Olivia Dunne Shares Easy-to-Follow At-Home Workout Routine to Strengthen Legs

The retired NCAA gymnast revealed that she’s been ’walking around on a fractured kneecap.’

Olivia Dunne / Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Fanatics

Olivia Dunne doesn’t play around when it comes to leg day.

The 23-year-old retired NCAA gymnast, who officially announced her exit from competition back in April 2025 after her fifth season with the Louisiana State University Tigers, took to TikTok on Thursday, Feb. 12, to let her followers in on her secret to strengthening her legs at home—and, perhaps more importantly, the reason why she takes these exercises so seriously.

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Dunne sustained a fractured kneecap

Taking a lighthearted approach by captioning the video, “Hot girls have knee issues🙄❤️‍🔥🦵#workout #rehab #knee #fitness #fyp,” the athlete opened up the clip with a candid reveal: she’s been living with a fractured kneecap. She went on, adding that she has specifically been using strength-training exercises to, as she noted, “Try and get my legs strong so I don’t need surgery.”

Dunne then dove right into her workout in her home gym. Sporting a muted blue matching set comprising fitted shorts and a cropped tank for optimum movement, she also wore a pair of Nike crew socks with coordinating white tennis shoes for comfort.

The athlete started with 10 dumbbell lunges on each leg, then five single-leg RDLs over her head while lifting each leg. Next up was five curtsy squats for each leg, followed by five sumo squats, which she noted should be “slow.” She finished with lunging back leg hovers, holding for 15 seconds on each leg. And the content creator clearly felt the burn with this finale, making a playfully pained face at the camera as she held the position.

You can watch Dunne’s video on TikTok here.

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Fans react

While fans of the retired gymnast were, of course, grateful she let them in on her workout routine, several expressed concern about the revelation around her knee injury, taking to the comment section to ask questions—many of which Dunne herself answered.

“How did u fracture your kneecap?” One user asked, to which Dunne answered, “Overuse in gymnastics.”

“Does it hurt when you do the stretches?” Another inquired. The athlete noted, “Yes when my quad is being stretched!”

“get a bigger lunge so u get deeper and put less pressure on ur knees,” another commenter suggested, which Dunne liked.

“how did you find out??? asking cuz I might have the same problem,” a fan added, with Dunne writing, “It felt like a broken tooth in my knee while I was competing. Not achy, sharp pain!”

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