Frida Redknapp has been moving her body in some form since she was a teenager, but it took motherhood and a slow unlearning of the modelling industry’s obsession with thinness — to transform exercise from obligation into something she genuinely loves. “I look forward to it,” she says. “I don’t do it because I have to.”
That shift didn’t happen overnight. A few years ago, she’d almost dread her PT sessions, going through the motions without joy. The turning point came when she took ownership of her own training, understanding what her body needed on any given day, rather than following a prescribed programme. Now she reads her energy levels and responds accordingly. “Maybe I had less sleep the night before. I really read into that. But I don’t skip it. I’m consistent.”
Lagree Pilates: the cornerstone
Three times a week, Frida heads to her local Lagree studio, just up the road from her home in West London. For the uninitiated, Lagree is not your average reformer class. It uses a machine called a megaformer, enormous, transformer-like and puts every exercise through four-to-six slow, controlled counts. The result is high-intensity Pilates that is genuinely tough, but with great music and an hour that flies by. She’s been going so regularly that she now knows all the exercises by heart. The studio is owned by a woman who also does private sessions with Frida and who, she says, makes the experience feel fresh every time.
Boxing at Box Clever, High Street Kensington
One or two mornings a week, Frida makes her way to Box Clever on High Street Kensington, a gym she clearly loves. Owner Pete trains her and the rest of the family and the space doubles as her weight training base when she isn’t working out at home. “Pete is the nicest man,” she says. Boxing is her main cardio, and it does exactly what good cardio should: it wakes her up, clears her head, and leaves her feeling better than when she walked in.
Weight training: on her own terms
Frida does a lot of her strength work independently at Box Clever or in a dedicated corner of her home, where she keeps a set of weights and uses the outdoor space in good weather. She has moved away from rigid PT-led sessions and now prefers the freedom to adapt day by day. On a Monday when she’s tired, she’ll choose a slower Pilates session over a punishing class. If she’s only got 25 minutes, she uses every one of them. “You can actually have a really effective shorter workout. As long as you do something.”
How she fits it into a full life
With five children and a business built from the kitchen table, Frida is pragmatic about time. Her ideal session is 45 minutes to an hour, slotted in between the school run and her first meetings, usually from around 8.30 to 9.15am. But the principle she lives by is simple: something is always better than nothing. Consistency, not perfection, is the goal. “I am extremely consistent. I just know long-term it’s going to benefit me in every possible way.”
