Adriana Lima Will Convince You to Finally Buy a Pair of Weightlifting Gloves

What do you get when you cross an international supermodel with almost 20 years of boxing experience? Apparently, a really-freaking-cute and functional activewear line. Earlier this month, Adriana Lima teamed up with Puma to launch Club Lima, a 14-piece boxing-inspired performance collection.

"It's the first time I'm bringing like a dream, a design, a collection, to life and I hope you really like it," the 38-year old former Victoria's Secret Model says in a promotional video for the collection. "It comes from my heart."

We sat down with Lima to hear about her inspiration for the collection, what's always in her gym bag, and the one exercise she's most proud of mastering.

The Idea Behind the Collection

"I took inspiration from retro boxing, as this sport has been my passion, and chose four of my favorite colors to bring this collection to life: gray, red, black, and white," she tells Shape. And it's clear she's invested in the entire process. "I've been working tirelessly with PUMA's design teams to make sure everything is perfect, every stitch, every detail, every material," she says. (

With leather-look leggings, oversized jackets, and cropped hoodies, the collection looks luxe but is affordable (and still gym appropriate) with pieces ranging from $35 for a training tank top to $130 for the AL x PUMA LQDCELL Shatter XT training shoe.

But what about performance quality? That's something Lima had high on her list of priorities. "Being at the gym for so many years, I've tried everything," she says. It's clear that the collection covers all major pain-points for everyday athletes. The AL Always Ready Bra (Buy It, $40, puma.com) offers mid-impact support and mesh ventilation for breathability; the AL Tight (Buy It, $80, puma.com) has targeted compression around the thighs and mesh panels for breathability, plus the must-have back pocket for storage.

That extends to footwear, too. "I wanted to have a shoe that can do it all, be stable, and have style," says Lima about the LQD CELL Shatter XT AL (Buy It, $100, puma.com).

ICYDK, Lima has been working with former champion boxer Michael Olajide, Jr. for years and regularly posts her sweaty workouts on her Instagram. (Olajide also helped Lima prep for the VS Fashion Show just five weeks after giving birth.) In order to be a better boxer, Lima says she cross-trains with strength days and cardio days, so she needed to make sure her collection could stand up to every workout in her routine. (

What’s Always In Her Gym Bag

Lima's number one staple? The AL x PUMA Women's Training Gloves (Buy It, $25, puma.com). "I always use them. Not only for weights, but I jump rope with the gloves." The main reason she uses them is for germs. "So many people are touching everything," she says.

And she's onto something. "I've even found MRSA [Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or staph, a bacteria that causes infection] on an exercise ball in a gym," Philip Tierno Jr., Ph.D., a clinical professor of microbiology and pathology at NYU Medical School previously told us. Even though she's careful, she's not neurotic. When asked if hand sanitizer was a staple in her gym bag, she joked, "no, I'm not that crazy." (Pssst here's how to keep your training gloves clean so they aren't super germy themselves.)

Aside from the gloves, Lima says she also carries at least one extra active outfit in her gym bag, just in case. "I always bring [an] extra pair of leggings, extra socks, extra pair of shoes—yes, another one—t-shirt, sweatshirt, and sweatpants. That's not a joke. And gloves for lifting weights." The reason behind the extra closet? It's not just for impromptu gym sessions. "I do sweat a lot too," she says, "It's boxing." Good to know: supermodels sweat, too.

How Adriana Lima Fell In Love with Boxing

"I started boxing 20 years ago, and [at the time] it was known only as a male-only sport/workout," says Lima. While she said she was skeptical at first, soon she became hooked (check out the benefits of boxing). "After two months of training on the mitts, I realized how fast and strong I could be. That was a different form of confidence and that started to build up on me." (Ready to give boxing a shot? Try this beginner-friendly boxing workout.)

The Hard AF Exercise She's Most Proud of

If you follow Lima, you know she's a beast in the ring (she's even shown off her bruised knuckles to prove it). But she's most proud of her mastery of the jump rope. "It took me four months to do three double turns in a row," says Lima. "That's a lot of mind game to say, 'you cannot do it, you cannot do it,' but I'm like, 'I'm going to do it.'"

If you've never tried them, double-unders are indeed crazy-hard for a number of reasons. "The first being that the timing, coordination, and flick of the wrist has to be in sync with the breathing and the height of the jump," says Leyon Azubuike, founder of boxing training gym Gloveworx, a friend of Olajide and who has also trained Lima. His tips for nailing the jump? "Start without the rope and gain height in a vertical jump, keeping your legs straight." (Try it in this 30-min jump rope workout.)

In order to achieve her goal, Lima said she practiced every day for four months straight, "I did not want to give up. I'm like 'I want to learn this' and I did. And everyone can."