10 Times Carrie Underwood's Killer Legs Had Heads Turning

Forget the Louisville Slugger (à la "Before He Cheats") — right now, Buffy the leg day slayer, Carrie Underwood, could probably cave in the door of a pretty little souped-up four-wheel drive with a well-placed kick. She would do even more damage if she was wearing a pair of her sky-high platform heels, which double as workout equipment. "There's a lot about wearing heels that's actually, like, good for your muscles," she told Women's Health in 2021. The "Cry Pretty" hitmaker has found that her calves especially seem to benefit from her favorite style of footwear.

Underwood looks like her job is crushing it at the gym all day, and sometimes she does combine concert prep with her workouts. In a 2020 Business Insider interview, the woman who deserves some credit for the singer's sensational legs, personal trainer Erin Oprea, spilled a secret about how Underwood stays so fit. The fitness pro revealed that she makes her client sing while running or even jump roping. "When you're on the stage dancing around, it really helps you be prepared for that and not get winded," Oprea explained. And remember — Underwood is doing this while also tottering around in stilettos.

According to Glamour, some of Underwood's go-to leg exercises are bodyweight classics, including squats with a lunge chaser. She often gets asked to drop her fitness routine, as from when Underwood's emotional "American Idol" journey began to now, her legs have had a killer transformation and have complemented some stylish fashion moments.

Carrie Underwood's legendary legs weren't yet tanned and super-toned when she competed on "American Idol" in 2005, although she did have an athletic build. Growing up in Checotah, Oklahoma, the strict vegetarian's sports of choice were basketball and softball.

Underwood kept her skirt lengths pretty modest during her "Idol" days, and she crushed her competition without possessing the killer quads that would later become her signature. In fact, her body changed in a way she wasn't happy about during the competition. "I weighed more than I had ever weighed before," she said in a People interview. Getting body-shamed by cruel internet trolls further fueled her insecurity over her appearance. "I kept buying bigger clothes," she recalled to Women's Health.

Underwood also tried to slim down in unhealthy ways by severely restricting her caloric intake, experimenting with weight-loss supplements, and barely exercising. "I'd do 20 minutes on the elliptical and think I was doing awesome," she told People. Eventually, she realized the way she was treating her body wasn't healthy and ditched the crash diets and pills, allowing her to develop a more powerful physique.

Carrie Underwood released her debut album "Some Hearts" in 2005. By the time she was being presented with the American Music Awards' favorite breakthrough artist trophy the following November, she had three No. 1 country hits: "Jesus, Take the Wheel," "Don't Forget to Remember Me," and "Before He Cheats." She performed a medley of them while wearing an outfit that looked like a glamorous gown at first.

The singer was seated for the first two songs, and when she stood up for the grand finale, the front of her black dress opened up to reveal a pair of tiny gray shorts. Beneath her mullet dress, Underwood's legs were far darker than they were during her "American Idol" days, and she was starting to build a little muscle. TMZ included her on its list of the best legs in Hollywood, so her pins' impressive makeover wasn't going unnoticed.

Underwood was also learning about the transformative power of a pair of designer shoes. In a 2007 interview with Glamour, she revealed that she wasn't just wearing her finer footwear on the stage or red carpet. "I'll go home and one of my friends will say, 'Oh my gosh, those shoes are so cute.' And I'll say, 'Oh, they're Christian Louboutins' ... So yeah, I've definitely learned more names," she said of getting educated in Carrie Bradshaw's area of expertise.

Celebrities really do insure their body parts, so perhaps Carrie Underwood should take out a policy on her legs. There was evidence that her limbs needed protection at the "American Idol" Season 8 grand finale in 2009. When Underwood returned to her old stomping grounds, she was sporting four pink Hello Kitty bandages below one knee. Her atypical accessories matched her ruffled Jenny Packham minidress, which she paired with peep-toe heels in silver. They made the "So Small" singer look as leggy and tall as a supermodel.

Underwood could have kept her mystery wound and its coverings hidden behind a long gown, but by then, she was starting to realize how valuable her superior stems were. "My fave feature is my legs," she told People (via Allure) in 2010. They would take her on a walk to remember that July when she walked down the aisle and tied the knot with pro hockey player Mike Fisher. Her wedding gown designer, Monique Lhuillier, spoke to People about the special dress she designed for the reception. "I saw she had gorgeous legs so I thought why not show them off?" she recalled.

