Fever Fans Notice Caitlin Clark's Physical Appearance Change Amid Injury
Heading into the 2025 WNBA season, much was made about the time that Indiana Fever star guard Caitlin Clark was spending in the weight room.
Rather than play in the Unrivaled 3x3 women's basketball league like many of her peers, Clark elected not to compete throughout the WNBA offseason and instead stayed in Indianapolis. While No. 22 did this in order to improve some aspects of her performance on the court, it seems that the emphasis was to increase her strength, so that she'd be better suited to handle the physical play she was subject to during her rookie season.
And as a result of this time in the weight room, Clark was noticeably bulkier heading into her second WNBA season, particularly regarding her arms — which fans were quick to take note of.
However, Clark's emphasis on the weight room and gaining strength has seemingly backfired. This is owed to her injury-plagued 2025 season, where she has only played in 13 contests because of various soft tissue injuries in her lower body.
It's impossible to say whether Clark's being in the weight room so much this past offseason contributed to her injuries. However, while hindsight is 20/20, there's definitely a chance that putting her body under this much physical strain (which it wasn't used to when Clark was in college) could have played a part in her getting hurt.
Caitlin Clark's Shift in Physical Appearance Catches Attention
There's little doubt that Clark is spending more time rehabbing her most recent groin injury (both in the training room and on the basketball court) than she is in the weight room right now.
And as a result of this, fans seem to think that No. 22 has lost some of the size she had put on, which has been conveyed with several viral social media posts in the past few days.
X user @DayDreamThis went viral on August 28 when they posted side-by-side photos of Clark playing earlier this season compared to a recent photoshoot she did with Stanley Drinkware. Clark looks slimmer in the latter photo, which was suggested by the caption, "yeah, I'm noticing".
yeah, I'm noticing pic.twitter.com/0tTyU1AUYF
— Mily (@DayDreamThis) August 28, 2025
The vast majority of comments are about how she has cut some of her previous bulk, including one that read, "She had slender down from early in the season".
This was also conveyed by an August 30 X post by @sohali2012, who clipped a video of Clark interacting with her coaching staff when the Fever played the Sparks on Friday night and captioned it, "Here you can see Caitlin dropped the extra weight or muscle. Whoever made her add bulk quickly should be fired."
Here you can see Caitlin dropped the extra weight or muscle. Whoever made her add bulk quickly should be fired. pic.twitter.com/vvJAW8Xv3d
— CCFC- (@sohali2012) August 30, 2025
To be clear, there's no proof that Clark's putting on size led to her injuries. But it will be fascinating to see how Clark handles and adjusts her preparation for 2026 once this injury-plagued campaign concludes.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the Indiana Fever and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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