Long before wellness trends dominated social media, the racing icon embraced a grueling fitness and nutrition regimen that rivaled her on-track discipline. Danica Patrick’s NASCAR career made headlines, but her off-track obsession carved a legacy beyond the racetrack.
From CrossFit marathons to elimination diets, Patrick’s commitment to peak physicality, often overlooked amid her racing feats, became a cornerstone of her identity.
Danica Patrick’s CrossFit Obsession and Extreme Workout Evolution
Patrick’s fitness journey began with Insanity DVDs before pivoting to CrossFit in 2014.
“I feel like I finally know what it’s like to work out really hard,” she said. What started as curiosity became an obsession. She converted her North Carolina barn into a CrossFit gym, tackling daily circuits of burpees, deadlifts, and Olympic-style lifts.
“I guess it first started with those Insanity DVDs…and then I started doing CrossFit last year, and then you add on competition on top of super intense workouts … I do CrossFit as many days a week as I’m home,” she added.
In an interview with Sports Illustrated in 2016, she was asked about her favorite CrossFit workout.
“Burpees. Any bodyweight exercise in CrossFit is good for me. I have no problem with burpees. I really like burpees,” she admitted.
“I also like the GHD (Glute Ham Developer) machine. I’m pretty strong on the GHD machine. It’s something that murders people. You will be destroyed after doing them.” Yet Patrick thrived on the pain, often logging two-hour sessions.
“You’ll get the painful delayed onset muscle soreness two days after, and then you won’t be able to sit up in bed. But it’s good.”
The routine wasn’t just physical. “I’m well-trained mentally to push myself,” she said. “You have to push yourself to find new limits because you’ll never have a new limit if you don’t push it.”
Morning interval runs — 30-second sprints mixed with lunges or jump squats — replaced traditional cardio. By 2016, she’d abandoned rigid schedules for spontaneous, sweat-drenched marathons in her home gym.
How a Restrictive Diet and Yoga Balanced Patrick’s High-Octane Life
Patrick’s dedication to fitness extended to her kitchen. Amid her obsession with eggs, some blood tests in 2014 revealed her intolerances to gluten, dairy, eggs, and yeast, prompting a dietary overhaul.
“Your diet is at least three-quarters of the equation. If you don’t eat right or you eat too much, then it doesn’t matter how much you work out,” she said. Meals centered on organic proteins, quinoa, and sweet potatoes, all self-prepared to avoid hidden ingredients.
She dismissed fad juicing, opting for kale, spinach, and apple smoothies. “I’d just much rather eat the whole vegetable or the whole fruit then you get all the fiber from it.”
Yoga provided a counterbalance. Though she preferred CrossFit’s pain cave, Patrick dedicated hours to meditation and breathwork in her “wo-man cave.”
“In 2019, I have realized that meditation and breath are really where the growth comes from,” she wrote on Instagram. The practice, reignited in 2019, helped her navigate retirement’s transition.
Sponsorships demanding athletic wear visibility added pressure, but Patrick framed it as motivation. “Being fit is part of my job.” Yet her true drive was simpler: “Try harder. You can always do more.”
For Patrick, speed wasn’t confined to the track. It lived in every burpee, every breath, every bite.