Underwood had much to celebrate besides getting hitched in 2010. She became the first woman to win entertainer of the year twice at the ACM Awards, and "Everywhere" singer Michelle Branch paid her quite the compliment that September. "Um, I want Carrie Underwood's legs," she tweeted. "Guess who is going for a long run tomorrow, haha."

On its 2010 "What Is Sexy?" list, Victoria's Secret awarded Carrie Underwood with the sexiest legs title. She showed everyone why she was deserving of the honor when she attended the 2011 "American Idol" finale in a patterned Lorena Sarbu shift dress.

The brevity of the entertainer's skirt ensured that her glossy gams were the focal point of her look, and a few months later, Us Weekly asked her about how she gets her legs looking so good. "I think genetics plays a little role," she said. "God did not bless me with a JLo rear-end or fabulous arms, but [my] legs are more muscular than the rest of me." The "Drinking Alone" singer also claimed that hydration is the key to achieving that luminous sheen. However, a year later, she confessed to InStyle that she was using shimmer lotions to highlight the sculpting she had worked so hard for. "Even if I'm not working out as much, my legs hold up pretty well," she added.

In an interview with Self, Underwood revealed that she tweaks her workouts ahead of events. To keep her legs from looking "puffy," she quits hitting the weights quite as hard. Sadly, her husband isn't always supportive of her showing off the fruits of her labor in dresses with daringly high hemlines like the one above. "He'll say, 'That dress is a little short, don't ya think?'" Underwood revealed.

As Carrie Underwood's body work continued getting better and better, her body of work kept growing. Underwood became the voice of Sunday Night Football in 2013, and she and Miranda Lambert dropped the duet "Somethin' Bad" in 2014. When the two singers performed the song at CMA Fest that year, the pair donned black shorts, with Underwood flaunting her world-famous legs in the cutoffs and heels.

Lambert once told Us Weekly that she would love to have legs like Underwood, and she had plenty of time to ask her collab partner to spill all of her fitness secrets when they filmed the music video for "Somethin' Bad." In it, the singers play two women who find themselves on the wrong side of the law.

A year after the video's release, Underwood discovered a more honest way to make some extra cash than her outlaw character's heisting: She launched a line of fitness apparel called Calia. While she was busy promoting it, she told Glamour that the radiant bronze color on her legs comes from two self-tanners she blends together herself. She was also recovering from the birth of her first child, Isaiah, at the time. "It's really strange the way my body has reacted to exercise after having him," she told People. "I feel like my bum's a little nicer than it used to be."

It's a good thing Carrie Underwood's legs are so sturdy because she spends a lot of time on her feet during awards shows and concerts. But apparently, sashaying around on stage in heels isn't enough of a workout for her when she hits the road. In January 2016, she gave her Instagram followers a peek inside the custom mobile gym she had made ahead of her "Storyteller" tour. It featured a fully stocked rack of dumbbells and other equipment, including an elliptical trainer. "My new motto is: #ShreddedBySummer," she captioned the photos of her new goodies.

That April, Underwood performed a song from her "Storyteller" album — "Church Bells" — at the ACM Awards. She took the stage in a silver minidress with cyberpunk vibes. Her footwear was also edgier than usual: high-heeled sandals with straps that encircled her calves. She had clearly become shredded ahead of schedule.

A few months later, the "Smoke Break" singer won her 15th CMT Music Award, surpassing her own record. She also hosted the CMA Awards that October. Ahead of the event, she told People, "I wear minis because I'm short. Sometimes I try dresses that are a little bit longer or even long dresses and I get lost in them cause I'm 5 foot 3." She also revealed that her powerful pins aren't as perfect as they appear, saying, "My legs are scarred from sports and from injuries, so I view them as being strong."

In 2018, Carrie Underwood dropped her album "Cry Pretty." It was an emotional year for her, marking her return to the stage after she fell and suffered a devastating facial injury. Underwood was left unable to sing until the dozens of stitches in and around her mouth had healed enough for her to move it properly. She also injured her wrist.

