A lean, fit and healthy physique

Spend any time in gyms or follow female fitness creators on social media, and it is clear that many women in 2026 aspire to a strong, athletic physique, often with a particular focus on bigger glutes and more muscular legs.

Body trends come and go. What matters is what you want from your body.

This report is for women who do not aspire to the new ‘gym-body’ norm. It is written for women who prefer a leaner, more understated look: toned, fit, athletic and feminine, without appearing as though they go to a gym, let alone live in one. Think of the naturally lean, elegant physiques associated with the supermodels of the mid-to-late 1990s.

Sadly, you will not find many scientific studies or an accurate AI prompt that explains precisely how to create a “supermodel body”. Much of what follows in this report, therefore, comes from my coaching experience. This ‘experience’ includes helping women look like fashion models, helping working models get supermodel bodies, and also working with a plethora of bona fide Supermodels and Victoria’s Secret Angels who just want to look and feel their very best.

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How to Use This Report

As you read, you will discover the philosophy behind my work and five key lessons that can help you develop a leaner, fitter, elegant physique.

There is a lot of information here, so do not feel that you need to change everything at once. My advice –  read the full report first, then take a few minutes to think about it all and choose three ideas that resonate the most with you. Commit to putting all three of them into practice within the next 24 hours.

Follow them consistently for two weeks, then return to the report and choose two more ideas to introduce… You get the idea! Knowledge is important and interesting, but it’s only in the application of new knowledge that change happens.

Lesson 1 | Blame Your Parents

Let’s start with the obvious. Can everyone (without extensive surgery) get the body of a Supermodel? Well… no.. of course not. Nor is this necessarily a bad thing.

Global fashion industry standards have not caught up with the modern, diverse world we live in, and still, deep down, mostly promote the ‘ideal’ of a fashion model being young, white, tall and slim.

There are many things we can say about this, none of which are positive!… but in the context of this article, I just want you to be careful with your aesthetic goals. Please make sure your ideal body is really YOUR IDEAL BODY (not society’s, an algorithm, magazine editors or some random luxury brand’s marketing department). Striving towards a new aesthetic goal takes a lot of time and energy, so please do make sure that your dreams/goals/desires truly serve YOU…

How do we know if our body goals are good for us? I recommend having a long think about the process,not just the ‘result’ of making your body goals a reality – does the process seem fun or empowering? If so, great! But if the process seems like it’ll be detrimental to your relationships, career or mental health, then I suggest a rethink of your fitness/body goals would be sensible. There’s no point putting all your energy into climbing a ladder… to get to the top and realise that you’re not only tired, sore, bruised & bleeding, and the view is way worse than you expected… all because you’re leaning your metaphorical ladder against the wrong building. (I’m not sure this analogy works at all!… but you get my point, I hope?).

We all know that focusing on trying to look like someone else is usually pretty toxic for one’s self-esteem, and I can assure you, working with countless objectively beautiful women over the years in my capacity as a trainer to a plethora of famous Actresses, Popstars and Models, I’ve seen firsthand how looking a certain way has very little to do with happiness, self-esteem or body-confidence.

However, the process of training for a body goal, even a predominantly aesthetic/vain one, can be very positive to our self-esteem, health, longevity and confidence when done in a mindfully holistic, strategic, playful, intelligent and athletic way. If you want to look like a supermodel and getting there requires new healthy habits, awareness, discipline, commitment, dedication and some good old-fashioned hard work.. and on top of that, you actually enjoy it…. well… that sounds good to me.

Turning a non-Model into a Victoria’s Secret Angel

Even though your Genetics are an undeniably big factor in how you look today, you can still dramatically change how your body looks by changing your training, diet and tweaking your lifestyle.

Let me share an example. About 10 years ago, The Daily Mail Newspaper asked me to ‘transform’ one of their journalists into a Victoria’s Secret Angel. Feeling pretty confident in my skills, I agreed

It took us four months to get there. She worked damn hard, but to be fair, Poppy was already lean to begin with. If she were a UK size 14 and had never exercised before, it would have taken me 12 months to get her into a VS Angel kinda shape. I mention this because looking at what others have achieved can be quite inspiring, reminding us that anything is possible with the right help and commitment.

The trick (as with all goals in life) is to be crystal clear on the outcome and be willing to make the sacrifice! For example, training really hard when no one is looking, cooking rather than ordering takeout, and doing that final rep you don’t want to do… these are all choices within our power and necessary to make dramatic changes in our fitness and body.  Click here to read the Daily Mail feature.

