution plan for her.
This involves cutting out all animal products for 22 days.
It is also recommended that you cut alcohol out as well.
Beyoncé is honest about her body.
She says “I’m not a naturally thin person. I have to work for it. In order for me to meet my goal, I’m limiting myself to no bread, no carbs, no sugar, no dairy, no meat, no fish, and no alcohol.”
When her Twitter fans caught wind of her and her diet for Coachella, they were shocked.
Fans hurriedly put their thoughts on the social media platform. Read more about her Coachella diet here.
Beyoncé’s Supplements
1) A Multivitamin
Many multivitamins produce hormones and enzymes that boost your immunity and keep your nerves and organs functioning at the optimum, even when you are eating a healthy diet.
Some say that our soil is being degraded and it’s losing its nutritional value, but we will leave that one to the scientists.
It’s a good idea to take multivitamins just so you know you are filling the gaps in where there might be nutritional deficiencies.
The body needs nutrients for maintenance, reproduction, growth, and body processes.
2) Vitamin B12
If you are on a plant-based diet, it’s a good idea to pay attention to your vitamin B12 intake.
It’s an extremely important vitamin, keeping our nerves and our blood in good order.
It helps to make DNA, which is the genetic material in all of our cells. Vitamin B12 also prevents you from becoming anemic, when you feel tired and weak a lot of the time.
3) Vitamin D
Vitamin D is a very essential nutrient.
Often it can be difficult to get it from plants, even if you do head outside for some of the sunshine vitamin.
The sunshine vitamin is known to fight disease, boost weight loss, and reduce depression. A shortage makes you tired with aches and pains, and generally not feeling well.
4) Zinc
Sometimes when you are on a vegan diet, you might fall short of zinc and that can lead to lower immunity.
Zinc can be found in many plant sources such as grains and legumes.
Taking zinc supplements helps to fight off bad bacteria and viruses.
5) Iron
Iron is found in plant foods, but you need it to fight off anemia, which causes lowered immune systems and fatigue.
Iron is important as it produces red blood cells which carry oxygen around the body.
6) Omega-3
Omega-3 fatty acids are vital nutrients because they help to manage heart disease and inflammation. Omega-3 also lowers blood pressure.
Beyoncé’s noteworthy recommendations
1) “One doesn’t have to fit into a specific category”
“My mother taught me the importance of not just being seen but also seeing myself. As the mother of two girls, it’s important to me that they see themselves too—in books, films, and on runways.
It’s important to me that they see themselves as CEOs, as bosses, and that they know they can write the script for their own lives—that they can speak their minds and they have no ceiling.”
2) Explore your creativity
Beyoncé loves to create things and dream a dream and turn it into something real.
3) Don’t put pressure on your body
Especially after the birth of her twins, when she was weighing 218 pounds, she realized how important it was for her body to heal and recover.
She realized that you can’t put it through the same treatments it was used to when it has undergone such dramatic change.
You have to make the right changes to accommodate your body and build it up again.
4) Make fitness fun
She believes in making her fitness fun because that’s what makes it easy to get back into it again – Or when you want to lose extra weight.
Whether it’s a yoga class or doing some special moves on the skating rink or the dance floor, or out in the wild outdoors, if it’s really fun, it makes it so much more pleasure.
And when you see the weight rolling off, so much the better!
Some fun activities that you love doing and which get your heart rate up can turn into longer workouts too, especially when you are so enjoying the moments – it beats the never-ending treadmill.
Yes, the change in Beyoncé’s fitness practices and her health show that with all her trial and error methods, she has continued to find what works best for her, her body, her health, and her lifestyle – and you can too!
It might be a lot of sacrifices, but the results make it worth it!
‘I can’t eat what I want and I can’t go to the gym. The truth is, it’s a lot of sacrifices.’ – Beyoncé