Serena Williams’ Workout & Weight Loss – Her Fitness, Weightlifting & Training Routine

Serena Williams workout

Most of us know about the famous Williams sisters, internationally renowned professional tennis players, Venus and Serena Williams.

Serena Williams has held the top spot in the WTA – Women’s Tennis Association rankings several times over her incredible career.

Can you believe she was already training intensively at age three?

Her father was determined to see his two youngest daughters succeed and Serena had to endure two-hour practice sessions from her father at their home in Compton, Californian. 

Even though Compton was a high crime rate area, Serena’s father wanted his daughters to see what happened if they weren’t prepared to work hard and get no education.

Serena won her first major championship in 1999. She then completed the career Grand Slam in 2003.

She’s also played in several series of double titles with her sister Venus.

She released a book; her autobiography, called Queen of the Court, in 2010.

In 2017, Serena defeated Venus at the Australian Open to claim the 23rd Grand Slam singles title of her career.

In 2019, even though she finished up her year without any Grand Slam wins, she earned the consolation prize of being the AP Female Athlete of the Decade.

The tennis champ married Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2017.

Today they have a 3-year old daughter together.

Serena and Alexis live in a mansion of a home just north of Miami.

As far as her career is going at age 40, her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, says “Nothing is decided. Everything is open. I don’t know if she’s done or if she wants to do one more year or two more years or whatever. I have no idea. So, we’re gonna probably after the tournament sits down and talk about it.”

Her current ranking in the world of tennis is no. 41 in 2021.

Current Stats

  • Weight: 72 kg. /158 pounds
  • Birthday: 26 September 1981
  • Birthplace: Saginaw, Michigan, USA
  • Accolades/accomplishments:   
    • She became the World’s No. 1 for the first time in July 2002 – She regained this ranking for the sixth time in February 2013. She became the oldest world no. 1 player in WTA’s history.
    • Serena Williams is considered widely to be one of the greatest female tennis players in history.
    • She is the only female player to have won over $50 million in prize money.
    • Serena Williams holds the most major doubles, singles, as well as mixed doubles titles combined amongst active players – male or female.
    • She has a record of 32 Major titles, making her at seventh place on the all-time list. She has won 17 singles, 13 women’s doubles, and 2 mixed doubles.
    • She is the most recent player to have held all four Grand Slam singles titles simultaneously out of males and females – she is only the fifth woman ever to do this.
    • Look at all her amazing achievements here.

Workout Principles of Serena Williams

Serena says that when she was a kid, she trained a lot, and really hard

As a kid, she says, she practiced hours and hours and then more hours. She noticed that as she got older, she practiced less.

Nevertheless, she says she had built a strong foundation for the future.

Serena says at the beginning of the tennis season, she trained very hard, almost breaking her body down.

She says that way when she did start, she was ready for anything that would take her through the eight to nine months of the season.

Then somewhere in the middle of the season, she would have another intense session of training.

It wouldn’t be as intense as the pre-season training, but it was enough to help her finish with plenty of energy for the rest of the season.

She conditioned herself to last at least four hours on the court

Conditioning herself, she made sure that she achieved results sufficient to last long on the court; for at least four hours and more.

She figured that if she could last that long in a match, then she would be able to last any amount of time. That was her goal, she says.

To condition herself these days, she has taken to do a lot of running and biking, plus lots of work on the tennis court.

She says she also started dancing.

After running for around 20 to 30 minutes, she says she starts to get bored, so for her, dancing not only conditions her body, but she has fun with it too.

She learned from her mistakes

She says one thing she did as punishment if she lost a match, she would watch a tape of the match, and learn from her mistakes.

That would make her apply what she had learned from watching the tapes to her next game.

She says her reward for herself if she did well was to take a couple of days off … like take a vacation and just have fun.

Serena Williams Training Methods

Serena says she stays in shape by doing lots of cardio, agility work, and strength exercises.

That’s according to her personal trainer, Patrick Mouratoglou.

Serena knows that to juggle being a top tennis ace as well as being a mother to her little girl, as well as keep tabs on her own clothing line, she needs to stay fit and strong.

She is mindful of the exercises she does in order to maintain muscle and keep her stamina up

According to Serena’s Instagram, she enjoys bodyweight exercises. She does circuits of moves that work her entire body.

For her incredible abs, she will do a core routine.

She told Fitness Magazine that she likes changing things up so she doesn’t do the same cardio all the time – so she doesn’t use the elliptical machine regularly.

To work her abs, she does combos of leg crunches, bicycle crunches, front and side planks, and also planks with hip dips.

When Serena works on her legs, her trainer will give her specific moves to keep her knees in excellent shape.

This is key for balance during tennis playing.

Patrick Mouratoglou, her personal trainer, explained to Shape that Serena focuses on simple exercises that help to strengthen the muscles that surround her knee joints.

She also does combinations of lunges, front squats, step-ups, and leg extensions.

Serena has the Nike Training Club app

She has her own 15-minute workout – anyone can download it.

