Today we’re listing 5 female metal musicians who are fit as fuck! This isn’t a ranking, just a list.
If you know of any other fit female metal musician that didn’t make this list, let me know in the comments...
If you'd rather watch this on video, click here or below:
So in no particular order. Lets fuckin do this…
Heidi Shepherd from the Butcher Babies
American co-frontwoman for Butcher babies, Heidi’s been pretty athletic her whole life. From being a cheerleader to track and field, it’s no wonder her stage performances are like an acrobat.
Credit: Archaic Images
However, Heidi faced several setbacks in her life that she was able to recover from and come back much stronger.
She survived a birth defect called gastrochisis, which left her with a 7 inch scar and kinda no bellybutton.
Then while competing in pole vault during her track and field career, she busted her back which ended her track career.
During an interview with the you rock foundation, Heidi talked about how she struggled with eating disorders and was anorexic and bulimic for a very long time. She also struggled with depression, anxiety and took to drugs and alcohol. These led to suicidal thoughts, losing friends, her then boyfriend and her sense of self-worth.
She attributes her comeback and being able to face these demons during that phase through writing and performing metal music.
In June 2017, Heidi quit smoking. She felt her stamina starting to slip and was having a harder time breathing on stage. Smoking was also doing a number on her voice as she felt her scream getting weaker each year. She knew that if she continued smoking, it would damage her vocal cords and ultimately her career. After she quit smoking, here’s what she said… “My singing and screaming voice is STRONGER, LOWER, HIGHER and Everything in-between. Running around on stage is easy and I feel like I gained a few years back”
In February 2022, Heidi took up Weight lifting. This is where her body seriously started to change. She continues to train with bikini fitness to this day where she combines heavy weight lifting with High Intensity Workouts particularly focusing on Glutes.
Coming from a background of eating disorders, here’s what she wrote
"After starting this journey I realized that it doesn’t matter what the scale says. It matters how my body feels. Back then, I worried so much about each and every pound on the scale, now I worry about each and every pound on the bar and how my body looks in my fave clothes"
You can see from these progress pictures how drastic the change in the shape of her body has been.
Performing on stage is no easy task, many musicians describe it as a workout by itself. You need stamina, strength and power to jump, run, scream and endure the performance for hours.
And so a combination of strength and high intensity cardio works best for musicians.
She usually takes a combination of collagen peptides, pre-workout and glutamine before crushing her intense workouts.
Here’s what she wrote in an Instagram post…
"I wake up everyday grateful and excited to be a part of this gym and group of women. These work outs have definitely made me a better person inside and out. Most importantly, I’m happy! Not only is my body getting stronger, but my mind is more at ease and positive. Being someone who has long-term lived with depression and anxiety issues, I can 💯 say that these workouts have helped curb those dark moments"
Lauren Hart from Once Human
This Aussie growler, actually wanted to be a cat, then a ballet dancer and finally a singer. She worked as a waitress in a cafe and a bar. She also studied to be a veterinary nurse.
She calls herself a crazy cat lady and has a metal cat!
Lauren is JACKED!
She trains at home, at the gym and even backstage when she’s on tour. While touring, she uses TRX straps and a spin bike.
She says "Workouts before the show are part of my vocal warm up! Suspension trainers conveniently fit in any backstage and don't take up room in the trailer"
Lauren trains a lot with band guitarist Logan Mader, who also played for Machine head.
Logan is fucking hot and deserves a separate feature.
In an interview with Metal injection, Lauren and Logan talk about training 90 mins a day, 5x days a week. They start with 15-20 mins of cardio to warm up and then train on 3-day cycles. Cardio and abs at each session.
When it comes to diet, they talk about eating a lot of protein, keeping carbs low, eating good carbs like sweet potato and veggies like broccoli and asparagus.
Lauren generally does more cardio when she’s going on stage to build lung capacity as her growling technique requires her to be fit to breathe correctly.
