Jurnee Smollett may have led a fit lifestyle since childhood, inspired by her mother. But that didn't suffice for her role in the 2025 Apple TV crime drama series, Smoke, as she had to undergo a transformation with 20 lbs of added muscle mass.

Smollett rejoined her Birds of Prey trainer, Jeanette Jenkins, for her bulk-up regimen. She also described how Jenkins played a massive role in her transformation, saying,

"We started lifting heavier and heavier and heavier, and she just kept pushing me beyond the limits that I thought I could do."

So, while Smollett gave a lot more insight into what her bulk-up sessions were like, here's a look at the exercises she did to achieve the transformation, as per a July 2025 edition of Women's Health.

• Yoga flow for increased flexibility and mobility
• Boxing
• Banded Squat Abduction
• Deadlifts
• Sumo Squats
• Hip Thrusts
• Single-leg deadlifts
• Cable kickbacks
• Leg Lifts
• Straight abduction

Well, many might be surprised to see boxing in the list of activities Smollett did for her transformation. Actually, the boxing training was meant to prepare her for the large number of action sequences in the TV series, given that it is a crime thriller.

At 38, Smollett had already become a mother of one. In the same article by Women's Health, she disclosed how nursing made her transformation even harder.

She said, "My joints were feeling really wobbly. I nursed Hunter for a very long time, so my body was really depleted of a lot of important nutrients."

But despite that, she trained hard, and the result of Smollett's schedule was that she gained 20 lbs of muscle mass without looking much different than what she did.

Her transformation also proved what Arnold Schwarzenegger once said about women lifting weights.

Jurnee Smollett's transformation testified to Arnold Schwarzenegger's views about the benefits of lifting weights in women

There is a common myth that women would get unusually bulky if they lift weights. But with Smollett mentioning that she "lifted heavier and heavier" for her transformation, the myth stayed confined to a myth only.

Even Schwarzenegger has debunked this incorrect narrative way back in 1979. During his appearance on the November 13, 1979, episode of the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Schwarzenegger mentioned that women don't get excessively bulky if they lift weights.

"It's one of the most common questions I get, that women are afraid of getting [unusually] muscular [if they lift weights], which they don't," he said.

Smollett's transformation with 20 lbs of added muscle also implies that Schwarzenegger's views are spot on, as the 38-year-old didn't look much bulkier than what she was.

So now that you know how Smollett achieved her required physique for Smoke, will you also include a few of those exercises in your routine?

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Written by

Souvik Roy

Edited by

Zaid Quraishi