BA50 TalkersThis post originally appeared on Women’s Health
Fact: Jennifer Aniston has looked jaw-droppingly fit and healthy for decades. From her early Friends days rocking ’90s crop tops to facing off with Reese Witherspoon on Apple TV+’s The Morning Show to donning yet another show-stopping little black dress on a red carpet, the legendary actress is #fitnessgoals. But, tbh, she’s really hit her stride after turning 50. At 52, Jen has ridiculous abs, glowy skin, and legs even Rachel Green would die for. Clearly, her exercise and eatings routine are working for her—and working hard.
While she’s played a host of beloved fictional characters, Jen’s strong muscles are all real and all toned. Jen is committed to taking care of her strong bod and isn’t afraid to sweat it out. (Hello, she left a self-portrait in sweat on her yoga mat.) Plus, her trainer, Gloveworx founder Leyon Azubuike, says it’s difficult to keep up with her. Jen works out almost every day for up to an hour and half, Azubuike previously told Women’s Health. They may clock in for a session as early as 3 a.m. (!!) if she has morning photoshoot or jam-packed day.
But, balance is also key for her in the gym and the rest of her life. She seems to be pretty chill about her approach to health and recognizes when she needs a rest day. Here are the 40 health and wellness habits Jen swears by to stay active and basically ageless:
1 Start with mobility exercises
Jen always starts her workouts with mobility exercises, per Azubuike. The stretching and gentle movement primes her bod for her hard-hitting workouts. And hey, the extra flexibility comes in handy out of the gym, too.
2 Get into planking
To challenge her, Jennifer’s trainer Leyon Azubuike told Women’s Health that he has Jen do plank flow, where she starts in a standard plank, then moves to a side plank, then moves to plank with shoulder taps, and so forth.
3 Don’t take your fitness too seriously
“I went from being a crazy workout girl to sort of saying, ‘My body wants a little bit of a break,'” Jen told Women’s Health. “So I kind of stay with more simple stuff and taking walks and not being neurotic about working out and eating right. I started to enjoy life a little bit more. The only downside to that is there’s that couple extra pounds and about 4,000 pregnancy rumors, but you know, other than that, it feels great.”
4 Stretch your core
“We do a lot of things that stretch the core, so we’ll do things where she’s hanging on a pullup bar, then she pulls her knees up and brings them back down,” Azubuike told Women’s Health.
5 Think outside the sit-ups
Jennifer loves doing V-ups and using an ab wheel, Azubuike told Women’s Health. “We’ll use a sit-up to shock the body occasionally, but it’s not a major part of our core regimen,” he said.
6 Don’t rush your workouts if you have the time
Jen doesn’t pop in and out of the gym—she spends up to an hour and a half working out during each exercise session, Azubuike told Women’s Health.
7 Be flexible with your workouts
Everybody has someplace they need to be, and Jennifer is no exception. Azubuike told Women’s Health that he uses a training technique called “periodization” with Jen, which adjusts things based on her schedule. “Depending on where we are in that cycle dictates the duration and intensity of Jen’s workout,” he says.
“If I know Jen isn’t filming anything, it’s a different phase than if I know she has something coming up tomorrow. If she’s going to be walking up to receive an award, I’m not going to destroy her legs in the gym the day before.”
8 Read up on intermittent fasting
“I do intermittent fasting, so no food in the morning,” Jennifer told UK outlet Radio Times. “I noticed a big difference in going without solid food for 16 hours.”
9 Find time to sweat, no excuses
Sometimes Jen will work out in the middle of the night when she’s shooting. “She has to respond when I say go,” Azubuike told Women’s Health. “If she has a shoot at 3 a.m. and we need to work out before that, let’s go…we respect each other in that regard, so it’s a constant back and forth with mutual respect and understanding.”
10 Find your beast mode once in a while
Azubuike made it clear to Women’s Health that he doesn’t go easy on his famous client. “She definitely should be commended, because when I get into go-mode, I’m in go-mode,” he said.
11 Eat nutrient-rich foods
Azubuike told Women’s Health that he’s big on his clients (including Jennifer) eating nutrient-rich foods, like mix of healthy carbs, protein, leafy greens, and bright, colorful veggies.
12 Get. Some. Sleep.
You won’t find Jen up at the crack of dawn. She told Radio Times that she usually wakes up at 9 a.m.
13 Try resistance bands
They factor big-time into Jen’s workouts. “We box, we jump rope, we do strength training, we do a lot of work with resistance bands—we’re big on resistance bands,” Azubuike told Women’s Health.
14 Mix up your workouts
Azubuike told Women’s Health that he’s constantly rotating Jen’s workouts. “It’s always hard, she’s consistently being challenged—I’m a big fan of switching things up, so the body reacts in a positive way and changes,” he said.
15 Try boxing
“It’s the longest workout I’ve actually stayed with consistently other than yoga,” Jen told InStyle. “There’s something about the mental aspect of boxing—the drills, your brain has to work, you’re not just sitting on a bike. It’s amazing.”
16 Don’t be bullied into weight loss
According to the book, Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era, which celebrates the 25th anniversary of Friends, author Saul Austerlitz said that Jen faced a lot of pressure over her weight and looks during her time on the show. She had to lose thirty pounds if she wanted to stay in Hollywood, he wrote.
Jen previously addressed this in the ‘90s. “The disgusting thing of Hollywood—I wasn’t getting lots of jobs ’cause I was too heavy,” she told Rolling Stone in 1996, as reported by Harper’s Bazaar UK. “I was like, ‘What?!'”
17 Make exercise a consistent habit
Making exercise a regular part of your day is clutch. Jennifer told Radio Times that she tries to do five workouts a week.
18 Keep pushing through challenging exercises
Jennifer didn’t love using a jump rope when Azubuike first tried her out on it because she thought it was challenging, her trainer told Women’s Health. But she kept at it. “I just made her keep on doing it, and now she’s great at it,” he said.
19 Have compassion for past relationships
Hating on exes never helped anyone’s mental health. Jen is friendly with both of her ex-husbands. Justin Theroux regularly slides into her Instagram comments and was even spotted at her Friendsgiving dinner this year. Ex-husband Brad Pitt was also spotted at Jen’s 50th birthday party, per People.
20 Own your morning
When Jen wakes up, she takes a mindful approach to her day. She told Radio Times that she has a celery juice and meditates before jumping into a workout.
21 Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate
Jennifer has inspired her own yoga instructor, Mandy Ingber, to stay well-hydrated. “Jen is definitely somebody that has encouraged me to hydrate,” Ingber told ABC News. “She is a hydrator from way back in the day.”
22 Set aside time to pamper yourself
Jen told Australia’s Now to Love that she makes time to pamper herself one day a week. “Sunday is my spa day. I usually do a little mini facial time where I just give myself a good scrub, use a mask, and then the new Aveeno hydrating facial,” she said. “I leave it on overnight and when I wake up I have that dewy, glowing, twinkling skin.”
23 Watch your water intake before a workout
It won’t end well for you. “If you pound water right before your workout, you’ll just feel heavy and full and sluggish the entire time,” Azubuike told Women’s Health.
24 Get a little sun…but wear sunscreen
Jennifer is all about hanging out outside, but she wears sunscreen. “I still sit in the sun…you need that vitamin D for a glow and your mood,” Jennifer told Vogue.