Serena Williams’s Workout Routine

This two-times Olympic gold winner has some serious fitness goals. She has a pretty intense workout and her diet has the same intensity.

If you want to be a champ like she is, then it’s the type of discipline that helps you to achieve what she does.
Check her workout routine to get into perfect shape for matches:

Warm-Up

You should never underestimate a warm-up. If you don’t warm up first, you usually end up with cramps.

Warming up prepares the body to go through over around an hour of vigorous exercise efficiently without getting tired.

Serena’s warm-up consists of Zumba and cardio to get flexible – she does warm-ups for about 10 minutes before moving on to her hardcore exercise routine.

Arm Exercises

Serena does rolling knee tucks, fitness ball transfers, resistance band hip extensions, and plank rows.

Each of these lasts around 4 minutes.

Butt Exercises

Serena does barbell box squats, barbell pause squats, and barbell front squats. She will perform 3-5 sets of each of these.

Leg Exercises

She does bicycle crunches, leg crunches (horizontal and vertical), pillar holds, dumbbell walking lunges, dumbbell step-ups – She will perform 3-5 sets for each of the exercises.

Abs Workout

To build the kind of abs that Serena Williams has, she goes through a series of very complicated exercises.

But she is determined and she does it.

Planks

Serena’s personal trainer says planks are a great exercise to start with if you want to build strong abs.

The planks are supposed to be performed with a row using a band or a cable.

TRX-training

You put your feet on the TRX strap, stabilizing yourself, and pulling both your knees towards the chest.

Then you pull and release 15 times and perform 3 sets.

Medicine Ball

  • Medicine ball Squats:  This exercise requires 3 sets of 15 reps each.
  • Medicine ball rested side planks:  Repeat it 15 times in one set. Perform 3 sets.

Sprints

  • Serena sprints every day.
  • Her 100 m sprint she does under 20 seconds.
  • Her coach advises her to do at least 3 of these sprints.

Serena Williams’ Diet Plan

To maintain her good-looking abs, Serena has to keep her diet healthy and strict, and include lots of fruits and veggies.

Even though she travels all over the world, Serena never compromises on her diet.

A balanced diet that supports a tennis star like Serena should contain around 60-70 carbohydrates, 20 proteins, and 10-15 fat.

If the carbohydrates are insufficient, it will affect her muscles.

So athletes should never cut down on carbohydrates because this is their major energy source.

It is essential to keep muscles and bones strong.

Here’s what Serena’s meals look like:

Breakfast

Serena has a simple breakfast which is usually a cup of oats nourished with almond butter and strawberries.

Late Morning Snack

Because her breakfast is light, she has a heavier snack in the morning.

This will consist of vegetable sandwiches with no cheese, topped with peanut butter or almond butter.

Lunch

Serena usually has a salad at lunchtime.

Her type of salad will consist of lettuce, spinach, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, mandarin oranges, pita croutons, and peeled almonds.

Then she will also drink lemon juice to keep her fresh and which has plenty of minerals and vitamins.

Evening Snack

She often enjoys her favorite grilled chicken in the evening with green tea or low-sugar lemonade.

Dinner

Her last meal of the day is easy to digest and comprises a limited quota of salad, brown rice, and lots of freshly cooked veggies.

Serena Williams’ Supplements

It is said that Serena does not like taking supplements – she is ‘terrified’ of taking them.

Maybe she is worried that they carry certain substances in them and she wants to stay above board at all times.

So that means she is supplement-free.

She says her sister, Venus, suffered a lot from illness and introduced her to eating vegan and raw foods, which she enjoyed.

She says she “saw a lot of benefits in my game and my body in general from that, just even from a health perspective, I’ve never been a big fan of taking anything.”

Serena Williams’ Noteworthy Recommendations

Focusing on these four recommendations, Venus says you can train and condition yourself like a pro:

You have to think like a champion

High performers have a clear vision, attacking their goals with commitment.

A champ will study the weaknesses and strengths of the competition and then develop a game plan that uses their own skills to bring about the desired outcome.

You also need effective leadership skills – having a purpose that drives you and inspires others at the same time.

You have to step into that winning mindset, not only for yourself but also for the team.

You need to execute, adapt, and optimize your results

You need to be completely committed and focused on your training to reach the outcomes that grow you and which optimize your results.

You need to analyze your results, regroup with the coach to keep on track

As a player, you need to immediately regroup with your coach so that you can analyze every aspect of your performance and your opponent.

It is vital to learn from your results, evaluate your failures and successes, and be able to mentally prepare for the next game.

Today, at 40-years old, Serena Williams has turned all her experiences into growth into the future.

She has developed a mental toughness that’s allowed her to stay on the top of her game and to consistently outperform her competition.

Look out for the movie King Richard, about the Williams sisters and their coach-father, due for release in November 2021.

“Luck has nothing to do with it, I have spent many, many hours, countless hours, on the court working for my one moment in time, not knowing when it would come”Serena Williams