Watching Motsi Mabuse a woman who has spent her entire adult life performing, competing moving acknowledge that she couldn’t execute a lunge is subtly startling. Her body had just stopped cooperating, not because she was lazy or uninterested.
Early in 2025, she recorded that moment on her phone it turned into a pivotal moment. She was in tears. A professional dancer who served as a judge on Strictly Come Dancing for seven years was moved to tears by a lunge.
At 45, Motsi Mabuse’s fitness journey didn’t start with a sponsored wellness program or a personal trainer. It started with a doctor’s appointment that didn’t go as planned. High cortisol and inflammation were found during a full-body examination.
What was more difficult to rule out was a family history of type 2 diabetes, which was exacerbated by gestational diabetes during her pregnancy. The doctor gave her a direct verdict. “Mrs Mabuse, you can’t continue like this” . Hearing that must have come as a cold shock to someone who has always lived inside her body and trusted it through competitions, live television two decades on international dance floors.
Perimenopause, which she described as having all the nuance of a freight train, was layered over the medical findings. She was losing the one thing she truly loved dancing with her husband due to mood swings, exhaustion knee pain.
She told Women’s Health, “I love moving and I couldn’t do that any more”. Particularly when you’re still in the middle of it professionally, it’s difficult to imagine the particular kind of grief that results from losing something so intricately woven into your identity.
She didn’t call a gym or a nutritionist first. It was to her younger sister Phemelo, who, according to Motsi, is the healthiest person in her life and competes in marathons and Ironmans in South Africa. She did not receive a meal plan or a training regimen in return.
It was probably more practical because it was simpler. Step outside. Take a ten-minute walk. Then fifteen. Next, proceed from there. A woman designed for large stages being instructed to begin with a ten-minute walk has an almost poetic quality, as well as a genuinely wise one.
That stroll served as the cornerstone. After that, she hired PT Dirk Berresheim for weekly sessions, saying that “we do the heavy stuff” while doing two or three more exercises by herself, which included weight training and sixty minutes of incline walking. Everything was captured on camera by her.
Looking back at that first video, weeping over a lunge she was unable to perform and finally finishing it while it hurt, shows someone who views progress as proof rather than an emotion. She has always been an athlete. She handled this in the same manner.
From there, the physical alterations spread outward. Pilates was added to the schedule. Twenty minutes in the morning and twenty in the afternoon are spent swimming in the sea. a change in diet that includes more protein, fewer processed shortcuts 16:8 intermittent fasting.
Every week, contrast therapy consists of a sauna, ice bath, sauna, ice bath sauna. She attributes her improved sleep and decreased inflammatory markers to it. It’s noteworthy that she focused on recovery rather than just output because it’s a serious protocol that demands genuine dedication to maintain.
Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of Motsi Mabuse’s 45-year-old fitness journey is how well she distinguishes between functional and esthetic goals. She didn’t respond to the weight-loss rumors on those terms, as is customary for women in the spotlight.
“This journey was never about becoming smaller” , she replied. “It was about becoming stronger” . Whether you believe that or not, the details of what she developed strength training, swimming, Pilates, incline walking contrast therapy do not point to someone chasing a number on a scale. They imply someone making an effort to feel competent once more.
She no longer has any problems walking at the highest treadmill incline. Once more, she dances with her husband. Every Thursday, she shows up for a breakfast date that serves as a relationship check-in in addition to Pilates. Maybe little things. They represent something earned for someone who was unable to lunge at the beginning of this journey.