I’m proud of her results and happily wrote the foreword to her book (‘Poppy’s Seceret)… but in the same way that Female Celebs with good bodies are constantly featured in Women’s Health, Shape etc …being probed into their their secrets to their toned bodies… personally, I think you should care less about ‘celebrity tips and inspo and and give more attention to the science of nutrition & exercise. I say this because celebrities, models, and even fitness content creators often have great bodies despite their training! Please do not blindly take others’ advice; what they think works for them may be interesting but is certainly not necessarily applicable or optimal for you.

My advice: if exercise is important to you, learn the science behind it; never take advice blindly (including from experts like myself); always ask “why exactly is that” when someone gives you fitness or diet advice. Take what is useful to you… And discard the rest.

Lesson 2 | Train Intelligently 

Is weight training important for a lean, Supermodel body?

The first thing to note is that the young women I work with who need to get into shape quickly for fashion weeks, a campaign shoot, a movie role or upcoming auditions/castings ALL lift heavy-ass weights. Weight training is a shortcut to getting quick results, and being strong is the foundation of an athletic, fast-metabolising & well-functioning body.

The caveat is that the ‘fashion model look’ is rather specific and not in line with what most gym trainers consider good-looking nowadays. Being Strong has been a current trend in women’s fitness for about 10 years now.. which is great if you’re into that, but for fashion models, wannabe supermodels and women who prefer a softer and leaner look, the popular ‘gym body / strong vibe is just far too muscular and too bulky on arms, glutes, thighs, upper back and sides of shoulders. If you want an athletic, supermodel-lean look, you need to train a bit differently from the way the mainstream fitness industry currently promotes female fitness training. You have to be very selective about which exercise you lift heavy on.

I use a variety of weight-training exercises with my model clients. However, there are some common ones I never do, and around 20 moves I use a lot.. Below, I’ve given a sample of some of them. There are also many popular exercises that I never/rarely prescribe to those who want a fashion look or are preparing for a shoot/campaign/event.

My Top 3 Weight-Lifting Moves for Models

 

1. Romanian Dead Lifts (aka RDLs) – help to raise glutes and tone hamstrings (and strengthen lower back) without any thigh quad bulking. (Models’ hip measurements are taken lower than the hip bone, so bulky/strong Quads mean you won’t fit into sample sizes and do any catwalk work. Muscular legs and glutes are the opposite of the fashion model aesthetic. I sometimes get some of my catwalk clients lifting to 1.75x their body weight for several reps without any fear of them bulking up. FYI, Beginners (who are not clinically obese should usually aim for 1kg per 1kg of desired body weight.) I also program in a lot of unilateral (one-legged) RDLs as this helps correct lower body muscular imbalances, improves core-stability & coordination and allows us to focus on hamstring and glute definition while not overloading the lower back (and when I do need to focus on lower back strength, I rotate in deficit deadlifts into the mix). As I write this, I have a few runway/catwalk model clients who can lift over 100kg. *(Edit Summer 2026 – my long-term client Fran Summers did 112.5kg with me last week – literally the week before a Vogue cover shoot. She is a beast! And a perfect example of how a supermodel should train.)

FYI, Hip Thrusts are also a fantastic exercise and slightly better for glutes, so I use them a lot – but I like my female clients being exposed to the sport of Powerlifting, so RDLs and all their variations take the mantel!

 

2. Unilateral Bent Over Rows – Tones back, arms and shoulders. There are 3 main ways of doing this exercise. As with any exercise, it’s not just what you do; it’s how you do it that matters. I prefer the version where you reps at speed while rotating the torso to stretch the lats more. This isn’t quite as good for posture and lower trap/rhomboid activation as the more commonly taught flat back variation of this exercise, but since you’re lifting heavy, there is a greater metabolic and athletic effect. I.e., you tone up & burn fat more! It’s also more fun doing them this way. Most of the models I work with use 17.5 kg, and we go for 4 sets of 25.

 

3. Posterior Deltoid Flies – improves posture and helps give the top of arms, back of shoulders and upper back more definition without the bulk of lateral flies or popular excessive (cross-fit style) pressing exercises. This is one of those exercises that look easier than they are. For most of us, just 3-4 kg on each side is enough. I tend to go for higher rep ranges for this, usually 4 sets of 12-15 reps, as I have found it gets superior results.

