Adriana Lima on Her New Partnership with Dogpound Gym: 'I Find This Part of My Life Super Important'

Courtesy Dogpound

Adriana Lima is bringing her supermodel strength to a new passion project.

The Brazilian bombshell and businesswoman was recently named investor and global brand partner of luxury personal training gym Dogpound, a job that she says makes perfect sense for her ever-evolving career.

"My experience with Dogpound goes back to when they first opened in New York City in 2015," Lima, 41, tells PEOPLE. "My first time there was actually for a photo shoot for athleisure. That's when I had the chance to meet Kirk [Myers, the founder of Dogpound], and right away you see how inspirational he is and the love he has for helping people achieve their goals."

Lima shares that Myers invited her back for a workout after the photo shoot, and she was hooked right away.

"I loved the type of workout, because to me when you go to the gym it is important that someone builds individual workouts for you and your goals and the things you like to do," she says. "He was incredible at designing on-the-spot workouts that he felt could comfortably challenge me and my body."

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It is clear that she has always loved to challenge herself — whether it be during a workout class or chasing her career aspirations. Lima moved to New York from Bahia, Brazil, at a very young age to pursue modeling. Over the next two decades, she became a fashion superstar, walking down the industry's most renowned runways for brands including Fendi, Armani, Balmain, Dior, Marc Jacobs, Prada, Louis Vuitton and countless others.

The fashion icon later tapped into her entrepreneurial side, becoming a spokesperson for brands such as Maybelline, Puma, Chopard and IWC. With a career spanning over two decades, Lima has worked with some of the world's leading designers, photographers and brands.

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"As a kid in school, I always loved a challenge," Lima tells PEOPLE. "I loved to challenge my body. So during P.E. at school, I always tried to be and give my best. I think when I started taking things really seriously, I was about 18 years old, and I started trying different things."

"As I grew older and started modeling, I knew that I not only wanted to keep my career for a long time, but also live a long, healthy life," she adds. "I knew that to achieve those goals I needed to care for my body, so I turned to workouts.

Although Lima was "already into the gym and workouts" when she began training with Myers in 2015, she "fell in love" with Dogpound and its leader, "because his idea for workouts and gyms was different from anything I've ever seen," she says.

​​What really stood out to Lima was the "energy of the gym," sharing that everything from the music to the trainers are "incredible."

"I've tried every single one," she says of the trainers. "I mean, you can find someone specialized in lifting, boxing and personal training — you can find everything over there."

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Over the years, Lima has collaborated with Myers as she furthered her modeling career. "A lot of the time during the summer when I had to prepare for runway season — usually that's when I prepared for the fashion shows — we would set up a camp in which I would go to him and we would work out," she explains, adding that Myers would even travel with Lima and her model colleagues to fashion shows quite frequently.

"He would come and he would train all of us, all the models together, so it's been many years," she says. "Funny enough, I had plans to move to Los Angeles, and then in 2019, he opened a gym here as well, so that was good news for me.

The supermodel recently revealed she is pregnant with her third child, her first with boyfriend and film producer Andre Lemmers. Lima is also the mother of daughters Valentina, 12, and Sienna, 9, whom she shares with ex-husband Marko Jarić.

"I find this part of my life super important, which is why I've been exercising for so many years," Lima shares of staying fit and healthy through her pregnancy. "I've tried every exercise that you can imagine. Now I just can't wait to be fully back."

While she experienced terrible nausea, intense cravings and a lot of smell sensitivities with her two daughters, Lima happily shares that this pregnancy has been "wonderful."

The supermodel has also continued to strut down runways, walking in Alexander Wang's show in April while flaunting her bump in a cutout dress. Lima says her pregnancy workout routine to keep in shape for modeling is "obviously something lighter" and "less intense" than her usual training.

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"I try to do some very light lifting for my arms, just to keep moving. I meditate, do some stretches and a lot of walks as well — not every day, maybe two to three times a week," she tells PEOPLE of her pregnancy workout routine.

In addition to working with Myers to expand and market Dogpound, the dynamic fitness duo has already crafted a plan for Lima's workouts after her baby is born.

"Usually I start working out six weeks after I give birth, and we have a whole plan already,'' Lima shares. "We've discussed nutrition, workout plans and routines and I've been checking my hormones. Having a baby really plays a big role in getting back into shape, but we have all that set and hopefully everything goes well."

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While Lima has not changed her workout routine much since she first got into fitness, she has found that physical therapy and stretching afterwards are "the key" to her routine.

"You have to stretch your muscles to prevent injuries," she shares. "I think that's the key: stretching. And that's something I wasn't paying attention to much when I was younger."

Lima has spent countless hours working with Myers to expand the company and develop marketing tactics at a global level. "Part of that has to do a lot with creating our first international studio in Doha, Qatar, which we plan to open next year for 2023," Lima says. "We also have some exciting plans for the World Cup that's coming up between November and December."

Dogpound recently announced that global virtual training will be available soon, and Lima says that this is something the brand has been working on since "way before Covid."

"I think it's incredible," she says. "It makes life easier for certain people that don't have the time to go to the gym because of their business, or because they're moms that can't leave their children. So I think it's an incredible idea that's going to be a huge success."