At 54, Jennifer Garner continues to make fitness a priority.
‘I work out in the morning pretty much every day,’ Jennifer Garner – who starred in the recent drama adaption of The Five-Star Weekend – told Drew Barrymore on her talk show when asked about what she does to prioritise her wellbeing.
‘You’ve got to do hard cardio,’ she added of her go-to morning workout. ‘We need it in our bodies – and your brain needs it.’
Indeed, in a recent interview with Marie Claire, Jennifer revealed that she had already completed a dance-cardio workout – The Limit with Beth Nicely – before 9am.
‘You’ve got to find something that makes you feel joyful when you’re doing it, or it won’t work,’ Garner told Barrymore.
Why high-intensity cardio is so important in midlife
While continuing to do both strength training and cardio is vital for improving your healthspan (the number of years lived in good health) as you age, that doesn’t mean you should train exactly the same way you did 20 years prior. For longevity, adaptation is key.
‘If you want to do two F45 classes back to back, go for it,’ exercise physiologist Dr Stacy Sims noted on an episode of personal trainer Doug Bopst’s podcast, The Adversity Advantage. ‘But when you start getting older, you need to be very acutely aware of how to polarise.’
In other words, doing less cardio, but at a higher intensity, becomes increasingly valuable. ‘The bread and butter of what you should be doing as you get older is quality training, not volume,’ she added, noting that women over 40 should aim to incorporate ‘true high-intensity work’.
As well as benefitting heart health (and indeed, brain health, as Jennifer highlighted), Dr Sims explained on the podcast that these high-intensity workouts help ‘force the necessary adaptations’, including ‘better blood glucose control’ and ‘better conversation between the skeletal muscle and the liver so that we don’t store visceral fat,’ as well as better bone and muscle quality – all of the things that ‘are so key in being able to live independently as we get older.’
That doesn’t mean your workouts should be exclusively high-intensity – just that they are an important piece of the midlife fitness puzzle.
In fact, in her Marie Claire interview, Jennifer said that six months prior, her own fitness routine had looked different – explaining that she had made some adaptations.
‘I realised that I had pursued strength and stamina at the expense of mobility, so I’m incorporating things I haven’t done in so long, like yoga. I have to back up to go forward.’
Jennifer also revealed her love for another form of movement – Gyrotonics – which she often ends her days with.
Why the Gyrotonic training method is so effective
While ‘Pilates and reformer Pilates tend to focus on more linear, two-dimensional movement patterns, in [a Gyrotonic class], the movements are three-dimensional, allowing for circular and spiral movements, unlocking and targeting all the joints of the body in all planes of direction,’ certified Gyrotonic trainer Anna Ciriano previously told Women’s Health, noting that the method supports mobility and joint health, pelvic floor activation, and the nervous system.
At the end of the day, though, as Jennifer said herself on The Drew Barrymore Show, when it comes to fitness, you’ve got to ‘find something that actually makes you feel joyful while you’re doing it or it won’t work.’
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Hannah Bradfield is a Senior Health and Fitness Writer for Women’s Health UK. An NCTJ-accredited journalist, Hannah graduated from Loughborough University with a BA in English and Sport Science and an MA in Media and Cultural Analysis. She has been covering sports, health and fitness for the last five years and has created content for outlets including BBC Sport, BBC Sounds, Runner’s World and Stylist. She especially enjoys interviewing those working within the community to improve access to sport, exercise and wellness. Hannah is a 2024 John Schofield Trust Fellow and was also named a 2022 Rising Star in Journalism by The Printing Charity. A keen runner, Hannah was firmly a sprinter growing up (also dabbling in long jump) but has since transitioned to longer-distance running. While 10K is her favoured race distance, she loves running or volunteering at parkrun every Saturday, followed, of course, by pastries. She’s always looking for fun new runs and races to do and brunch spots to try.