Actor Rayna Vallandingham has been kicking and punching since the age of 2, when her parents enrolled her in martial arts classes. She went on to earn her first black belt at the age of 6, and by 15, had won an impressive 13 world titles in Taekwondo! So playing the role of Juli in Street Fighter (out now) was hardly a stretch for the 23-year-old.
“Could I be the female Bruce Lee? That's been a driving force in my life—my North Star,” Rayna says of her career ambitions. “Going from competition to acting and on-screen fighting was honestly one of the best journeys.”
A journey that required a bit of a mindset shift, she explains. “The thing with competition is you're training so hard for one day. With acting, there's so much play involved,” she says. “That transition, if anything, was just having to unlearn that competitive mindset.”
Rayna’s also evolved the way she trains. She no longer spends 10 hours a day at the gym, pushing her body to extremes. Nowadays, she spends an hour or two and then gives her body plenty of time to rest. “I think I’ve found the sweet spot of really respecting myself and my body and what it's calling for in that moment,” she says.
In the latest episode of Strong Like, Rayna shows Women’s Health what a typical workout looks like so she can stay fight ready.
Before Rayna even steps onto to the training mat, she bows, explaining, “It's ceremonial—it's one of my favorite parts.” Rayna starts every workout with five to 10 minutes of stretching. “Stretching is one of the most fundamental parts of martial arts,” she says. “If you're not stretching before, then it's going to lead to injury.”
Rayna then moves over to the bag for a proper warmup. She typically rolls through various sets of combinations—whether it be a jab-cross or hooks. Kicks on the bag follow, and one of her favorite sequences to “burn out” is a pyramid kick, in which she works from one rep up to five and then back down to one again.
Next up is kicks with BOB, otherwise known as a body opponent bag. “My favorite thing about BOB is that he has the texture of real human skin,” Rayna says. “People think that it's not going to be difficult or it's not going to hurt to actually punch or kick a human being. It does. It stings. This guy conditions you to it.”
After going a few rounds with BOB, Rayna finishes with weapons training. Here, she shows us her moves with the bo staff, which her character wields in Street Fighter. “This is actually the bo staff that I took to Australia to train with,” she says. “The day that I found out I got the part, I picked her up, brought her to Australia. I told security she was a walking cane, so I wouldn't get in trouble.”
To see Rayna’s lightning-quick bo staff moves—and hear more about her training philosophy—click play on the latest episode of Strong Like above.
What’s in Rayna’s Gym Bag
Video Executive Producer Dorenna Newton
Director of Photography Ryan Murphy
Set Producer Lauren Hampton
Video Editor Josh Archer
Amy Wilkinson is a contributing entertainment editor at Women's Health, where she edits the magazine's celebrity cover stories and writes health features. She has previously held editor titles at Entertainment Weekly and MTV News. In 2021, Amy completed her 600-hour teacher-training at Core Pilates NYC to become a comprehensively trained Pilates instructor.