But the bulk of her training is lifting weights, and she incorporates a lot of heavy compound moves like deadlifts coupled with some high rep circuit training. Perfect to give her the strength and endurance to perform on stage.
Lauren uses upcoming shows and tours as motivation to train as hard as she can, because on the road, her equipment is limited and she tends to lose weight…. Every lifter’s nightmare!
In fact, she talks about post-tour muscular atrophy, where after every tour, the lack of gym routine, poor diet, stress, and lack of sleep, all kill her gains.
Luckily, because working out has been a lifestyle for her, She is able to bounce back quickly.
She also loves hiking and she and Logan regularly hike Red rock canyon.
She wrote…
"training has been especially important for my mental health and overall well-being. I feel worse longer, when I DON'T train, versus the short-term dread when approaching a workout"
Lauren sometimes sits in the parking lot of her gym and scrolls though her instagram feed for motivation, She follows people who inspire her and sometimes just scrolling through their profiles is enough to get her out of the car. Some of her fitness inspirations are Stephanie Sanzo and Athlean X.
In a post she says, "Surround yourself with people (even virtually) who motivate and inspire, and you will be lifted up!"
Enjoying this list?? Check out my YouTube channel here for inspiration from the fittest Rockstars and Metalheads
Laura Guldemond from Burning Witches
This Dutch vocalist from the all-female heavy metal band Burning Witches combines aggressive and melodic vocals. She draws inspiration from and has covered several old school metal bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. In her rendition of Iron Maiden’s Hallowed be thy name... She absolutely nailed it!
Laura is a big mental health awareness advocate as she herself struggled with an attention deficit disorder growing up. She believes that Mental health is as important as physical health and she even promotes a mental health charity.
She says that she was always a nerd at school but at elementary school, the teachers started calling her ‘scatterbrained professor’ because she couldn't concentrate on tasks.
She actually found this to be true because at university, she found it very difficult to stay focused even during easy repetitive jobs
It was only later that she realized and understood that her attention deficit disorder was the cause of her inability to focus as well as the cause of moods swings and depressed periods
Her specific condition had been difficult to diagnose and hence even harder for her to function normally and feel emotionally stable.
Fast forward to today, Laura also provides vocal coaching to aspiring singers on her youtube channel.
Like every performer, Laura needs to have strength, endurance and cardio capacity to perform at her best. Her physique is incredible and she really brings the whole package to stage.
I’ve had the chance to quickly chat with her and she said that She’s enjoyed working out her whole life. She lifts weights at Les Mills body pump classes. On tour she stays fit by using resistance bands.
Laura tries to bike or walk when she can to get in some of that heart conditioning cardio. She also goes bezerk (her words not mine) on stage and that keeps her in shape.
When it comes to food, Laura said that she’s tried different diets for health reasons, but she’s too lazy to cook so she really just eats whatever.
But… she does exercise portion control and makes sure to not overeat.
She practices intuitive eating and stops eating when she’s full, so she really listens to her body and has figured out what it needs to stay in shape.
Alissa White-Gluz from Arch enemy
This Canadian, Blue-haired metal goddess is best known as the lead vocalist of Swedish death metal band Arch enemy.
Check out the full feature on Alissa's fit lifestyle here.
Alissa and her partner, the very jacked Doyle best known from Misfits are both Vegan. Alissa was born vegetarian and turned vegan in the late 90s.
Around 2011, Alissa battled with deep depression but she refused to take anti-depressants. For 6-8 months, she read a lot of self help books daily to get herself out of that depression.
Although she says it was a weird time in her life, she found it very empowering because she was able to pull herself out and learn a lot from it.
Alissa is a follower of a straight-edge lifestyle, that is she doesn’t use alcohol, tobacco, and other recreational drugs.
When it comes to touring, Alissa believes that Musicians are athletes as they have to be able to perform at an extremely intense level night after night. For this reason, musicians have to train like monsters… beast mode if you will to have the strength and stamina to deliver on stage.
