If Senada Greca Were Your Personal Trainer, She’d Tell You This

Reported by MindBodyGreen.

Celebrity trainer Senada Greca has sculpted some of the most recognizable bodies in Hollywood — Kim Kardashian, Selena Gomez, Eva Longoria — and her philosophy is refreshingly un-punishing. No crash protocols, no extremes, no selling you a lifestyle you can't actually live. According to MindBodyGreen, her entire framework comes down to one deceptively simple idea: sustainability over everything.

The first thing Greca pushes back on is the idea that more is always better. "I don't believe in a one-size-fits-all approach," she says, pointing to her own sister — a mother of four running a business — as the kind of real woman a six-day program would immediately fail. Instead, Greca designs around your actual life, and she argues that the most powerful thing you can do is start small and keep showing up. Even five minutes a day, she says, builds what she calls self-trust — and self-trust is what eventually compounds into real, lasting results.

What an Ideal Week Actually Looks Like

That said, if you want a concrete target, Greca's recommended minimum for women prioritizing longevity is three strength days plus one sprint session per week. Her preferred split: two lower-body days heavy on squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts, and lunges (8–12 reps, three sets); one upper-body and core day using supersets to keep heart rate elevated while hitting multiple muscle groups; and one sprint day — 20 to 30 seconds of all-out effort, 90 to 120 seconds of rest, repeated five times. For the brain case alone, it's worth noting: a twin study she references found that stronger, larger leg muscles correlated with a larger hippocampus. Bigger legs, bigger brain. She's not joking around. Personally, Greca strength trains a minimum of five days a week, often six.

On nutrition, she's equally no-nonsense about the myths women have been fed. Protein matters — not just as a food category but at the amino acid level, she explains, because those building blocks are what the body actually runs on. But she's just as vocal about carbohydrates, calling the decades-long demonization of them a dangerous overcorrection. "That's our fast energy. Our brains need that." Smart carbs, not zero carbs. She's also watched too many women white-knuckle through restrictive days only to lose it entirely by night — comparing food restriction to a coiled spring that eventually bursts. Her fix isn't willpower. It's eating in a way that genuinely satisfies both your physical and mental needs, dessert included, ideally after your protein is handled.

Sustainable fitness and sustainable nourishment, she insists, are the only combination that actually works long-term — and if the woman training Hollywood's elite is telling you to stop torturing yourself, it might finally be time to listen.

Read the original at MindBodyGreen.