Fitness Training
Functional fitness queen Laura Horváth is advocating for women to do more strength training, saying "Every woman should be doing push-ups."
“Every woman should be doing push-ups,” says the fittest woman on Earth, Laura Horváth. After a dominant performance at the 2023 CrossFit Games, she's become an unstoppable force in fitness – a powerhouse of strength, resilience and sheer will. An icon of strength for everyone, she's redefined what it means to be an elite athlete.
Her fire goes beyond competition; she's using her fire for something bigger. With more women stepping into lifting competitions, taking on HYROX and shattering outdated fitness myths, Horváth's message is clear: strength belongs to everyone.
01
Born in a gym: The making of a champion
Some athletes discover their sport. Horváth was raised by hers. Her parents built a climbing gym in Budapest, Hungary, that became her playground. "They started building it when my older brother was born, 30 years ago, so I was basically born in the gym," she recalls. "I spent all my free time there. After school, I went there. At first, I was just hanging out and running around and then, when I was six years old, I became interested in climbing. I loved it and started competing immediately."
She dominated national championships, took on European Cups and kept pushing her limits, but she craved more. "I started doing strength training specifically for climbing when I was 16 or 17. So, I knew climbing wasn't enough and I had to do strength training." Her brother, Kristof, introduced her to CrossFit and the transition was inevitable. "Eventually, I did less climbing and more and more training with him. That's how I transitioned."
From boulders to barbells, climbing ropes to skipping ropes, Horváth swapped rock holds for iron grips, turning strength into play. CrossFit became her new playground: "I think it came naturally, because in climbing I wanted to compete. In anything in my life, I liked to compete. I'm very competitive with anything. Doing it as a hobby wasn't even a question, I always knew I wanted to compete."
02
The art of self love
For Horváth, strength isn't about looks, it's about self acceptance: "I started liking the female physique, the strong female physique, and not just being helpless and tiny. I've always been a little bit of a bigger girl, I think, and what I enjoyed about CrossFit is that there are no standards or body type. You can be bigger, you can be strong, you can be muscular and it just doesn't matter how you look – it matters how you perform."
Climbing had taught her that lighter was better, but CrossFit flipped that mindset upside down. "In CrossFit, it's not that you can be as big as you want, because there are limits, but your body naturally adapts, so your body weight isn't necessarily that big of an issue like in other sports."
03
Women's fitness revolution: Why can only guys do all these things?
Strength training is becoming a global movement. HYROX is proof of that. The global competition blends endurance and strength, pushing athletes through eight functional workout stations and running segments. Over 500,000 athletes are expected to compete during the 2024-25 season, proving that fitness isn't just about lifting alone in a gym – it’s about community, competition and confidence.
With nearly 50 percent female participation worldwide in HYROX, women's strength training is becoming mainstream – and Horváth loves it. That’s exactly the kind of movement she wants women to embrace: "I think everyone should be able to do a pull-up. Like, my mom hadn't been able to do a pull-up in years, but she started doing CrossFit and now she can do pull-ups. And I think that's amazing."
I think everyone should be able to do a pull-up
Lifting is more than muscle building, it's about the bigger outcome of independence. “Why can only guys do all these things? I think for women to be strong and move their body, or to lift heavy things up, pull themselves up or do a push-up, these things are just very empowering," Horvárth says. "Yes, it's nice to have men and help you change the light bulb but if I want to, I can do it."
More and more women are discovering that building strength in the gym translates to greater strength in life.
04
Message to women: Break the mold
Horváth refuses to fit outdated beauty standards. She's here to break them: "I just want everyone to feel good about themselves, with their body and not be defined by thinking 'Are you skinny? Are you bigger? Are you muscular?' If you feel comfortable in your body, that's enough.
"If you look at the magazines and see all the models there, they are skinny and they're obviously beautiful, but why can't you be beautiful if you're a little bit bigger or you have muscles? I always looked at the magazines and said, 'Oh! I'm never going to be that skinny, because that's not my body type. Why would I want to shrink myself, eat less and less, and disappear to fit that type of ideal woman?'"
Her success mantra? She doesn't just talk about strength. "If you have to be successful in anything, you have to have a very good routine. It has to be boring some days, because you just repeat the same thing over and over. It takes 10,000 hours to master something, so you just have to do it a lot and then you become very good at it."
For all the records she breaks and for all the weight she lifts, Horváth's deepest wish for everyone remains simple: "I feel like through sports like functional fitness, people can live longer, be healthier and just be happier overall."