When Alissa is touring, She practices high intensity interval training and always carries adjustable dumbbells called powerblocks.
She also always carries resistance bands because they’re lightweight, versatile, great for stretching and rehab incase of any injuries on tour.
Alissa contributes her strong immune system to being vegan.
While she very rarely eats junk food, she's pretty strict with her diet on tour and completely avoids junk food on tour. This isnt just to withstand the physical aspects of touring, but because her vocal coach says that her diet impacts her voice.
She avoids processed foods, eats a lot of fruit, drinks a lot of water, avoids too much caffeine and avoids eating too late at night.
She generally lifts weights in the day time, and does a little bit of yoga right before the show. Alissa considers the show itself her cardio saying that it feels like 2 hours of sprinting when she gets off stage.
When she has a day off during tour, she usually walks about 15 kilometers while exploring.
Pre-tour she does a lot of high intensity circuit training as well and explosive movements like sprints and box jumps, usually outdoors if the weather permits.
She enjoys nice long jogs including intermittent jumping sprints
To keep her mind occupied, she practices guitar and painting in her free time.
Nita Strauss, solo guitarist and ex-touring guitarist for Alice cooper.
It’s hard to imagine the Nita we know today, with her washboard abs and toned arms, was once smoking and drinking constantly on tour.
Check out the full feature on Nita's fit lifestyle here
However, she came to realize that regularly going on tour was having a huge impact on her physical health and that her body couldn’t keep functioning with all the alcohol and smoking. She was 50 pounds heavier, constantly fighting with her boyfriend and was so unhappy with how she felt.
She wrote "For many years of my life, I absolutely would not, could not go on stage without having a drink or two (or 5). I would forego warm up time, rush to get dressed or get makeup on, whatever had to happen to make sure I could get properly loosened up and relaxed before the show"
Nita was able to kick the alcohol habit and got sober in 2015. She gives some credit to Black Label Society’s Zakk Wylde for the help she needed to overcome the habit. According to an interview with Matt stocks, Zakk gave Nita a pep talk when she asked for help.
He said....
"Listen, little hurricane, don’t be a f*cking p*ssy. That liquid means nothing, it doesn’t f*cking control you. You control yourself. You’re a strong badass b*tch, and nothing controls you. Only you control you"
Once Nita kicked the drinking habit, She dropped 50 lbs, her relationship improved and her career skyrocketed! Instead of fighting and drama, she now had productivity and peace.
She says, "Now that I’ve been sober for a long time, my pre show ritual looks very different. I still like to relax before getting on stage, so I find a quiet place to sit, stretch and warm up"
Nita also stopped going to the bar after her shows and instead started waking up early to go to the gym.
On stage, she has a step tracker to try to hit her 10k step goal. She is very active on stage, running back and forth with high energy moves and jumps. She wears a waist trimmer called ‘Sweet Sweat’ to help her sweat more.
She carries resistance bands with her for hotel room or gym workouts and tries to get in atleast 3-4 workouts a week.
Before her stage performance, she does sprints, less lifting and more cardio for about 90mins to get her prepped and energized.
While she loves being home and cooking in her own kitchen, she prepares herself really well ahead of her tours.
She tracks her macros and stays on a balanced meal plan which focuses on clean healthy eating without restricting food groups.
She loves protein bars for when she gets a sweet tooth, usually at the end of the night.
Nita tries to drink atleast half a gallon of water a day, takes L-Carnitine before her show and BCAAs during and after her show. Post-show, she refrains from eating a meal and has a protein shake instead with banana, chocolate and soy milk.
In addition, Nita takes Opti-Greens and Opti-Reds to boost her immune system and gut health. Her travel pack includes a full multivitamin, EFAs, Probiotics, Antioxidants and CoQ10 and another fruit & veggie blend.
Are you a Metalhead who lifts? Then check out our awesome Tees, Tanks and more at gymrockcrew.com
Stay Metal🤘
Ramona