In an August 2018 Instagram post, Underwood revealed that she had to delay the planned start of her "Cry Pretty" tour because she had another baby on the way. She later showed off both her bump and her legs at the CMT Artists of The Year Awards, where she wore a blue sequined Tadashi Shoji wrap dress with a keyhole detail. It can sometimes be a nightmare to wear heels while pregnant, but Underwood dutifully marched down the red carpet in silver stiletto sandals with ankle straps.

Months after the January 2019 birth of her son, Jacob, Underwood took to Instagram to reveal that she was struggling to work out like she used to. "I've been pretty hard on myself lately," she wrote. "I go into the gym and I can't run as fast or as far. I can't lift as much weight or do as many reps as I could a year ago." Luckily, she was able to work through her frustration after realizing she should be grateful for everything she was still capable of doing.

Carrie Underwood doesn't have to show off both of her chiseled legs to get everyone talking about them. At the 2020 ACM Awards, her right thigh looked locked and loaded in a glittery Marina Hoermanseder gown with a high slit. By sweeping her skirt's train to the side, she showcased the buckle details holding the dress in place. At the event, Underwood won her third entertainer of the year award.

When the light hit Underwood's glistening leg, it gleamed almost as brightly as the sequins covering the performer's gown. A few months before the event, she told InStyle she had discovered the perfect product to achieve that high level of skin luminosity. "I like Ofra Cosmetics RCK Body Glow, a tinted lotion with a bit of shimmer," she said.

While Underwood released her holiday album, "My Gift," in 2020, her biggest gift to her fans was her Fit52 fitness app and her book about her fitness journey, "Find Your Path: Honor Your Body, Fuel Your Soul, and Get Strong with the Fit52 Life." They made it easy for those who are obsessed with the singer's physique to follow her path to being in peak physical condition. In her InStyle interview, she also shared some free workout deets while talking about how her exercise routine had changed since she was in her 20s. "I like doing leg presses and weighted squats," she said. "These days it's less about the burpees and sprinting around — my knees can't always handle that."

Carrie Underwood realized a musical dream in July 2022 when she took the stage with Guns 'N Roses in London. A few months earlier, she strutted down the CMT Music Awards red carpet looking ready to play one of the group's leggy video vixens. Her purple cheetah-print dress, designed by Dolce & Gabbana, wasn't just super short — it featured a slit on one side. It was the purr-fect party dress, and she had reason to celebrate when her collab with Jason Aldean, "If I Didn't Love You," won video of the year.

Fans loved Underwood's CMT Music Awards outfit and her performance of her song "Ghost Story," which she belted out while suspended from silks high over the stage. She highlighted some moments from the exciting night in an Instagram carousel, and fans couldn't stop gushing over her amazing aerial acrobatic display and her incredible lower limbs. "Gold medal winner in the legs Olympics goes to Carrie Marie Underwood," one person wrote in response to her post. "Her legs are everything," another commented.

Underwood addressed all the commotion her sculpted calves and ripped thighs cause, telling Extra, "I mean, I'm like, it's my one card to play, man, so I play it." She also revealed that her high-flying stunt was inspired by the aerialists she had hired to perform during her Vegas show, "Reflection." She said of her training, "It's a whole different set of muscles being used when you're doing stuff like that."

Per usual, Carrie Underwood picked out an outfit that spotlighted her legs for the 2023 CMT Music Awards. She looked like a real-life superhero action figure in a silver Dolce & Gabbana tailcoat and shorts, but some critics suggested that the "Good Girl" singer was serving up too much of a good thing. "I think her legs are too muscular. They used to look sexy, now they look like rocks," one Redditor opined. Another offered her some advice: "Baby girl, skip a leg day or two hundred."

It was also suggested that the pumped-up appearance of Underwood's pins was the result of the singer feeling immense pressure to live up to the high standard of fitness fans had come to expect from her. However, in a January 2023 interview with People, Underwood said she had stopped focusing on trying to look a certain way. "Now I feel like I work out more to be strong and to have energy and longevity," she shared.

Still, maybe Underwood was a bit relieved when she landed a gig that wouldn't place so much focus on her famous legs: sitting at the judges' table on "American Idol," back where it all began. She spoke about replacing Katy Perry on the show in a 2024 "Good Morning America" interview. "I do have a big problem ... I can't lie ... I feel like I'll be very honest, but hopefully, you know, I can be very constructive," she shared. So, when is she going to drop the "Legs don't lie" collab with Shakira?