Ladder Taps Hilary Duff as Face of New Strength Training Campaign

Duff is the latest celebrity to champion lifting over cardio, joining a strength training app where 90% of members are women

Hilary Duff is singing the praises of strength training.

The actress and singer-songwriter has partnered with Ladder, becoming the face of the strength training app’s new campaign.

Duff said she used to skip the weight room in favor of cardio, hanging onto the belief that lifting would leave her bulky or overly muscular. Once she shifted toward strength training, everything changed.

“Being able to carry my kids and give my best on stage, all while feeling confident in my body, is everything,” she said. “Strength training gives me that.”

The “Mature” songstress is not alone. Strength training has been soaring in popularity, especially among women.

Ladder notes that 90% of its 400,000 members are women, and the share of female members who define fitness success as gaining strength has quadrupled since joining the app, from 9.7% to 41.5%. More than half of its female members now have a fitness goal beyond weight loss entirely.

Investors have taken notice: Ladder secured $15 million in a Series B round and a $90 million growth investment from General Catalyst’s Customer Value strategy in 2024.

Users can follow progressive workout plans developed by coaches spanning Pilates, HIIT, bodybuilding, hybrid training, kettlebells, yoga and prenatal strength training.

“What I love about Ladder is that it takes the guesswork out of strength training completely,” Duff said. “It’s not a library of random workouts you have to sort through, but a real coach telling me exactly what to do each day. I open the app, my workout is right there, I press play and go.”

The app has also been widening its scope. Last fall, Ladder launched Ladder Nutrition, adding features such as food logging, macro insights and AI-powered personalization.