Q&A with Amulet Ambassador: Maria Sharapova
April 13, 2026
Though she needs no introduction, Maria Sharapova is a five-time Grand Slam champion, former world No. 1, and one of the all-time greats in tennis. We were lucky enough to sit down with her to chat all things women's health & wellness.
As an athlete, you were expected to perform no matter what your body was going through. How did you learn to listen to your body while still competing at the highest level?
One of the lessons I learned as an athlete was recovery was just as important as the performance. You could have a plan for your training routine, but listening to your body is so much more important than always sticking to that plan. It’s about being able to pivot, acknowledging that one day you might wake up and your body and mind might not feel ready and up for the challenge of what you’ve proposed for that particular day. It’s okay to take a step back and reevaluate and recover. And recovery takes all different forms. It can be an active recovery, whether it’s a mindful session of breath work or a walk with a friend. As long as you’re moving your body, you’re still feeding it.
Were there moments in your career where understanding your body better would have changed how you trained or recovered?
There are certainly more tools and gadgets available to give you a baseline and foundation, but then the biggest question becomes what you do with that information and how you interpret it. Educating yourself on what all those markers mean in order to gauge how far you can take your body is really important because that’s what determines how much you can push and how much you need to reevaluate and recover.
What routines or habits helped you stay consistent even when your energy or motivation fluctuated?
I always reminded myself that even a little bit goes a long way. An accumulation of short sessions can be impactful, even if it's just 15 or 30 minutes committed to your body. Sometimes that’s something like committing to the health of your skin or your mind, like taking that time to meditate if your body doesn’t feel up to the challenge of a workout on that particular day. Being consistent with that small period of time is really important. When you've had a break or you've traveled and haven’t had that consistent routine in your daily life, it’s always very difficult to start, but the key is to make it into a routine. And that start doesn’t have to be zero to 100 right away. That start can be a 20-minute fast-paced walk or a 10-minute core routine. It can be a 15-minute stretch session in your living room. Just doing things that engage your mind and body will give you momentum to do more.
During your career there wasn’t much conversation about women’s cycles in sports. Why do you think that conversation is starting to change now?
Scientific research in sports has only recently started focusing on women’s bodies specifically, partly because increased investments in and visibility of women’s sports makes performance optimization for female athletes a higher priority. Now, with more information to work with, it's easier to consider and discuss women’s cycles in sports.
Having high-profile athletes speaking openly about the way their cycles impact their performance and recovery helps break down the stigma and legitimize the conversation around women’s cycles, both within sports and for the public more broadly.
You’re now juggling business, motherhood, and wellness. How do you stay grounded and energized through all of it?
I acknowledge that balance is a myth through all of it, especially since becoming a mother. I dedicate at least 30 minutes to an hour for myself daily, and that always looks different. Sometimes that’s just finding time to call a friend that’s overseas and check up on them, or sometimes that is turning my phone off and going for a hike and being present. Allocating that time without any guilt — even though you sometimes still feel the guilt — is very important, because showing up at your best, feeling fit and feeling grounded is so much better than just grinding through the day and feeling so much exhaustion that it’s difficult to pick yourself back up again.
What do you wish more young women — especially athletes — understood about their bodies and performance?
I wish more young women understood that taking care of your body is the most important thing you can do from a young age. You have to treat your body like a Formula 1 car — every single part of it is so important. It’s easy to forget that when you’re young because your recovery is so much faster and your energy levels are so much more efficient. Starting those little routines that make a huge difference as you get older is really important. So is just listening to your body and not ignoring pain signals, because if you do that, you’ll risk compensating and hurting another part of your body. Being in tune with how you feel and having the right tools to treat your body and treat your mind through research and community and friends is really important.