The comedian showed off her stamina to her longtime trainer Ben Bruno, who called her workout a "winner."
Credit: Chelsea Handler/Instagram
NEED TO KNOW
- Chelsea Handler shared a video of herself lifting 25-lb. weights during a workout with her trainer Ben Bruno
- The comedian said her fitness motivation is feeling strong and healthy, as well as helping her “ski like a bad ass”
- Handler previously struggled with body image but now focuses on strength and confidence over weight and appearance
Chelsea Handler wowed her trainer Ben Bruno during a tough workout session where she lifted 25-lb. weights.
The comedian, 51, shared a video of herself doing a hip thrust and chest press, with a 25-lb. weight in each hand, to Instagram on April 8, with the caption, "Being on tour is serious business."
"Let's see it, Big Daddy," Bruno tells Handler as she begins her reps. "That's 25 pounds!" he adds in surprise.
"Is this even hard?" he asks, prompting Handler to snap, "Yes."
"Good," he says.
"This might be a winner," he says as she hits 10 reps. "Oh, I thought you were only going to get eight. Good work."
"Ten!" she says, groaning in agony as her hat falls off her head. "Come get the weights," she tells Bruno.
"Let's see how you get them down," Bruno retorts as Handler struggles to slowly drop the weights to the floor.
"Did I really need to come get the weights?" he asks.
"Yeah," she replies.
But when Bruno tells her, "That was easy as s–t," she sits on the bench, staring at him with a blank expression on her face.
The comedian, who is currently on the road with her High and Mighty Tour, has said that her approach to fitness has evolved over the years. During a 2025 appearance on The Jamie Kern Lima Show, Handler said, “I've wasted so many hours about my body image.”
Credit: Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty
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"I would weigh myself 15 times a day. If I weighed a certain amount, I wouldn't go out that night. I would exercise. I would run for two hours on the beach and then come back and weigh myself to see how much water weight I lost,” she said of her body image in her 20s.
But these days, Handler has a different motivation. "I want to look my strongest and my healthiest. I want to be powerful. I lift weights because I want to be strong and I want to be able to ski like a badass, you know? I train all the time because I want to be strong for skiing.”
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