Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter’s choreographer shares how she gets her clients so fit they can sing and dance — in just 12 weeks

Have you ever wondered how pop stars such as Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter can sing for hours at a time while performing to massive audiences? No, they’re not superhuman, but they do have a secret weapon: choreographer Jasmine “JB” Badie.

The 36-year-old Atlanta native helps singers get fit enough to sing their hearts out while dancing onstage — a feat requiring impressively high cardiovascular fitness. She shared how she gets clients fit enough for a big show in just two to three months and how you can replicate it in your own (offstage) life.

Badie was the co-choreographer for Beyoncé’s 2018 Homecoming Coachella Performance, which ran for an hour and 45 minutes. She’s also the choreographer on Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour, which kicked off in September 2024. The tour, which runs through November, includes 19 songs and lasts roughly 90 minutes.

Badie told Business Insider that to achieve this level of sustained fitness, her clients’ weekly workout schedule involves lots of rehearsals, cardio, and Pilates.

“Cardio is major,” she said. “You train hard because you want the show to be great.”

Daily workouts, rehearsal, and stretching

Badie likes her clients to wake up early, eat breakfast, and do a morning workout before they move on to 30 to 45 minutes of stretching.

For the morning workout, she recommends different types of exercise throughout the week, as some help strengthen while others are good for mobility, flexibility, or fitness. For example, Badie likes Pilates for stretching and working deep, stabilizing muscles.

“Pilates strengthens muscles that we may not know we have sometimes,” she said, adding that barre classes help with posture, standing up straight, and opening up the hips.

Meanwhile, hiking or jogging on a hilly trail is good for breath control, which enables singers to belt out long notes, maintain the correct pitch, and not breathe too loudly when singing. “Running on the different intervals is great instead of just straight because you can feel where your breath is and where it’s not,” she added.

Then her clients start all-day rehearsals. “We’ll run our cue points,” she said, referring to specific points in the music. “We’ll run all of our dance steps. We’ll run our marks on the stage.”

Pop stars focus on Zone 2 training. You should, too.

Although most of us aren’t preparing to perform for thousands of fans night after night, we can still benefit from improving our aerobic fitness. It has many positive knock-on effects, such as better sleep and improved mood.

Being able to exercise and hold a conversation at the same time without being out of breath is a sign that you’re training in Zone 2, a buzzy exercise term that some longevity experts believe can help ward off chronic disease as well as boost fitness.

In Zone 2, you’re working at about 60-70% of your maximum heart rate, your body is mainly burning fat for energy, and your muscles have access to oxygen, making it an effective way to increase your aerobic endurance.

Once you enter Zone 3 or 70% to 80% of your max heart rate, you’re moving at an intensity that’s too much for the available oxygen supply, so your body starts using carbohydrates for energy.

We store carbs in limited amounts, so it wouldn’t take long for your body to run out of energy. So, the more you train in Zone 2, the longer your body can last before needing to make that switch. That’s important for a singer because once they’re in Zone 3, they’ll sound out of breath.

Zone 2 training causes your body to adapt at a cellular level by boosting mitochondria. Having more mitochondria is associated with increased athletic performance, better insulin resistance, and heart health. It’s also the part of the cell responsible for making energy, which increases the power output of the muscle tissues, Dr. Morgan Busko, the sports medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, previously told BI.

Singing while running or jumping rope

In addition to the daily workout and rehearsals, Badie asks her clients to practice their setlist and script while doing strenuous cardio for at least 30 minutes a day.

“It’s doing everything you need to be doing on the stage, off the stage,” she said.

The choreographer often starts her clients’ workout with a jump rope that involves jumping for four minutes, taking a one-minute break, and repeating it three more times. During the break, they have to catch their breath and practice what they are going to say to the audience.

“We’ll be like, ‘How are you guys doing out there?” she said, mimicking how pop stars engage their audience onstage.

It also involves running on a treadmill while saying their script and singing aloud. “That’s how you notice where your breaths are,” Badie added.

As they get fitter, Badie shortens the break in between sets and gets them to practice wardrobe changes.

“You have to really work on it,” she said.

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