What Exercises Does Jennifer Aniston Do For Menopause?

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Jennifer Aniston exercise

Jennifer Aniston has always been vocal about her love for exercise, but as she’s gotten older the 56 year old has had to switch gears with her approach to working out.

After suffering an injury during the pandemic the Friends star had to reevaluate how she was exercising. The challenging period forced her to be kinder to herself and adopt a routine that allowed her to work smarter, rather than harder.

“I was only able to do Pilates, which I absolutely love. But I was missing that kind of sweat when you just go for it,” she told InStyle in 2021.

After attempting to return back to her favourite 15-15-15 workout — which involves a 15-minute spin, elliptical, and run — post-injury, the actress admitted she had to do a lot of research about how to best approach her health during menopause.

“[Menopausal] women often see a decline in their muscle strength and balance”

Her investigations led her to the research-backed Pvolve workout method, which had been developed with menopausal women in mind. The workouts can be easily accessed via the Pvolve app, and the fitness company also offers patented workout equipment to emulate the in-class results that Jennifer loves so much. The 56 year old has even partnered with the brand, so app users can follow Jen and her trainer, Dani Coleman, through a 20 minute workout at home.

“Women often see a decline in their muscle strength and balance shortly before, during and after the menopause. This ultimately increases the risk of falls and fractures later in life, particularly of the hip, which is why it’s so important to find a way for women to maintain that strength and balance as they get older,” said Pvolve research lead, Professor Francis Stephens, from University of Exeter Medical School, in a statement

“The great thing about these simple resistance exercises is they can easily be performed at home, and we’ve now shown they’re effective at improving strength and balance in women during and post-menopause,” he explained. “In fact, some measures of balance appeared to increase to a greater degree in post-menopausal women, suggesting that these exercises are not hindered by the menopause transition.”

“You can actually have gain with no pain”

“I’ve stopped doing 45 minutes to an hour of just constant cardio, running, and boot camp because my knees can’t take it anymore, and it’s just not efficient,” Jennifer revealed to Women’s Health. “Ideally, I would love four workout days a week, and then a day where it’s more of a major walk or hike.”

“I stumbled upon and became in love with the Pvolve because I had a back injury coming back from a movie doing all this the harness work,” she explained.

The low intensity workout allowed her to exercise her entire body without further injuring herself.

“I don’t have that excuse of, ‘Oh, my back problem’ or ‘My hip isn’t feeling great’ or whatever,” she continued. “You don’t have to sit out on the bench until your injury is better. It will strengthen everything around the injured part. It’s a domino effect.”

If I had known about [Pvolve] 20 years ago when I was breaking my body to begin with, we would’ve saved so much pain, Jennifer told People in 2023.

“Especially as we get into our lovely older periods, we have to keep it exciting, and we have to be kinder to our bodies,” she explained.

“[No pain, no gain is] not true at all. You can actually have gain with no pain,” she explained to People. “You can actually enjoy your workout, not break your body and have an incredible transformation.”

Funnily enough, out of all the workouts Jennifer has tried over the years, she says that the low impact exercises synonymous with Pvolve workouts have transformed her body more than anything else.

But she also likes that it’s a really enjoyable workout that she doesn’t feel intimidated by.

“I don’t dread [it]. I get excited, because I also know that if I’m not feeling 100 per cent, if I only have 20 minutes in me, that’s all I do,” she told People. “It meets you where you’re at, and I love that about it.”

“Curate your workouts to whatever your mood is”

More than anything, Jennifer loves that Pvolve has made her more mindful of her body when she’s working out.

“It’s such a mind-body connection because it’s not just throwing your arms out to the side or doing jumping jacks. You’re really mindful of your body and its movement,” she told Women’s Health. “It’s not as gentle as it seems. It is working muscles out I can’t believe are getting work, little micro muscles that never get any attention, and I’m dripping in sweat. I couldn’t believe my first workout.”

“Dani will come to the house and we’ll get to do a workout live, which is always great,” Jennifer explained. “It’s always harder because Dani is all about direct corrections of your form — if you’re even off by a millisecond or your shoulders down — which is really important. But otherwise I just mirror it up to my Apple TV. When I’m travelling, [the workout] is on my computer or on my iPad. I take it on the road; it’s mobile.”

“That’s the fun thing about this program — you can curate your workouts to whatever your mood is that day or whatever your body’s feeling that day, exactly how long you want to go, what equipment you want to use that day, the difficulty level. I just love that: build your own workout,” she continued.

She does however admit that she is fond of a total body workout. “I rarely I walk in and think, ‘I’m just going to hit the abs today,'” she explained.

Her favourite Pvolve workout routine is one that incorporates the upper and lower body. But she’ll incorporate Pvolve’s patented P.band where possible because it’s easy to store in her handbag.

“It’s nice to have when you’re in a car waiting for something,” she explained. “It’s a great thing to be able to just do a couple moves.”

“I definitely incorporate Pilates,” she added, saying she slows down her body with yoga, just to mix things up, and keep things interesting.

“No two bodies are the same and we celebrate that”

Pvolve’s head trainer and Jennifer Aniston’s personal trainer, Dani Coleman recently told E! News that she tells her clients to aim for three to four workouts a week. But she also understands that everybody’s schedules and bodies are different.

“Start small,” she advised. “It sounds so cliche and simple, but I’ll choose consistency over intensity any day for clients. I just want you to get into the habit and the practice of adding daily movement into your life.”

“You don’t have to always show up and be at 100. Consistency always isn’t going to operate at 100,” she explained. “Meet your body where it’s at. No two bodies are the same and we celebrate that.”

“If I say I only have 30 minutes today, [Dani] will kick my ass,” Jennifer joked in an interview with Today.

“Some days I’ll walk in and I’ll just say, ‘Dani, I don’t got it in me. Let’s just do mobility today,” she explained. “She’s always there. She meets you wherever you’re at.”

“[Nutritional hygiene makes] your workouts the most effective”

Although Jennifer admits she’s quite happy sticking to the kind of diet most would call boring — “I do 80/20. I give myself days where I can have whatever I want. I don’t deprive myself” — she has had to work on her sleeping habits.

She starts her day with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar. Prepared in a glass of room temperature water to improve her gut health. Her lunches and dinner are simple, consisting of veggies and protein.

“I usually drink so much water that it’s comical,” she joked.

“In the afternoon, I’ll just have a snack of like an apple and almond butter. [I’ll also have] popcorn, or just something that I want,” she told Women’s Health. And on the weekends she’ll indulge with pizza, pasta, or a burger.

“My bigger challenge is sleep. I think that’s all part of our nutritional hygiene. The amount of water we get, as well as the amount of sleep we get. It’s the combination of all of those things that make your workouts the most effective,” she told Today.

The actress has been wearing an Oura ring ($799 from JB Hi-Fi) for years to track her body’s natural circadian rhythm. But she also uses the data tracking tool to better inform her workouts too.

“I think I got it in 2021. It tracks my sleep, and I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t look at my sleep from the night before until the middle of the day, because I just feel like shit the minute I wake up,” she joked in an interview with The Strategist.

“It’s like, ‘and you’ve failed upon arising, you’ve already sucked today!’,” she explained. “Then it’s like, ‘Don’t feel bad, we can work on this!’.”

“But with my workouts, it’s great because it tracks them, and that just encourages you to keep going,” she continued.

Main image credit: @dani_bcoleman

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Comments 49

  1. Having a trainer to keep you motivated helps, if you can afford it, I can’t but I do some yoga, gardening and go for a walk every day for at least 20 minutes, even in winter, which I kind of enjoy more because I don’t get hot and it warms me up.