Pvnew may be compensated and/or receive an affiliate commission if you buy through our links.
Jennifer Aniston felt so much pressure to vigorously work out that she ended up injuring herself.
“When you’re in a mindset of, ‘I need to do 45 minutes of cardio or I won’t get a good workout,’ it’s daunting,” Aniston, 54, told InStyle in an interview published Tuesday.
“I believed it for so long. I just burnt out and broke my body.”
The “Friends” star believes there is an expectation to “feel the burn” during physical activity but that this dangerous mindset does more harm than good.
“My physical therapist gave me a Barbie doll that’s covered in Kinesio tape,” Aniston said, explaining that the purpose of the tape is “to show every injury I’ve had in the last 15 years.”
The “50 First Dates” actress admitted that she pushed herself too hard in the past and has since turned to the low-impact home workout program Pvolve to maintain her strength in a more balanced way.
“My girlfriend, who I hadn’t seen since the pandemic, had completely transformed her body. Her body was beautiful, but she also said her energy was like it had never been before,” Aniston said of the program.
Aniston said that she found Crossfit to be “too aggressive” and boxing to be hard on her wrists, whereas with Pvolve, she doesn’t feel “insane fatigue or broken or in pain.”
The Emmy winner, who started the workout program in 2021, became such a fan of Pvolve that she has officially joined the team.
As for how she motivates herself to get her body moving, Aniston says she prefers working out with friends.
“Doing your own workout by yourself, meh. If you get some good music going you can have fun, but I like to be guided,” she said. “It’s too easy for me to do things less correctly than I should.”
She also likes to pump the jams when she’s pumping iron.
“I’m really into Lizzo right now, I love Rihanna, of course, and I love old-school ’90s hip-hop,” she said of the music she enjoys during a workout.
In 2021, Aniston also revealed she fell to the floor and couldn’t get up after an insane workout session, which ultimately caused her to rethink how she should be toning up.
“Sure enough, I had a 9mm [0.35-inch] bulging disc, which is really intense,” Aniston told People at the time. “So my whole workout had to change.”
Aniston previously maintained an intense cardio-centric workout routine.
“I work out almost every day, at least five or six days a week,” Aniston told InStyle in 2012. “I do 40 minutes of cardio: spinning, running, the elliptical, or a combination of all three. Then I do Pilates one day a week, and I do yoga in addition to that, three days a week. I try to mix it up.”
She also shared that she never skips a beat even when traveling for work.
“I take eight-pound weights with me whenever I’m staying in a hotel,” she shared. “It’s always good to do arm exercises when you’re watching television or talking on the phone. I also love to stretch before I go to bed, and usually throw in a couple of sit-ups.”
While she would never budge on her exercise plan, she would occasionally take breaks from eating clean.
“You’re told to avoid fried food, but I don’t always,” she has admitted. “I had Mexican the other night and ate everything you can imagine.”
And Aniston recently said that she has conquered her fear of carbs.
“[I] started to give myself a break, allowing yourself to have pasta, a sandwich,” she told People in 2021. “Everyone’s very afraid of the bread basket, and I’m no longer afraid. As long as it’s all done in moderation.”