Five good exercises I never use with Models: 

  1. Weighted Squats – as there is far too much emphasis on quads.
  2. Wide-grip Lat Pull-Downs – as it builds up the upper back and shoulders too much.
  3. Shrugs – as it builds up the neck to much.
  4. Triceps push-downs – make arms look too manly
  5. Leg Extension & Presses – too much emphasis on the front of the legs (quads)

The best Cardio for a Supermodel Body

Weights are great for burning fat and building muscle, so where does that leave cardio? Well, cardio is also good for fat burning… and is fantastic for improving your VO2 max (a longevity marker), for the development and care of your heart & lungs… and for feeling energised. Regardless of how you look, you can’t really feel fit without doing cardio!

Thankfully, unlike in the worlds of bodybuilding and ultra-endurance sports, if we are clever, train right and aim for an athletic, toned, and lean look… we do NOT have to choose between BEING fit & healthy and LOOKING fit & healthy.

 

My Top 5 Recommended Cardio Activities

1. Versa-climber

2. Running / Treadmill

3. Cross Trainer

4. Assault Bike

5. Kickboxing on a Bag

NB: a note about Battle Ropes. Popular with Fashion Models on social media… but are they any good? Well, in my opinion, they are okay. Not Great, not rubbish.. just okay. If you add in lunges while doing the arm stuff, they can be better and become metabolically challenging.   My issue with them is that your grip, forearm and arm muscles become the limiting factor in the vast majority of drills.  So yes, there is a cardio effect, but they are better suited for when you need to develop grip, arm & shoulder endurance/laactic acid tolerance. So if you’re a waterskier, wrestler or swimmer – I would have these higher up the list, but for most people I would say use them occasionally, for fun, and that’s why they don’t make my top 5!

With cardio, I mix up interval training with LSD (long steady distance) training, and generally, I work to a 50/50 ratio. When done in the same gym session, always do the intensive interval stuff first, then LSD straight after, as it’s better for mobilising the fat out of the body – and mentally, it feels nicer too.

To achieve fashion modelly legs (be with with full-time models or clients that want to have a body like fashion models), I usually avoid too much uphill running, resisted cycling and long-distance rowing, as these are all very quad-dominant activities.

The Science Behind How I Train Supermodels

For any fellow exercise science nerds reading this, my programming blends a range of conditioning methods, including HIIT, submaximal interval training, Fartlek, and Tabata protocols (using 1/2 and the full 20-minute variation). I typically prescribe two to three high-intensity conditioning sessions per week, along with one weekly long zone 2 session, to build and maintain an aerobic base.

When integrating strength and conditioning, I generally use full-body training for beginners before progressing more experienced clients to two- or three-day training splits.

My annual programming follows an undulating wave periodisation model, allowing intensity and volume to fluctuate throughout the year. Unlike bodybuilding, where the goal is to peak for a single competition or photoshoot, my clients need to feel good, perform well, and remain camera-ready all year round. To achieve this, I’ve developed my own variation of the Conjugate system, which allows multiple physical qualities to be trained simultaneously while keeping training varied, effective, and sustainable.

Before specialising in fashion models and actors, I spent years coaching professional athletes, so exercise science remains the foundation of everything I do. That said, I also draw extensively on bodybuilding for physique development, combining it with striking drills from combat sports, kettlebell training, light sandbag work, SAQ training, and carefully selected elements of Pilates, yoga, and the Alexander Technique.

The result is a body that’s not only lean and aesthetically balanced, but genuinely athletic, resilient, and capable.

When it comes to aesthetics, I train my Fashion Model clients to look lean, healthy, toned and ‘effortlessly fit’. Unlike the athletes and actors I work with , I don’t want them to look like they spend time in the gym!. The fashion industry has its look, so as a model, you kinda have to work within its parameters if you want to be successful.

Fitness Standards

A selection of the standards I strive for my Model clients to meet.

  • RDL 1.75x Bodyweight for 1RM
  • 12 kg Kettlebell swings – 100 with no rest and  good form
  • 2 perfect pull-ups
  • 10 proper press-ups in a row
  • 90+ Metres in 20s on Concept 2 Rower
  • 10k run in sub 55mins

I also have standards regarding Box jumping, Kickboxing, agility/reaction training, mobility, and posture. I always want my clients to be more athletic and capable, but when the goal is to look like a Supermodel, then I don’t want them to get too muscular; that’s why aiming for 2x Bodyweight Deadlifts (which is one of the standards I hold my male clients to) doesn’t make sense. Nor do I hold my female clients to account when it comes to things like back squats, bench press, bicep curls, shrugs, or sprinting – as getting significantly better at any of these activities is usually not conducive to their aesthetic goals.

