If you’ve ever dreamed of being featured in a bikini on an iconic magazine cover, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model Katie Austin is here to tell you — it’s not that hard.
The magazine unveiled its four 2025 covers this week featuring Salma Hayek, Olympian Jordan Chiles, NCAA gymnast Livvy Dunne and model Lauren Chan — and Austin is back inside the issue for the fifth year in a row.
The 31-year-old — who is also the daughter of legendary aerobics instructor Denise Austin and a fitness influencer with over 457,000 Instagram followers — spoke to The Post about the routine she follows to get in shape in the days leading up to the shoot.
“First off, I just want to say that SI Swimsuit is always the most inclusive and accepts you for whoever you are and whatever body type you have,” she said.
“It’s nothing about, ‘Oh, I need to lose weight,’ or ‘I need to eat better to look perfect for the shoot.’”
That means the lead-up is less about shedding pounds than it is about shedding self-doubt.
“It’s more about heading into the shoot feeling my best, feeling my strongest, most confident and comfortable on set,” she said.
That being said, there is some exercise involved, which is why she recently launched her “Swimsuit Strong: Seven-Day Body Boost” program, revealing the precise exercises she did in the week before her shoot last year.
“It’s a little less than 40 minutes per day, but those are the exact workouts I did,” she said.
The entire program — which is available on her app — combines Pilates, cardio and strength training for a fast and effective full-body sculpt.
The key is to stick with it.
“The one thing I do the week before the shoot is make sure I work out every day,” she said.
“I eat intuitively all the time and stay consistent with my workouts. I also make sure I walk for at least 20 to 30 minutes every day for my mental health. I think being in a great mental headspace before the shoot is really important. You just feel your best.”
As for her diet?
“I don’t really set a diet for myself,” she said. “With food, I don’t restrict myself too much, but one thing I do the seven days before is not eat after 8 p.m. and just stay very hydrated. “
Of course, she’s human — which means she also has days when she doesn’t feel like working out. When that happens, she’s got a nifty little mind trick to get herself motivated.
“I tell myself I’m only going to do five to ten minutes, and then I’ll feel so much better and I’ll want to keep going,” she previously told The Post.
“If I tell myself beforehand, ‘I’m going to do a 30- to 45-minute workout,’ I probably won’t accomplish it because that sounds intimidating.”
If the window is that small, she usually opts for strength training over cardio.
“Strength would definitely make me feel more productive and just get me moving. I probably wouldn’t do a cardio workout just because I’d need my heart rate to be up for longer, and also, if I only have 10 minutes, I probably don’t want to get too sweaty,” she said.
And if she’s feeling really uninspired — she will at a least go for a brisk walk.
“Walking is not only amazing for your physical health, but also for your mental health,” she said. “Even if you just walk for 15 to 20 minutes.”
“What I love to do from there is use it as a way to start my workout if I’m feeling unmotivated. You’ll get motivation, brain power and energy from your walk, and then you can start your workout.”
The star also shared some advice from her famous mom.
“One thing my mom has always told me is how important strength training is, especially as we get older, for bone density,” she said.
“As we age, we tend to focus on Pilates or low-impact workouts, but making sure you still do strength workouts is really important to stay strong and healthy overall,” Austin said.
“Even my mom strength trains about four times a week,” she added.
