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Like a lot of us, Jennifer Aniston’s workout routine looks a little different as of late. “Workouts change all the time,” she tells POPSUGAR, and for the 53-year-old actor, it was a busy travel and work schedule that disrupted things. A recent film shoot took Aniston from Hawaii to Paris, a three-month trip that “sounds really beautiful, and it was,” she acknowledges. “But it was [also] a lot of hard work and it was a lot of hours.”
Throw the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic into the mix and you have a very stressful trip on your hands. “We were dodging Omicron like Donkey Kong,” Aniston quips, recalling the stress of waking up every day, taking a COVID-19 test, and wondering “did I make it today?” A positive test would mean at least ten days of quarantine, she says, “and the whole production [would be] sacrificed.”
“I don’t think I really understood the amount of stress we were enduring during those three months,” Aniston reflects.
Understandably, Aniston’s workout routine took a backseat. “I wasn’t working out like I normally do,” she says. She tried jumping right back into her workout routine when she got back home, but ended up injuring her back. Now, she says she’s “slowly getting back into it.”
Right now, “I’m really focusing on Pilates,” Aniston says, a workout that’s definitely having a moment among celebrities, with its combination of low-impact strengthening and stretching. Aniston says she’s also focusing on sleeping more and eating healthy, including the new Vital Proteins & Jennifer Aniston Protein & Collagen Bars she helped create in her role as chief creative officer of the brand. Aniston describes the bar as “a perfect little nibble before I start a workout.”
Given Aniston’s busy schedule, it makes sense that her favorite workouts involve bodyweight or minimal-equipment moves. When it comes to working her core, Aniston is all about Russian twists, bicycle crunches, and planks. That last one? Also one of her favorite arm exercises. “I love a three-minute plank,” Aniston says. (Which, woof.) For Aniston, it’s all about squeezing in movement when she can. “I always have five- to eight-pound weights in my trailer [or] in my hotel rooms if I’m away. And if I’m watching television or winding down, reading emails, [I] just use my weights.”
For mental health, Aniston relies on two main practices right now: acknowledging her stress and anxiety, and meditation. “I really, really give a lot of credit to morning meditation,” she says. “Don’t just mindlessly wake up. Wake up, take a moment. Don’t look at your phone.” That last one is something Aniston’s been really practicing lately. “I’m having mindful mornings,” she says. It’s a time to “observe my thoughts, so I actually know what I’m doing and I understand my focus for the day.”
Pilates, sleep, healthy eating, and meditation? We’re definitely down to channel Aniston’s realistic, balanced routine for wellness. (We’ll leave the three-minute planks to her.)
Image Source: Cass Bird