Any exercise or movement is ’good’ for you in the general sense and is far better for the soul, brain and body than not moving. But if you want to achieve a long, lean, model-esque body I have four principles you should adhere to:

Principle One
Pick exercises that focus on your posterior chain development. Your posterior chain is an important collection of muscles in the back of your body –  we’re talking about the hamstrings, glutes and lower back. Working these muscles hard in a compound rather than an isolated way is always better! They significantly improve functional athletic fitness, improve your running, help you drop body fat, and are amazing for sculpting the backs of your legs and glutes.

 

Principle Two
Pick exercises that challenge the core. Getting strong from the inside out reduces injury risk and builds a solid foundation for more advanced training.

 

Principle Three
Pick exercises that improve body awareness and athleticism. When we train mindfully and athletically, we treat our body more like an instrument than an ornament. While you want to look like a model, I want you to FEEL like a superhero with real self-confidence and zero body hang-ups.

 

Principle Four
Pick exercises that improve posture. Improving posture reduces headaches, the chance of back injuries down the line and gives a taller, slimmer, more confident appearance. Your physiology directly affects your emotional state, so having an amazing posture can also truly help you face the day and make it your own.

Lesson 3 | Choose your Online Workouts wisely

There are so many, and they can be a lot of fun! Well-known workouts such as Zumba™, Kayla’s BBG™,  MX™,  Pvolve™ Barrecore™,  Bodycombat™, Insanity™ and P90x™ – all can have benefits for women, but what’s best for you? There are many new workouts dedicated to female well-being launching every year, as well as more generic classes that focus on boxing, Pilates, ballet or yoga – so how do you know if they are any good for you and your body goals?

Give everything a try as you don’t know what you like until you try it! But the number one rule is to do your research.

Trial and error is one way of finding out, but if your time is precious, I recommend reading up about the philosophy and credentials of those who created them and seek out real customer feedback about the workout. Personally, I rarely recommend doing excessive cycling, hill sprinting, and rowing-based workouts as most of us are very quad dominant (sitting at desks and doing too many squats and lunges cause this), thus doing more quad-based work is totally nonsensical from an athletic, functional and aesthetic standpoint. (NB: I personally love cycling, running hills, and have a rowing machine at home… and don’t have massive quads. Contrary to popular belief I have found that women’s quads/thighs usually bulk up far easier than guys quads).

MX™ Fashion Model Workout Club is my signature online training system, created to help women develop a long, lean, supermodel physique without sacrificing strength, fitness or athleticism. I’ve continued to refine the programme for over a decade, drawing on my experience coaching professional fashion models around the world.

Women’s Health described MX™ as “the workout bible for models.”

Learn More | Join for just £50

Lesson 4 | Eat, Sleep, Be Kind, Repeat

The next section is about eating. They say that 80% of results are diet-driven. This isn’t 100% true for people who are already slim or already eat pretty well, but there are definite things you can eat (and avoid eating) which will improve your health, mood and results.

Here we shall look at three areas of personal wellbeing that will help to achieve and sustain a Supermodel Body.

Feed Yourself

This is a huge topic, and there is a wealth of real science, knowledge, and informed opinion about proper eating available online for public consumption. But alas, there is also a lot of pseudoscience, uninformed opinion, and technically poor (and unethical) eating advice.

These are my top tips from my experience working with female clients who are on a quest to get lean, fit, and ready for bikini photo shoots and the catwalk.

1. Sit down two to three times a day and eat a natural, nutrient-dense, colourful meal. And look after your Gut.. The easiest way to do this is to eat way more plants, seeds and nuts. Your immune system will thank you when you get older!

2. Don’t make a habit of snacking. ‘Healthy’ snacks are often very deceptive, e.g. gluten-free does not equate to healthy in any way (unless you are celiac), and be wary when you see the words ‘natural’ on packages. If it’s truly natural, it doesn’t need to be wrapped in cardboard!

3. Aim never to be full or hungry – feeling a bit of both throughout your week is fine, but always try to avoid extreme feelings.

4. Drink more water and less wine.

5. Create a routine and be good 85% of the time, and don’t judge yourself the other 15% of the time – this will help to create balance, reduce cravings and help you feel human!

6. Don’t miss out on food groups unless you have allergies. Pasta and dairy are not evil and do not cause problems for the vast majority of us.

