Jul 09, 2013 July 9, 2013 at 3:40 p.m. UTC Athletes tend to have pretty incredible bodies, but it still takes some courage to let nude photos of those bodies be published in a national publication. Answer: ESPN approached me during my Rookie season in 2012 to be in the Body Issue and I turned it down. I didn’t feel that it was the right time in my career and wanted to try and establish. The ESPN Body Issue was started in 2009 and just seems to get more and more popular. The general public has had a keen interest in ESPN's venture and each ye.

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We're used to seeing a lot of muscle from our fave athletes—but not quite this much!

Some of the fittest champs in the world bared every pec, quad and yes, even their glute muscles for ESPN magazine's 2013 annual body issue, which hits newsstands today.

And if you thought watching them on the field made you feel guilty about not hitting the gym, wait ‘til you see ‘em in them out of their team uniforms!

Take three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings, who manages to look fiercely fit in the spread, despite posing both while pregnant and after giving birth.

Espn Body Issue 2014 Girls

The 6-foot-3 beach volleyball player admits that no amount of athleticism can compare with birthing a child.

'I never worry about getting hurt on the court; as an athlete, you're hurt all the time—injury is part of it,' she told the magazine. 'Compared to the soul-shaking thing that is labor, everything else seems like mere flesh wounds. Having babies makes me feel like Wonder Woman.'

And the statuesque star definitely looks like a superhero, too! As does fellow athlete Courtney Force, who revs up the va-va-voom volume in the issue. The NHRA Funny Car driver shows off her feminine curves as she perches atop a tire and covers her unmentionables with a gasoline canister.

But one of her favorite things about racing is that it gender doesn't matter.

'The greatest thing about our sport is that the race car doesn't know if it's a male or female behind the wheel,' the 2012 Rookie of the Year explained. 'It's going to drive how it's going to drive, and you've just got to be the person in the cockpit who knows how to handle it.'

Espn Body Issue 2013 Free Full

Of course, the issue also features a few buff dudes, like 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who strikes a running pose with—you guessed it!—a football in hand.

'Adam Smith gave me this quote: 'Get comfortable with being uncomfortable,' he shared. 'The more you can do that, the more you can push your body out of its comfort zone and be okay with that, the better you'll be.'

Looks like he took that advice to heart by pushing past his comfort zone and stripping down to nothing!

Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton also makes quite the splash in the issue, with nothing but a bit of water preventing a full-frontal shot. And if you find yourself a bit jealous of his bulging biceps and out of control six-pack, it may comfort you to know that even he misses the occasional trip to the gym.

'Baseball—it's a grind, man. With all the travel you have to schedule your workouts. But I have cheat days,' he admitted. 'If I'm going to cheat, I'm going to cheat. It's not, ‘Oh, I'll have one bite.'

And don't expect him to share either.

'I'm eating the whole thing and you order your own.'