Being busy as a bee is nothing new for Olivia Dunne. Every day is a balancing act between the gym, classrooms, and shoot sets when you’re an ace student-athlete and the highest-paid female on the NIL charts. But juggling all of this is far from being as easy as putting on a superwoman cape. While Livvy makes the transitions look effortless, it hasn’t been without its complications.

In a recent episode of the Best of Both Worlds with Flau’jae podcast, the gymnast with a $3.9 million NIL valuation confessed that entering full-throttle mode after a laid-back summer is barely simple. On jumping into the thick of fifth-year gymnastics, Olivia Dunne mentioned, “It’s just hard. Coming back from such a crazy summer and then having to do these things, its such an awakening…” But the upside is, “It gets you in the shape that you need to make the gym look easy.”

And, while Flau’jae adds that just spending time on a treadmill while traveling mostly worked for her, preparing for college training while being away is indeed a steeper challenge. Olivia Dunne agrees while citing, “Like when I was in Pittsburgh, I tried to go to Pilates, go into gymnastics centers around there…” Well, nothing reaped the needed level of benefit, “And like just nothing will prepare you for being back at school. It’s brutal, but in the best way.”

But with the glass-half-full perspective, there’s a bright side to all this. “Because I feel like those struggles and like doing those hard circuits, and conditioning with your girls, like that’s what makes you closer, I think.” Livvy’s reunion with her girls seems to make it a tad easier. And although her return to LSU for the fifth year was greeted with a conditioning test that had a tall ask—if they fail any exercise, there’s a restriction on training until they pass—it’s been a mix of thrills and challenges so far.

Also, as the behind the scene snippets from Dunne’s pre-season training float out, we know she’s gearing for some major 5th year upgrades. Some days are hard, but in the end— it’s gymnastics and Livvy cannot get enough. Moreover, there’s something about getting back in the purple, gold leotard.

Olivia Dunne’s pre-season sneak peek

Olivia Dunne announced that she’ll be back with the Louisiana State University for the fifth year for, “there’s just something about LSU.” But the pre-season training has been leaving her exhausted. A few weeks back, she shared a selfie from the gym of her face red with the blood rush, right after her cardio and wrote, “pre-szn cardio will get ya.” The next snap in the string of stories showed her flat backed on the floor, as though she’d passed out from the exertion.

But in the meantime, Dunne has also been making hilarious videos with her girls from the pre-season training sessions. One of the TikTok videos showed them do the, “I am into let me chill, I am into leave me alone, I am into let me get the h*ll out of here” trend. It symbolized a sarcastic take on how fatigued the exercises in the gym left the fifth year returnees, to the point where one of them opened the door and blazed out.

Speaking of conditioning, that’s been keeping Olivia Dunne on her toes too. In another BTS bit, she showed that her grind starts as early as 5:30am, and after passing the anti-doping test, she’s all cleared to go in the next 30 minutes. After a much-needed coffee pitstop at Starbucks, she’s already into the gym by 7. And the rest of the day is just as tightly packed, before she dives into her schoolwork. Sure she takes her classes online, but balancing her gymnastics endeavors and social media activities itself keeps her swamped. What do you think of her grind? Let us know below.