7. Eat more veg. Green stuff is generally best, but the more colours on your plate, the happier your microbiome will be.

8. Learn how to cook. It’s empowering and valuable to know exactly what you put into your body. You will improve your relationship with eating and food generally when you learn to make it with your own bare hands.

9. Eat real food and avoid ‘ultra-processed crap’ If you snack/dinner is wrapped in plastic, has more than 20 ingredients, half of which you can’t pronounce, I’d be slightly wary! Even if you don’t have allergies to them, E-numbers, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Sulphites, etc etc can’t actually be any good for us, can they?

10. When feeling bloated, make sure you are not dehydrated. Three litres of water/tea a day is a good rule for most of us. To naturally get rid of any annoying bloat, drink more fresh lemon water & potassium-rich coconut water, eat more celery, have zero- or low-salt, and avoid heavy carbs such as bread and pro-inflammatory Omega-6 foods. Oh, and one thing… when on your period, I say relax and let your body do & crave what it wants.. but when you have an imminent event/casting, and you want to look your slimmest, then prioritise fixing your posture and tweak your diet (essentially making sure there is less sodium) – this is far better than other traditional modelly ways – namely skipping your period (if on contraception) or by messing around with diuretics. Please never use these horrid pills. Along with fat-burning pills, diet teas, laxatives, etc. – stuff like that ALWAYS creates way more problems than solutions AND is unnecessary.

Sleep Well

We all need different amounts of sleep at night, and actually, quality is more important than quantity. To improve your quality of sleep, my advice is go to sleep happy!

This means avoiding stressful situations, arguments and all those boring yet stimulating activities like reading work emails on your phone or mindlessly scrolling through strangers’ filtered lives on TikTok. Experiment with different tactics –  when you are training hard, I advise sleeping an extra 30 minutes a night, but do whatever feels normal and right for you.

Listen to Episode 12 of the MX podcast, where I chat with J-Lo’s Trainer, Jay Cardelio, all about Sleep and Mindset.

p.s My recommended products page on this website includes a weighted sleep blanket. If you want to sleep better, it really is a game-changer!

Be Kind

Self-improvement can become self-indulgent if we are not careful. Sometimes we can commit so much to exercise, eating healthy, dispensing with ’toxic’ friends and living our best life that we become self-obsessed and judgmental about other people’s life choices.

We are all in different places on our wellness paths, spiritual development, and general adulthood-ness. We should always strive not to judge. Be nice and support others so we can make the world and society more positive. No matter how ‘hot’ our bodies may get, narcissism is so ugly, and on the flipside, authentic ego-less kindness is the most attractive quality any person can possess.

Lesson 5 | It’s All In The Mind

The Supermodel Mindset

In this final part, I want to share the secret to why some people make (and maintain) tremendous changes and achieve impressive results, while others do not. This secret is mindset.

My coaching company has the tagline ‘Live the Athletic Life’.  Having an athletic mentality is a choice where we decide to love our bodies today while striving for them to be better tomorrow (the older I get, the more I realise that happiness and gratitude are synonymous).

An athletic mentality also makes you appreciate and use your body as a vehicle of self-expression, an instrument, not just an ornament! This is far healthier, useful, truthful and effective than reducing our identity to walking clothes hangers!

Focus on performance, not just the aesthetic results.

While we should always have easy days and hard days when it comes to exercise intensity… in my experience, most of us don’t train hard enough and are missing out on how amazing that feels! so this week, work harder than the person next to you, work harder than everyone else in the gym, and most importantly, work harder than YOU did last week. Don’t count reps; go to your max, start counting only when you want to stop, and then do five more no matter what! Don’t take gym selfies; concentrate on what is important, be focused, be intense and aim not just for good form but perfect form and stay focused with every single rep. This will get better results for you, and it’s more fun and better for your mental resilience.

I always remind my clients that they are athletes. They live active, healthy lives and will often be kickboxing, ‘MX-ing’, lifting heavy weights, learning new skills and generally working their butts off!

You may not feel like it right now, but YOU are also an athlete. No matter your age, size, shape or current fitness level, you are designed to move and improve. Please celebrate this fact as you train for your goals.

A Gift for You

If you want help with your mindset, I have something for you: It’s 90 consecutive days of my daily mindset lessons straight to your inbox every day. – sign up here to receive them. It’s totally free.

What Next?

Hopefully, this feature has given you some things to think about, and you’ll incorporate some of the exercise, nutrition and mindset ideas into your training. If you want more assistance, you have some options: