Swimsuit

Certified Personal Trainer Brittney Nicole Shares Her 3 Favorite Workouts

The 2024 SI Swimsuit rookie has built her platform around sharing her love for exercise.

Ananya Panchal

Brittney Nicole was photographed by Ben Watts in Portugal.
Brittney Nicole was photographed by Ben Watts in Portugal. / Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated

SI Swimsuit’s newest 2024 rookie, certified personal trainer Brittney Nicole, is not your average health influencer. The Georgia native has traveled the globe with the U.S. Navy, having worked on projects ranging from school construction to runway building in Guam, Italy, Spain, Israel and Japan.

This May, she makes her debut in the magazine’s 60th anniversary issue, after being named a co-winner of the 2023 Swim Search. Nicole flew to Porto and the North, Portugal, where she was once stationed 10 years ago, for her photo shoot with Ben Watts.

Through her multifaceted career, Nicole has always prioritized her health and fitness. While on location with the SI Swimsuit team, she offered up her favorite muscle groups to work out. 

“If I’m going to work out anything, I would say my legs—I love doing hamstrings [and] glutes, and quads are my favorite. I love back [workouts] also,” she shares. However, even someone as dedicated and fit as Nicole has her weaknesses. She openly admits, “I’m a terrible deadlifter. My form is terrible.”

Brittney Nicole
Brittney Nicole was photographed by Ben Watts in Portugal. Swimsuit by Svn Swim. Necklaces by Cleopatra’s Bling. / Ben Watts/Sports Illustrated

The model has been building her platform with snippets of her up-and-coming modeling career, workouts she has been loving and seeing results from, and delicious, nutritious food and recipe inspiration. From protein-rich oatmeal pancakes to a hearty cozy harvest salad bowl, Nicole is all about balance. Despite her diet and exercise routine, she knows that self-love and improvement starts from within. 

 “I want to build my brand around being very health conscious and helping women with their health and their fitness goals,” she shares. “First you need to get your mentality right and then everything else kind of falls into place with the eating habits and the working out. When you work out, the chemistry just changes within your body. You feel better, you look better. It starts from within and then all of that kind of like exudes out.” 

The bodybuilder has been open about her journey to the open casting call, and how it’s something she never expected. She recently left her 9-to-5 job and is focused on this new, uncharted phase of life, full of pursuing her passions and fueling her body with what it loves. 

“What I hope people take away when they see my photos [is] someone who is strong and resilient, but at the same time, I don’t have it all figured out,” Nicole shares. “I’m coming into this completely new and [it’s] fun and exciting. I was in Portugal, deployed, and now I’m here 10 years later with Sports Illustrated [Swimsuit]. So your destination can change at any point and you just have to enjoy the journey. I really hope that people can see my photos and get inspired by my story and how far I’ve come.”

Read more about Brittney Nicole’s 2024 SI Swimsuit photo shoot here.

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Ananya Panchal
ANANYA PANCHAL

Ananya Panchal is a writer on the Lifestyle and Trending News team for SI Swimsuit. Before joining SI Swimsuit in 2022, she worked at Bustle, the San Francisco Chronicle and the TODAY Show. When she is not writing or doom-scrolling on social media, Panchal can be found playing sudoku, rewatching One Tree Hill or trying new restaurants. She's also a coffee and chocolate (separately) enthusiast. Panchal has a bachelor’s in communications and journalism from Boston University.

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